ATLEC

ATLEC will attend the European Day of People with Disabilities Conference on 3-4th December 2012 in Brussels. A dedicated booth is planned as well.

The ATLEC project team is meeting on 20-21 November at the premises of Associazione Italiana Assistenza Spastici (A.I.A.S.) Della Provincia Di Bologna onlus in Bologna, Italy.

The day after the meeting, ATLEC will participate in HANDImatica 12 (9th National Conference on Disability and information & Communications Technology) with a booth and participation in the afternoon’s seminar.

ATLEC will participate in HANDImatica 12 (9th National Conference on Disability and information & Communications Technology) with a booth and participation in the afternoon’s seminar.

The event will take place on November 22-24, 2012 with free entrance (9 am to 6 pm).

Place to be: Istituto Aldini Valeriani – Sirani · Via Sario Bassanelli, 9 · Bologna · ITALY.

The 2012 CRPD Progress Report includes the latest data on 52 countries representing 77.4 percent of the World Population. The report offers disability advocates, governments, civil society and international organizations — monitoring the progress of the implementation of the Convention by States Parties — a unique benchmarking tool that collects data on country laws, policies, and programs pertaining to accessible and assistive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) around the globe. All results are available cross-tabulated by region, level of income per capita of Human Development Index to facilitate benchmarking by advocates and policy makers.

The ATLEC project was listed among the most significant projects for the advancement of AT in Europe, during the international conference on Proposing Assitive Technologies, held on the 11th of September 2012 in Bologna.

PhoenixKM as coordinator/partner of ATLEC (Assistive Technology Learning Through A Unified Curriculum – 518229-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-LEONARDO-LMP) project, funded via the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP), invites you to tender for the role of ICT AT expert according to the information provided in this tender.
Please submit your tender, in electronic form, by 15 July 2012, 23.59 CET. A decision will be made by 31 July 2012.

The use of Assistive Technology (AT) has greatly increased over the last few years especially in the field of ICT-AT. Assistive Technology can be liberating for the person who is using the equipment as well as for their parent or carer, but all too often the equipment is not being used to its full capabilities.

The results of recent surveys with AT users and specialists throughout Europe have highlighted that the lack of appropriate or sufficient training is the core barrier towards using AT by end-users. This lack of training is subsequently also recognised as the main barrier to securing or maintaining employment within a regular working environment.

A number of training initiatives exist but they mainly address training of the trainers and professionals working with people with disabilities, and not the actual beneficiaries (people with disabilities), who remain largely unaware of the huge range of available ICT-AT or of the potential it provides for them to build their skills, their employability or their independence.

ATLEC (Assistive Technology Learning Through a Unified Curriculum – www.atlec-project.eu), partially financed by the EU Lifelong Learning programme, aims to fill this gap and will focus on training the learners in specific skills, tailored to their individual and employability needs, whilst also creating the job profile of an ICT AT trainer, therefore giving disabled people another route into employment or self-employment.

The unique part of this project is that the curriculum developed will be end-user led so that ultimately it meets the needs of any potential users.

To better grasp the problems with current training practices (or the lack of), we launched a survey that is targeted towards:

• Parent / Carer / Personal Assistant of a person with a disability
• Support Organisation representing people with disabilities
• Educator (Teacher/Further Education or VET Trainer/Higher Education Tutor)
• AT Provider (e.g. manufacturer, distributor, occupational therapist, etc)
• Policy Maker (for education, disability, employment).

The survey focuses on the AT training that is available and aims to gather feedback on the quality of the training. The online survey can be found at:

• English – http://www.phoenixkm.eu/survey//index.php?sid=48879&lang=en
• Dutch – http://www.phoenixkm.eu/survey//index.php?sid=48879&lang=nl
• Greek – http://www.phoenixkm.eu/survey//index.php?sid=48879&lang=el
• Italian – http://www.phoenixkm.eu/survey//index.php?sid=48879&lang=it

We are asking all interested people to complete the online survey so that we can start collating the information we require to develop the training curriculum. Once the research has been undertaken we will be working with people with disabilities and other stakeholders, to create the curriculum in line with the research results.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could access the survey and complete it to help us to change the lives of people with disabilities through this project.

Thank you in advance for your contribution.

ATLEC project team
Oak Field School, Nottingham (UK)
PhoenixKM BVBA (Belgium)
Disability Now (Greece)
Associazione Italiana Assistenza Spastici (A.I.A.S) (Italy)
University Of Athens (Greece)
Greenhat Interactive Ltd (UK)

European statistics on the employment of people with disabilities are rare, albeit that some recent ANED country reports, such as the one of Italy, provide some information. The ANED states: “… the percentage of employed people with functional disability is 1.3%, with movement difficulty 2.7%, while for people with visual, hearing and speech impairments it is higher at 6.4%… The age group with the highest percentage of employed disabled people is 15-44 years, at 18.4% (22.3% men, 13.9% women), then from 45-64 at 17.0% (24.6% men, 10.4% women) and finally up of 65 years with 0.5% (0.9% men, 0.3% women).”. The information contained in this summary was compiled by the Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED) in April 2009.

Another source is following table on the employment rates (percentages) for working-age disabled people by impairment type in Great Britain for 2008 that indicates the higher employment rates for people with sensory impairments, as well as wheelchair users, while those for people with learning difficulties and speech impediments are rather low.

Source: Office for Disability Issues; based on Labour Force Survey, 2nd quarter.
* Local area labour force survey (2002), Annual Population Survey (2004-2008), accessed through Nomis, 14 May 2010

Above table is an extract from a larger table that was mentioned in Disability, Skills and Employment: A review of recent statistics and literature on policy and initiatives, Sheila Riddell, Sheila Edward, Elisabet Weedon and Linda Ahlgren, Centre for Research in Education, Inclusion and Diversity, University of Edinburgh, Equality and Human Rights Commission 2010.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Eλληνικά, Italiano and Nederlands.

As students are encouraged to take greater responsibility for their learning, and for using technology to acquire new skills, schools have a responsibility to provide accessible technology that can be personalized for each student’s needs. Microsoft released 2 very handy guides (for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP) that provide information about accessibility and accessible technology to help educators worldwide ensure that all students have equal access to learning with technology. For educators new to accessibility and working with students with disabilities, accessibility can seem overwhelming. To help educators teach students with all types of abilities, you will find specific information about each type of impairment and accessible technology solutions. Also a curriculum resource is provided that shows how the PC can be personalized for students with learning style differences or physical disabilities. It also shows how to use Microsoft Office to create accessible teaching materials.
The guides are available for download on the Microsoft Accessibility Web site.