The Final Launching conference took place in San Sebastian in the Kursaal building. It consisted of two parts: In the first part the main results and conclusions from the project were presented, together with the action plan for 2011 and the main strategic lines of the Cluster. In the second part, a series of presentations were made by Assistive technology experts, as well as a roundtable with the attendants to analyse the main challenges and business opportunities in the AT sector. The event also had a series of stands to show products and services to visitors, and a networking activity at the end. The presentations can be downloaded from the following link:

 

18 October 2010 Paris, France
The E-SENIORS association fighting against the digital divide is organising an international event on 18 October in Paris about new trends and innovations in the field of ICT for ageing, in cooperation with various partners, offering many networking opportunities. The main results of ICT PSP (Policy Support Programme) projects "T-Seniority" and "Long Lasting Memories" will be presented and discussed, focusing on new ICT services to help maintain ageing people in their home.

 

October 2010 - 8 October 2010 Sevilla, Spain
This 1st AEGIS International Conference will showcase the world's most influential open source, web and mobile accessibility projects and bring together developers and people with disabilities. It gathers presenters and exhibitors that address assistive technology in Rich Internet Applications (RIA), desktop applications and mobile applications, as well as developer tools that embed accessibility plug-ins. It is organised by AEGIS, a research & development project supported by the European Commission. The AEGIS project develops software for persons with disabilities, covering the desktop platform, the web and mobile devices. It has just released an extension for the OpenOffice.org Writer that enables users to save documents as Braille or to send them directly to a Braille embosser.
See also: AEGIS project

 

6 October 2010 - 9 October 2010 Seville, Spain

The Workshop/User Forum aims to bring together end-users and experts in the field of assistive technologies, that focus on the accessibility of desktop, web and mobile applications. During the workshop the AEGIS project will present the tools developed so far, and will stimulate discussions between both end-users and application developers concerning the project's outcomes so far. The outcomes will be taken into account by the Consortium during the further course of the project. Participation to the workshop will be free of charge. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 April.

 

The Tecforlife consortium and the main local stakeholders in Assistive Technology attended this meeting, including representatives from AT companies, research centres, universities, user associations and public administrations. The main subject of the meeting was the discussion of the local Cluster creation project and the definition of support services demanded by the AT stakeholders from the Cluster.

 

July 14-16, 2010, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

The Institut Integriert Studieren and the Vienna University of Technology are organising the "12th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP)" to be held in Vienna (Austria), on 14th-16th July 2010.

ICCHP will focus on all aspects of Assistive Technologies (AT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for people with disabilities. Changes in awareness and understanding of disabilities, as well as social and legal frameworks, driven by Disability Rights and Independent Living Movements have led to what is known as eAccessibility, Universal Design or eInclusion. ICCHP provides a unique platform for end users, researchers, developers and practitioners.

 

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, London, UK
Organisations which are involved in developing and implementing smart living systems and products for disabled and older people are being brought together at a London event to plan greater co-operation in the future. Companies involved in building, engineering, medicine, energy and communications, together with architects, organisations providing caring resources, and bodies representing disabled and older people are being invited to a seminar entitled "Smart Living - the way forward for disabled and older people". Dr John Gill, chairman of PhoneAbility, organisers of the seminar in collaboration with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , said: " There are lots of organisations which are doing splendid work to help disabled and older people lead easier lives in their homes. But they tend to work in isolation, producing stand-alone systems, and we see a great need not only to bring such organisations together but to get them to work together on a coherent policy in the provision of smart living systems. We want our delegates to be aware, too, of advances in this area taking place in other countries."

Contact: Dr John Gill

AsTeRICS will provide a flexible and affordable construction set for realising user driven assistive technologies by combining emerging sensor techniques like Brain-Computer Interfaces and computer vision with basic actuators. People with reduced motor capabilities will get a flexible and adaptable technology at hand which enables them to access the Human-Machine-Interfaces (HMI) at the standard desktop but in particular also of embedded systems like mobile phones or smart home devices. AsTeRICS is funded under the EU's 7th Research framework programme. AsTeRICS will implement a set of building blocks for the realisation of AT: - Sensors which allow the individual to exploit any controllable body or mind activity for interacting with HMI; - Actuators for interfacing to standard IT, to embedded systems and to interact with the environment; - An Embedded Computing Platform that can be configured to combine sensors and actuators to tailored AT-solutions which support the full potential of an individual user.

The workshop was held on 16th December in the context of the ‘ICT & Ageing’ study with a twofold objective:

a) to take stock of achievements of European level research activities in the field of ICT & Ageing.

b) to identify themes that warrant further attention in forthcoming work programmes.

The Tecforlife consortium and the main local stakeholders in Assistive Technology will be participating in this meeting. Representatives from AT companies, research centres, universities, user associations and public administrations have already confirmed their attendance. The main findings of the analysis carried out in the Tecforlife project will be discussed with the sector, with special emphasis on the SWOT analysis.

 

14 July 2010 - 16 July 2010 Vienna, Austria

3rd to 4th December. City of San Sebastian

A report of the workshop has been published together with two market studies that provide an overview of the markets for the adaptation of self-service terminals to the disabled, and an overview of the accessibility portals for assistive technologies.

Self-service terminals can be difficult to access and use for many people, e.g. users with disabilities, those with low ICT competence, elderly users, or simply those not used to this medium. This can be improved by adapting the terminals as to their physical design, software and interfaces. Possible solutions encompass among other use of mobile devices or assistive technologies for man-machine interaction, vocal input / output, software adaptation etc. The workshop, organised by the ICT for Inclusion unit of the European Commission, will also address the issue of information about and deployment of ICT-related assistive technology in general. The purpose is to identify grounds for possible further action at European level, including funding from EC programs.

18-22 November 2009, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Lisbon, Portugal, 2-5 September, 2009

4-9 July, 2009, Paris, France

The event will take place in the city of Zaragoza, from 17th to 19th September 2009.
More information: http://esaac2009.tecnodiscap.com/

Bilbao, Spain, 3-6 June 2009

The report represents the final report of the study, “Analysis of the Assistive Technologies Information and Communication Technologies (AT ICT) industry in Europe” for the European Commission.

The global objective of the study has been to gain information as to the state of the EU AT ICT industry and to develop conclusions and recommendations to what steps can be taken to improve the competitiveness of the companies which form this industry.

Download of the report here.
http://www.aaliance.eu/public/news/new-report-on-european-assistive-technology-ict-industry

Thursday 5 November 2009, Maastricht, The Netherlands
http://www.vilans.nl/lookingbacktothefuture

E-inclusion means ensuring that mainstream ICT products and services are usable by as many people as possible, and the use of ICT to overcome social and economic exclusion. The objective of this meeting was to explore ways to better implement ICT assistive features, either as a part of mainstream technologies or in assistive technologies. Different aspects were addressed (technical, market, legal) from the perspective of relevant Report of the Expert meeting on Assistive Technology & e- Accessibility Workshop, 25 March 2009

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=4943&utm_campaign=isp&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=newsroom&utm_content=tpa-112