A final celebration was organised at Thomas More where all participants in the focus groups for the Social Network App and for PictoChat were invited, as well as other project partners.

Thomas More looked back at the research and its results, with a customized presentation for people with IDD). All participants with IDD received a certificate of participation in the Able to Include project and were thanked with a reception with snacks and drinks.

The presentation was very interactive, with an enthusiastic audience, and all participants enjoyed it very much.

An article about Able to Include was published after the event in the local press.

“Making digital inclusion possible” was the motto of the Able to Include final event which took place in Brussels. The meeting concluded the Able to Include project, an initiative which developed assistive technology to help people with intellectual disabilities use social media.

Participants from different European countries had come to listen to the presentations which made a link between the general concept of accessibility, experiences made during the development of the Able to Include apps and software layer and the final results.

Ineke Schuurman from Leuven University in Belgium opened the event by giving a short overview of the project: “The aim of Able to Include was to improve the living conditions of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities”, she explained. Several services were developed for this purpose:

–          an accessibility layer which is open-source and can be used by developers everywhere

–          a text-to-pictogram translator

–          a text simplifier

–          a text-to-speech programme

–          a social network app

–          the PictoChat mobility app

–          Kolumba, an easy-to-use e-mail web client

Inclusion Europe’s director Milan Šveřepa stressed the importance of the project for independent living: “Access to information is pivotal to taking decisions“, he said – and the Able to Include services help people with intellectual disabilities to obtain the information they need.

Alejandro Moledo, New Technologies & Innovation Officer at the European Disability Forum, emphasized how the lack of accessibility is a problem for all people with disabilities, as “one in three persons with disabilities has never used the internet”. This represents 54% of those who have never been online. All the more important it is to have a strong European Accessibility Act to improve the accessibility of websites all over Europe.

 “One in three persons with disabilities has never used the internet”
Alejandro Moledo, New Technologies & Innovation Officer at the European Disability Forum

Liz Tilly and Satnam Singh from Building Bridges Training, one of the project partners, gave an introduction into how they were involved in the development and testing of the different apps. “These apps have given people confidence”, as Liz Tilly put it. The testers are now using the internet more to find information or ask others to do it for them. Some members of the test group even bought their own tablets, and the testing sessions were an opportunity for them to make new friends and connections.

More freedom, more self-determination, more inclusion

John O’Flaherty from MAC, who was involved in the development of the Able to Include services, made the link to the perspective of the developers: “First we developed ‘safe’, cut down versions of selected social media, but users’ feedback clearly indicated that they wish to use the full ‘real’ services.” This is why a “web view” approach was developed to empower people with intellectual disabilities to access the complete Facebook and other social media apps. Safety was provided through optional support, as well as short videos from the Inclusion Europe-led Safe Surfing Project.

Once familiarised with the way a specific tool works, people with an intellectual disability can use it to gain much more freedom and independence. Marta Ripollés from project partner Prodis illustrated this with a video showing one of their clients working with Kolumba. The tool simplifies the interface of a personal email account, specifically of Gmail. “E-mail has become part of our everyday life”, Marta Ripollés said. “Why should people with an intellectual disability be excluded from using it?”

Thomas More University College and the non-profit De Schakel were specifically involved in the development of the PictoChat mobility app which allows people with an intellectual disability to talk with their caregivers by using pictograms. Bart Werrens from De Schakel demonstrated how he used the app to keep in contact, e.g. by sending the picture of a horse when explaining that he was at his workplace, a riding stable. According to Jo Daems from Thomas More, the app has improved many aspects of life for its users, for example their interpersonal relations and sense of social inclusion, but also their self-determination: “The user is able to make contact to others without the help of a caregiver. This is a very important step.”

The event was wrapped up with a presentation on easy-to-read. Juliette Sançois from Inclusion Europe’s member Unapei explained how automation can lead to more easy-to-read texts, while Armony Altinier from Koena, a company specialised in inclusive web development, talked about the importance of user involvement during development:  “Programmes need to be dedicated to people, not the other way round”, as she put it.

Participants of the event agreed that Able to Include is a good example of how digital inclusion can be a success. As our information society becomes more and more digitalised, we should make sure to not leave people with intellectual disabilities behind.

The conference presentations are available online.

The agenda includes several presentations by project partners which will further explain the Able to Include project and showcase the exciting ways in which technology can create accessibility. Representatives of the European Disability Forum and of Unapei, a French association for people with an intellectual disability, will also speak.

You can now register for the event – we hope to see you there!

They aim to find out how assistive technologies can be tailored to the needs of the people who use them. The results of the study will help to inform Members of the European Parliament of potential assistive technology opportunities and identify the challenges associated. The results will also help to form definitions for future developments of assistive technologies.

