Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

An ideal model of an assistive technology assessment and delivery process

The purpose of the present work is to present some aspects of the Assistive Technology Assessment (ATA) process model compatible with the Position Paper 2012 by AAATE/EASTIN. Three aspects of the ATA process will be discussed in light of three topics of the Position Paper 2012: (i) The dimensions and the measures of the User eXperience (UX) evaluation modelled in the ATA process as a way to verify the efficient and the evidence-based practices of an AT service delivery centre; (ii) The relevance of the presence of the psychologist in the multidisciplinary team of an AT service delivery centre as necessary for a complete person-centred assistive solution empowering users to make their own choices; (iii) The new profession of the psychotechnologist, who explores users needs by seeking a proper assistive solution, leading the multidisciplinary team to observe critical issues and problems. Through the foundation of the Position Paper 2012, the 1995 HEART study, the Matching Person and Technology model, the ICF framework, and the pillars of the ATA process, this paper sets forth a concept and approach that emphasise the personal factors of the individual consumer and UX as key to positively impacting a successful outcome and AT solution

Museums as disseminators of niche knowledge: Universality in accessibility for all

Accessibility has faced several challenges within audiovisual translation Studies and gained great opportunities for its establishment as a methodologically and theoretically well-founded discipline. Initially conceived as a set of services and practices that provides access to audiovisual media content for persons with sensory impairment, today accessibility can be viewed as a concept involving more and more universality thanks to its contribution to the dissemination of audiovisual products on the topic of marginalisation. Against this theoretical backdrop, accessibility is scrutinised from the perspective of aesthetics of migration and minorities within the field of the visual arts in museum settings. These aesthetic narrative forms act as modalities that encourage the diffusion of ‘niche’ knowledge, where processes of translation and interpretation provide access to all knowledge as counter discourse. Within this framework, the ways in which language is used can be considered the beginning of a type of local grammar in English as lingua franca for interlingual translation and subtitling, both of which ensure access to knowledge for all citizens as a human rights principle and regardless of cultural and social differences. Accessibility is thus gaining momentum as an agent for the democratisation and transparency of information against media discourse distortions and oversimplifications

Case Study in Modeling Accessibility for Online Instruction.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Internet Of Things (IoT) In E-Commerce For People With Disabilities

The Internet of Things (IoT) perceives and recognizes the physical world by taking advantage of smart devices. The world’s largest minority are people with disabilities. IoT can lower barriers for the disabled people in accessing information. Increasing Internet accessibility can help to make that happen for both social and economic benefit. This paper presents the proposed integrated framework of the IoT and cloud computing for people with disabilities such as sensory (hearing and vision), motor (limited use of hands) and cognitive (language and learning disabilities) impairments in the context of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce context. We conclude that IoT-enabled services offer great potential for success of disabled people in the context of e-commerce

Designing technology for all: Exploring how eLearning platforms support students with cognitive disabilities when designing their web content

eLearning platforms have become an integral part of education across the United States, from changing how students learn to finding course assistance right from home. However, an important aspect to consider in the design and development of these websites is accessibility and usability. According to the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. alone, 16 million people have cognitive impairments. Considering these platforms are a growing resource for students who seek educational support, companies behind these platforms should ensure their web content meet standards of efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction for all potential users like those with cognitive disabilities. In this poster paper, we discuss how eLearning platforms have designed their web content and question whether they have implemented a universal design that is user-friendly for all. We will analyze the results from our surveys, user- testing, and semi-structured interviews to help define the issues experienced by people with cognitive disabilities when navigating our three chosen eLearning platforms: Khan Academy, Udacity and SoloLearn. These results will in turn provide guided insight on how eLearning platforms should improve their web design

Internet of Things (IoT) in E-commerce: For people with disabilities

© 2017 IEEE. Internet of Things (IoT) is an interconnection between the physical object and digital world. As a result, many e-commerce companies seize the advantages of the IoT to grow their business. However, the world's largest minority are people with disabilities. IoT can lower barriers for the disabled people by offering assistance in accessing information. Increasing Internet accessibility can help to make that happen for both social and economic benefit. This paper presents the proposed integrated framework of the IoT and cloud computing for people with disabilities such as sensory (hearing and vision), motor (limited use of hands) and cognitive (language and learning disabilities) impairments in the context of business-to-consumer e-commerce context. We conclude that IoT-enabled services offer great potential for success of disabled people in the context of online shopping