E-Inclusion: From Assistive Technology to Smart Environments

With main reference to research activities carried out in Europe, the paper describes the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in supporting the integration of people in the society. It starts from its immediate use in assistive technology for granting communication and access to information to people with limitations of activities (e.g., blind, and deaf people). Then it describes the change of attitudes due to the technical developments in the field and the approach of international organizations (UN and WHO), leading to the proposal of Design for All (DfA) and to the concept that technology must be used to guarantee the well-being of all people. This is made possible by the developments of technology leading to the emergence of intelligent environments, where technology can be interconnected to support all people in any activity. Some prototypes developed to show the present feasibility of interesting support applications are shortly described, pointing out the possibility of improvement due to Artificial Intelligence.Mit Hauptbezug auf die in Europa durchgeführten Forschungsaktivitäten beschreibt dieses Kapitel die Auswirkungen der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) bei der Unterstützung der Integration von Menschen in die Gesellschaft. Er beginnt mit dem unmittelbaren Einsatz der IKT als Hilfsmittel, um Menschen mit eingeschränkten Aktivitäten (z. B. Blinde und Gehörlose) Kommunikation und Zugang zu Informationen zu ermöglichen. Anschließend wird der Wandel der Einstellungen beschrieben, der durch die technischen Entwicklungen in diesem Bereich und den Ansatz internationaler Organisationen (UN und WHO) ausgelöst wurde und zum Vorschlag des Design for All (DfA) und zum Konzept führte, dass die Technologie genutzt werden muss, um das Wohlbefinden aller Menschen zu gewährleisten. Ermöglicht wird dies durch die technologischen Entwicklungen, die zur Entstehung intelligenter Umgebungen führen, in denen Technologien miteinander verbunden werden können, um alle Menschen bei jeder Tätigkeit zu unterstützen. Einige Prototypen, die entwickelt wurden, um die Machbarkeit interessanter Unterstützungsanwendungen zu demonstrieren, werden kurz beschrieben, wobei auf die Möglichkeit von Verbesserungen durch künstliche Intelligenz hingewiesen wird

Intelligence on the Web and e-Inclusion

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Analisi e test preliminari sull’accessibilità nei dispositivi mobili

L’interazione con i dispositivi mobili non è più univoca, ma può variare secondo il profilo d’utente, il dispositivo o il contesto nel quale operiamo. Particolare importanza assume questo aspetto per le persone con limitazioni di abilità. Essi devono interagire con i propri dispositivi mobile usando modalità alternative. Questi utenti possono avere limitazioni visive, uditive, fisiche o legate all'età, che impediscono loro l’accesso quando questo è fornito solo in modalità predefinite quali quella grafica. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è quello di fornire una panoramica sull’accessibilità degli attuali dispositivi mobili, sia per fornire agli utenti degli elementi di indirizzo d’uso, sia per analizzare quali soluzioni sono state crete e applicate per l’accessibilità di questi nuovi dispositivi, sia per fornire almeno un cenno alle eventuali barriere ancora esistenti. Tra i vari criteri possibili utilizzabili per classificare e quindi descrivere la situazione, la scelta è caduta sulle distinzioni esistenti in base al sistema operativo. Altri criteri potevano essere adottati, quali, ad esempio, il tipo di dispositivo. Tuttavia poiché dispositivi diversi, come tablet o smarphone, si comportano in modo simile se supportati dallo stesso sistema operativo, si è preferito partire dal software di base. Cambiano le dimensioni fisiche del dispositivo, ma non i criteri utilizzati per assicurare l’accessibilità

Elementos para una cultura europea de desarrollo de herramientas de inteligencia artificial: el libro blanco sobre la inteligencia artificial y las directrices éticas para una IA fiable

El objetivo del trabajo es abordar el problema ético/jurídico del desarrollo de las tecnologías que utiliza la inteligencia artificial, utilizando la vía metodológica trazada por la Unión Europea en sus Directrices éticas para una IA fiable. Así, el artículo se centra en la descripción de algunos elementos que caracterizan la estrategia elegida por la Unión Europea para abordar la cuestión de la relación entre los aspectos ético-jurídicos y la tecnología relacionada con el desarrollo de la inteligencia artificial. Seguidamente, expone un ejemplo práctico de la sinergia entre desarrolladores de aplicaciones tecnológicas y juristas, que se ha llevado a cabo en un instituto del Consejo Nacional de Investigación de Italia

Design For All for eInclusion.

Design for All (DfA) refers to the design of mainstream products and services to be accessible by as broad a range of users as possible, including older people and people with disabilities. The coordination action ‘DfA@eInclusion’ contributes towards e-Inclusion through fostering Design for All. It extends and enhances previous efforts targeted to the creation of a sound theoretical framework for universal design of ICT

Toward sustainable regeneration of historic endangered towns: strategies for increasing resilience

Europe has numerous urban sites ranging from towns to hamlets with valuable heritage significance that are experiencing progressive and harmful abandon because of urbanization and globalization phenomena. Tangible heritage values (historic buildings and urban settings), as well as intangible ones (history, cultural and social values, and handcraft) contribute in preserving the site identity and maintaining the collective memory of local communities. The town architecture, together with its complex of symbols, conserves the place identity and characterizes the site historic development. Several reasons are responsible for this abandon process, such as unfavourable location, ending of industrial/commercial activities, natural disasters, lack of services, progressive aging of the local population, and social replacement. Globalization has a deep impact on community development, town improvement and economic growth; meanwhile it presents several vulnerability aspects that hinder the system adaptation capacity to react to environmental changing and to control citizens’ health and safety. The recent COVID-19 pandemic experience clearly demonstrated a transnational system weakness. Urbanization provides economic, social and cultural opportunities that can enhance life quality; on the other hand, sudden changes in urban density and growth can weaken the sense of place (the specific ‘genius loci’), the integrity of the social fabric, the traditional character of urban areas, and the identity of communities. Here we propose a new approach for contrasting the impoverishing of historic towns, which takes into consideration the different evolution of plant and animal organisms. While the animal organism functions as a unique one, in which single organs are strictly interdependent on each other, plants are modular organisms, where each single part functions independently on the others. In this way, single parts of the plant individual can be removed without threatening the organism survival. The regeneration strategy we propose tends to assimilate the functioning of small towns and hamlets to the plant organism, i.e. small communities independent on large and globalised societies and characterised by high resilience potential for contrasting unfavourable situations. Opposite to this model, globalisation represents centralised operative authorities that are responsible for the whole country, thus recalling the animal organism regulated by a single operation centre. Our model is based on a conscious and sustainable improvement of site resilience involving public administration and citizens by mitigating the impact of globalization process and re-discovering the cultural identity, history and traditions of urban areas, in other words, we propose to diffuse the “vital resources of the towns” at different levels and contests. Abandoned, neglected or disused villages and towns require restoration of their integrity in every respect: historic, artistic, architectural, social and cultural. This regeneration strategy should follow sustainable procedures, which requires the detailed knowledge of building material, of monuments and urban vegetation, as well as their decay phenomena in order to design an effective restoration program considering long-term conservation and durability. In order to realize a real regeneration, restoration should not be limited to building recovering and compliance, rather, it should aim at drawing a new cultural and social identity. This target represents a challenge that should take into account architectural aspects linked to: accessibility, historical and artistic context, as well as economic sustainability including agri-food excellence and specific traits of the territory. The rationale of this strategy is to maintain a balance between historical and landscape features, to avoid isolation of towns, and to promote their employment not only as tourist destination but also as living centres