Do you believe you personally have made some significant contributions to the quality of life of people with disabilities and elderly with the support of ICT?

Nominations are requested for the ACCESS IT awards 2008. These can be self nominations or nominations of others.

The Access-IT awards 2008 (in association with eAbilities, the Platinum sponsor of 2008), jointly organised by e-ISOTIS and AbilityNet are aimed at identifying and promote the impact to quality of life and independent living being made by Public, private voluntary groups and/or individuals to an inclusive society through ICT and Assistive Technology.

The Access IT awards aim to recognise the following categories:

• Nomination for Assistive Technology Use Award

This award aims to recognise an individual or an organisation that through their efforts, commitment and advocacy that have advanced the availability of assistive technology to people with disabilities.

• Nomination for Assistive Technology Innovation Award in transportation

This award will recognise an organisation or individual that through innovation and the support in the development of assistive technologies has enhanced the quality of transportation of people with disabilities.

• Nomination for Assistive Technology Innovation Award at work

This award will recognise an organisation or individual that through innovation and their support in the development of assistive technologies have enhanced the quality of the working conditions of people with disabilities.

• Nomination for Assistive Technology Innovation Award at home

This award will recognise an organisation or individual that through innovation and their support in the development of assistive technologies have enhanced the quality of the living conditions of people with disabilities especially in their home environment.

Step 2 - Identify the category & tell us your story

Download the nomination form at www.access-it-awards.org  - Describe your initiative, product, network, service or website. Keep it simple (no more than two sides of A4) and explain how your involvement has enhanced the lives of people with a disability and how it relates to the award you have selected. If you have a case study with real users, they would be delighted to receive it

Step 3 email it to us

Nominations will be accepted up until June 1

Email - access-it-awards@eisotis.org  with your nominations

Shortlisted entries will be notified by June 18

Due to various reasons, I ran out of time.

So, I wanted to share the full presentation with anyone who is interested. If you need it in another format, please let me know.

Here it is: :-)

[slideshare id=373577&doc=richmedia-1209215718365344-9&w=425]

25th of April 2008

Introducing Accessibility 2.0 podcast

Listen to your conference host Robin Christopherson discussing Web 2.0 with Kath Moonan, conference organiser. Download the Introducing Accessibility 2.0 Podcast or the Introducing Accessibility 2.0 Transcript. As a screen reader user Robin is all too aware of the barriers disabled users can face in a Web 2.0 environment.

About Accessibility 2.0

Accessibility 2.0 is the first ever conference focussing on web accessibility in a Web 2.0 world. By Web 2.0 we mean rich web applications which allow users to create content by writing blogs, uploading videos or commenting on other user' content and creating networks.

Our invited experts will look at practical solutions to the Web 2.0 accessibility problems, showing cutting edge techniques and offering realistic solutions. The day will be a very practical day. You will come away knowing what you need to do, and where you need to focus to make sure you give access to all users. There'll also be an opportunity to take part in a debate during our round table session for wider discussion.

More Information

http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility2/

‘Accessibility 2.0’ will have speakers drawn from leading Web development companies and the RNIB aims to provide Web developers, Web managers and anyone interested in the technical aspect of accessibility with an in-depth understanding of accessibility issues and provide a host of practical solutions.

Robin Christopherson, Web Services Manager of AbilityNet, said: ‘We believe it’s time for the focus to come back onto Accessibility, and that a conference of this kind is what is needed to help developers make their Web 2.0 applications accessible.

‘It promises to be a highly practical day, where delegates come away knowing exactly what they need to do, and where they need to focus to make sure they consider accessibility in their products. With some of the biggest and best names in the industry we are very excited about what this event is going to bring to individuals and the industry as a whole.’

But for those who find it difficult to use a standard computer there is a raft of user-friendly add-ons and upgrades to help things go more smoothly.

We live in a world that demands us to communicate in many different ways, usually with the computer at the very heart of it.

For millions, the home office has become a reality that allows us to benefit from flexible working; online shopping is simple, and I cannot even remember the last time I stepped into a real bank.

'Fill in the gaps'

In theory it is all very simple. But stop and think for a moment. If you could not see the screen, use a mouse or a standard keyboard, how much of a challenge would it be to stay connected?

AbilityNet is a charity based in the UK that helps people with different disabilities to get online.

Clients range from people with severe paralysis to those dealing with dyslexia, repetitive strain injury or just the effects of getting older. After an initial assessment, experts advise on the use of specialist hardware and software.

"Only 13% of people are born with their disability, the other 80% - in this country, and I presume it's similar worldwide - acquire their disability," said Pamela Hardaker of AbilityNet.

"So for some people, when they acquire a disability it is imperative that they learn how to use technology to help fill in the gaps in their lives that their disability has created."

Speech recognition

David Morris is the senior policy advisor at the Greater London Authority, advising the London's Mayor on accessibility issues.

He has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and uses a number of technologies to get on with his busy schedule. His favourite is voice recognition accompanied by a Bluetooth headset.

He has been using speech recognition software for almost 10 years, and currently uses Dragon Naturally Speaking.

"Voice activated software enables me to compete on an equal basis. In fact it probably gives me an advantage, because those people who are smart, know that voice-activated software has now reached a point where it's very functional."

Speech Recognition software generally needs a bit of training before it can be used which puts most people off, but the recently released Dragon Naturally Speaking version nine claims that it has overcome that hurdle and now can be used straight out of the box.

The Blackberry is another bit of kit that David has in his bag. Although he likes the great functions, he believes the design could be improved for many people, both the disabled and the left handed.

"For the first time in a long time I can access a keyboard, but it's really inaccessible to me as a one-handed, left-handed person, with the stupid jog wheel, which is really difficult to use.

So I have to turn it upside down, which is a strange way to access emails, but it's still very important."

'Life changing'

For pretty much everyone using a computer is liberating, but for some, including Darren Carr, who is paralysed from the neck down, it is life changing.

One of Darren's proudest moments was when he got his degree from London School of Economics.

"I've got a friend who lives in Australia. We chat over the internet and I also use Skype and things like that. It makes communication and things like that a lot easier for someone like myself.

"I can keep in touch with my friends via IM (instant message), and also by emails. It's so much easier than having the phone held up to your ear."

Darren uses a headset and the Wivik virtual keyboard. A signal, transmitted from the control unit, is picked up by sensors on the headset.

By comparing the signal strength from each sensor, the system determines the position of the head and moves the cursor. To click he uses a suck and blow tube.

Eye control

There are newer, more sophisticated technologies out there. MyTobii is one of the few systems using eye tracking technology.

Using high resolution cameras in the monitor it tracks your eyes and follows your gaze. All you need to do is look at wherever you want the cursor to go.

This tool is most effective when used with its sister application, The Grid, which works to simplify the Windows environment.

It can also enable people to interact with their environment by switching on lights, the TV and answering the phone.

"Voice recognition is certainly getting to the level now where people would chose to use it, they wouldn't just use it because they had to," said Pamela Hardaker.

"It is so effective that people would want to use it because it's much easier to do your work that way.

"It wouldn't surprise me if the eyegaze technology doesn't go that way eventually as well. So we have the eyegaze built into our computer and we just look at where we want to click on the screen, and that happens for us automatically."

So what of the future? Will we see more technologies specifically designed for people with disabilities?

Or perhaps it is more likely, as some predict, that all of us see the ease of use and functionality as something desirable.