If you would like to learn more about the project, please click here.

They are particularly interested in responses from the deaf and hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired and people with autistic spectrum disorders, but all persons with disabilities can provide meaningful insights.

If you would like to contribute to an innovative and inclusive future society, you can fill out the questionnaire here.

The ENTELIS Manifesto is a powerful document that aims to raise awareness of the digital divide that sees persons with disabilities excluded from the benefits of the digital revolution. European Network for Technology Enhanced Learning in an Inclusive Society (ENTELIS) is a 3 years European project that addresses the digital divide by promoting collaboration in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and ICT Assistive Technologies (ICT AT) education to share knowledges across Europe. Partners from 10 countries are involved in the project, they have come together to collect, describe and assess good practices in ICT and ICT AT skills development of people with disabilities across Europe and to identify and map out future progress.

The document is now online for, civil society organisations, developers, academia and individuals alike to endorse it. To do this, you need to write down 5 priority actions you would undertake or recommend. People are encouraged to share the Manifesto or organize meetings to discuss its content and to develop some collaborative actions. Another way to show the support is by joining the Entelis network and sharing expertise and experience.

Entelis also invite you to their third annual seminar ‘Technology for unlocking human potential: roadmaps for closing the digital divide for people with disabilities’ which will be held in Brussels on the 19 October 2016 in the Thon Hotel EU coinciding with the celebration of the EASPD 20th anniversary.

We encourage everyone to use the software and share their comments and suggestions.

Find Able To Include Github repository here: https://github.com/able-to-include/

It is with joy that we share the news that the technology Text2Picto from our partners at KU Leuven has won the Language Industry Award for “Best Language Service 2015”.

The third edition of the annual Language Industry Awards (LIA) ceremony was held
on 16 March 2016 in Brussels, welcoming an array of diverse and dynamic international participants.

Text2Picto, co-developed by partners from University of Leuven and Thomas More translates words and sentences into pictograms in order to ease the understanding of text based communications, reducing the cognitive complexity of reading tasks for work documents, emails, web pages, chats, etc. You can read more about the Text2Picto here and have a play with a demo of the technology here.

De Taalsector selected the nominees across eight different categories from over 100 submissions. We sincerely thank everyone who demonstrated their support for the project, with nearly 700 votes and by 47% Text2Picto is declared the best language service of the year! We are so happy that the technology developed within our project has been recognised. This is a wonderful achievement and we offer our heartfelt congratulations. We look forward to millions of people in the European Union benefitting from symbol-related text as a means of written communication.

Technology is nowadays a standard tool in our environment and in the way we interact with others. The use of technology offers possibilities for communication, entertainment and education for many people. But the management of this technology can be hindered by various barriers to some people or social groups. Persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) is one of these groups.

The European Project Able to include explores the development of technological support that can favor the use and training on technologies in all the life areas of people with ID. One of the support tools developed in the project is the “Able Mail”. This tool simplifies the interface of a personal email account and therefore encourages and simplifies the use of email by people with ID. It also includes three specific technologies developed by the project; the possibility that the mail text received is translated into easy reading, pictograms or text-to-speech.

The development of this tool has been carried out within this European project, by the Prodis Foundation, a Foundation providing the necessary support to people with ID to improve their quality of life and their families´, and Ariadna Computer Services, a company developing technology solutions. To develop this tool, a common process was carried out assessing the technological possibilities and needs of persons with ID. Currently, users and professionals at Prodis Foundation are making different assessments of the tool to improve and adapt it to all needs. Working hand in hand with Prodis, Ariadna wishes to improve the Able Mail in order to make it an inclusive tool for everyone.

The Able to Include Social App empowers all people to access the complete Facebook and other social media apps, but provides safety through optional short videos from the SafeSurfing project. It operates like a value-added layer on top of the Social Media Application. Users’ feedback clearly indicated that they wish to use the full “real” social media services, and not “safe” cut down versions of them.

In use, the user simply clicks the Social App on their smartphone or tablet, and then selects their preferred Social Media application, such as Facebook. The user then uses Facebook in the normal way, but in addition they can click a block of text on the screen, a focus frame highlights that text, and using a Service Strip of 3 buttons the user selects simplification, pictograms or a spoken version of that text.

The Able to Include Social App has been developed based on a “web view” of the Social Media Applications. It is an extension to open source framework standards. The first version is focused on the Android platform so that the Able to Include “Leisure in the Information Age” pilot can proceed. However by using its open framework enables the Apple and Windows versions of the Accessibility Layer App to be made available on those platforms in due course, and include all upgrades and improvements that are implemented during the “Leisure in the Information Society” Pilots.