The ViPi Workshop “Strengthening ICT skills of people with disabilities” took place at the Hotel Amberton in Vilnius Lithuania on Wednesday 2nd of May 2012.
Lithuanian situation regarding education and employability of people with disabilities (invited talks by representatives):
16:30 – 16:45 The National Association of the People with mental disabilities “VILTIS”
16:45 – 17:00 Lithuanian Association of the Blinds
17:00 – 17:15 Association of the People with Physical disabilities “NEGALIA”
17:15 – 18.00 Open (moderated) discussion among participants, to affect the present and future of the ViPi project
18:00 Wrap-up and closing
We had an interview with Teresa Aidukienė, Head Specialist of Pre-School and Primary Education Division of the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science. She worked before as Head Specialist of the Special education Division.
Dissemination corner at projects meeting in Brussels, Belgium
ViPi attended the 2-Days Comenius, ICT and Language projects meeting in Brussels, Belgium on 16-17/02/2012. ViPi was also moderating a discussion group on Project Promotion in the ICT workshop session on using the AECEA ICT Community.
PhoenixKM will attend the Comenius, ICT and Languages Meeting, to be held in Brussels, Belgium on 16-17 February 2012, as well as the Com@modemdag on 3 February 2012 in Duffel, Belgium that focuses on (ICT) AT for people with disabilities.
At both events, ViPi folders will be disseminated, and contacts will be made with local stakeholders.
On 26 October 2011, PhoenixKM provided a keynote speech at ITAG 2011 (Interactive Technologies and Games: Education, Health and Disability 2011) event in Nottingham, UK, entitled “The end-user at the centre of all AT developments”, also addressing ViPi.
After the presentation, NTU made an in-depth presentation on “Training on ICT skills for people with disabilities around Europe”, gathering the almost final results of the ViPi survey that was conducted by ViPi in 2011.
ViPi organised a successful national workshop in Larnaca, Cyprus on 3 October 2011, with following agenda:
14:00 – 14:30 Registration
14:30 – 14:35 Welcoming (George Milis, G.M EuroCy Innovations Ltd)
14:35 – 14.45 General introduction of the ViPi project (Karel Van Isacker, PhoenixKM) – ppt
Cyprus situation regarding education and employability of people with disabilities (invited talks by representatives):
14:45 – 15.05 The School for the Blind “Agios Varnavas” (Christina Eliadou and Anthias Paschalis) – ppt1 / ppt2
15:05 – 15:25 VIScientific (Stavros Papastavrou) – ppt
15:25 – 15:45 Muscular Dystrophy Association Cyprus (Stelios Stylianou)- ppt
15:45 – 16.00 Coffee-Break
Current project work and findings:
16:00 – 16:15 ViPi Survey (Andy Burton, Nottingham Trent University) – ppt
16:15 – 16:30 Basic ICT Training curriculum (Andy Burton, Nottingham Trent University) – ppt
16:30 – 16:45 ViPi platform technologies and integration pathway (Karel Van Isacker and Panagiotis Tsoris, PHOENIXKM/STEFICON) – ppt
16:45 – 17:00 Mobile applications (Panagiotis Tsoris, STEFICON) – ppt
17:00 – 17:15 Semantic Content Management enhancements (George Milis, G.M EuroCy Innovations Ltd) – ppt
17:15 – 18.15 Open (moderated) discussion among participants, to affect the present and future of the ViPi project
18:15 Wrap-up and closing
Below, you can see a short interview with Stelios Stylianou (Muscular Dystrophy Association Cyprus).
ViPi will present at the Accessibility Reaching Everywhere – AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, taking place in Brussels, Belgium on 28-30 November 2011.
The paper will focus on the impact of the economic and financial crisis on social services for people with disabilities, including the provision of assistive technologies that is affected in EU member states.
The ViPi project organises its 1st National Workshop in Larnaca, Cyprus on Monday 3 October 2011 (14:30 – 18:30) at the hotel “Henipa Crown Resorts”, Dhekelia Road, Larnaca.
Target Group
The workshop targets and is expected to attract the following profiles of people and organizations:
Organizations representing people with disabilities
Individuals with a disability
Relatives of, or carers of persons with disability
Training Centers and individual trainers of any level that are experienced or are interested in working with people with disabilities
Intermediaries (Employment Centres, etc.)
Policy makers
Objectives of the Workshop
The Workshop will comprise an opportunity for the participants to receive information on the early project’s findings and to discuss directly with the project consortium and affect the future workplan. The high-level objectives of the workshop are summarized as:
Presentation of project work and findings (Basic ICT Training curriculum, ViPi Survey, ViPi platform technologies and integration pathway, Current work on mobile applications, Current work on Semantic Content Management enhancements, etc.)
Presentation of Cyprus situation regarding education and employability of people with disabilities (invited talks by representatives of Training Centers and/or Organizations of people with disabilities)
Open (moderated) discussion among participants on the above subjects, to affect the present and future of the ViPi project
Language
The official language of the workshop will be the English, however, informal translation to/from Greek will be offered wherever required and for the participants’ convenience.
Registration The participation to the workshop is free of any charge, but preliminary registration is obligatory. In order to express your interest and register to the workshop, please, send an email or call Mr. George Milis at: +357 99587884, by Friday 23 September 2011.
Please provide following information:
Full Name
Organization (if applicable)
Contact details
Reason of interest
Transportation required? (please, see Transportation section)
Interested for lunch? (please, see Lunch section).
Transportation
Considering the fact that the majority of the participants are expected to arrive from Nicosia, the project will arrange for a bus (free of charge) to transfer people from Nicosia to the workshop venue and back.
From Nicosia to workshop venue: 03 October 2011, 12:00 or 13:30 (please, see Lunch section).
From workshop venue to Nicosia: 03 October 2011, 19:00.
Please, explicitly state your interest to use the above service at registration.
Lunch
Before the workshop and depending on interest expressed through registration, the project will offer lunch (free of charge) to the participants, at the workshop venue. Time: 13:00.
ViPi will attend and present at the “Interactive Technologies and Games: Education, Health and Disability 2011″ event in Nottingham on 25-26 October 2011, organised by Nottingham Trent University.
The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and practitioners working with interactive technologies to explore and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability. The event has a particular focus on the use of gaming hardware and software to implement accessible solutions, interaction design using new input/output devices and the increasing impact of ubiquitous computing on our everyday well being.
More information can be found on the conference website.