Association for the Advancement of
Assistive Technology in Europe.
Association for the Advancement of
Assistive Technology in Europe.
The 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission http://www.cordis.lu/rtd2002/fp-debate/fp.htm introduced two new instruments: Integrated Projects and Networks of Excellence.
AAATE welcomed both instruments, as they can greatly help mobilise resources for the advancement of Assistive Technologies in Europe. AAATE actively encouraged its membership to submit Expressions of Interest, in order to indicate to the European Commission that the Assistive Technology sector yields great scientific, social and industrial importance, deserves a well-defined place in the 6th Programme, and can rely on a significant amount of actors and expertise in Europe. In fact several Organisations - on the initiative of AAATE members - were able to work out and submit Expressions of Interest within the deadline established by the Commission (June 7, 2002).
AAATE thinks that one of the most important initiatives to be done within this scenario is the establishment of a Network of Excellence on Assistive Technology and Design for All. This document offers the AAATE view on the main characteristics of such network.
According to the new ICF model (International classification of Disability, Functioning and Health) launched by the World Health Organisation in 2001, disablement should be not looked at as an attribute of a given individual, but rather a situation that may affect any individual in case a gap exists between individual capabilities and environmental factors, and this gap restricts the quality of life and hinders fullest exploitation of the individual's potential in society.
The physical characteristics of the environment and the available technologies and products, both mainstream (i.e designed for the general public) and assistive (i.e. specifically designed in consideration of functional limitations), play a substantial role in enlarging or bridging such gap, depending on the way they are planned, designed, and implemented. Their role is clearly acknowledged by ICF in classifying them among environmental factors that contribute to generate or overcome disablement. In today's and future society this is particularly true, as technology becomes increasingly inseparable from the user in all aspects of life, such as home and school life, work and leisure, mobility and communication, participation in family, and social and civic life. In this view, the prevalence of people exposed to disablement is progressively more significant (estimated at 18% of the whole population by 2020). This segment includes persons who were born with functional limitations, or acquired them later in life, persons who are temporarily impaired due to accidents and trauma, and elderly population - especially the "old old" - whose range of functions are reduced due to the ageing process or to pathologies that frequently occur in the older population.
Research themes related to Assistive Technologies (AT) that expand capabilities of people with disabilities and elderly people - as well as Design for All (DfA) issues and barrier-free technologies - have been considered in the previous 3rd, 4th and 5th Framework. Significant results have been achieved. In several programmes a vision has been pursued that any technology-based products and services should be developed in such a way as to prevent disadvantages or exclusion of parts of the population. In addition to that, a DfA network of centres of excellence related to access to the Information Society has already taken wing within the e-Europe / e-Accessibility initiative. Although not directly related to funding, such network is the result of a wide consultation exercise carried out by EC that acknowledges the critical relevance of the subject.
However, the ideal world where this vision is internalised by society as a whole and is fully endorsed by scientific & technological developments is a long way off from achievement. At the same time, the technological environment is rapidly changing with considerable impact on peoples' lifestyle. Should similar efforts not be renewed and maintained in this area, there is a substantial risk that future technological developments will contribute to create new barriers to the disadvantaged populations. Moreover AT is likely to continue to be confined within a marginal market niche, lacking industrial strength, and the potential benefits of technology - in terms of advantage to the individual's quality of life and participation in society - effectively will be denied to significant parts of the population. Besides social and ethical implications, this would be sure to bring about economic (e.g. increased social costs for assistance of marginalized people) and industrial (loss of competitiveness with US AT industry) drawbacks.
Conversely, adequate investment in this area would help exploit the tremendous market opportunity represented by this segment of population, due to the combined effect of its growing size and its increasing interest in technology (studies on the diffusion of ICT equipment, for instance, clearly indicate faster uptake by people exposed to disablement than by other people).
AAATE believes that this network of excellence should include both DfA and AT issues, rather that deal with these as two distinct domains, as it was more common in the past.
In today's society, AT (sometimes labelled also as enabling or empowering technologies) and DfA (sometimes labelled also as inclusive or universal design) should be regarded as components of a continuum whose primary aim is to exploit the individual's capabilities at their fullest. Although there is favourable discussion around the idea that the people's needs should be met as far as possible by means of DfA solutions -and sometimes the exact border between what should be considered "for all" and "assistive" is not always well defined - nevertheless it is generally acknowledged that AT solutions will continue to be needed to address a wide range of functional problems.
As part of a continuum, mainstream and assistive technology should work together and thus be complementary and compatible. The same expertise on users' needs should guide the development of both. On the one hand, resources should be allocated to the development of DfA concepts that guide the development of a living environment accessible to everybody, i.e., where products are inclusively designed from the earliest (concept) stages of development (barrier-free technologies). On the other hand, resources are required for the advancement of the AT domain, in order to overcome the present situation of fragmentation and unequal distribution across countries, and support developments that enable individuals to exploit their capabilities to their fullest in the knowledge-based society.
In particular, AT initiatives continue to suffer from a somewhat vicious circle. Despite its economic significance (over 20,000 products available in the EU with estimated turnover 30 billion Euros), the sector is still characterised by high fragmentation of the market. It is dominated by SMEs that are often highly competent in solving individual problems, but have limited R&D and market capacity. Large industries, that possess high innovation potential, substantial R&D capacity, and huge market penetration, often are not prepared to provide competent responses to such an individualised range of need. Moreover, above a certain threshold of costs, the target population has limited purchase capacity, thus making financial support necessary from public agencies that act as intermediaries between the user need and the market supply, which consequently eventually become - in most Countries - the actual dominant forces on the market. Service delivery aspects play an important role as the requirements expressed by these agencies may not be in line with end-users' actual requirements if they could negotiate directly with suppliers.
To this end, an interdisciplinary approach is required that involves design & engineering competence, clinical expertise, socio-economic knowledge, understanding of industrial and market issues, insight into public policy matters, and, last but not least, the perspective of end-users.
In consideration of the above, a network of excellence appears as the most appropriate instrument to put together all needed expertise.
It should be pointed out that such a network should complement, rather than replace, focused or integrated projects in this domain that are also needed to address specific aspects.
AAATE (Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe), the European scientific society specifically dedicated to the advancement of technology for the full participation of persons with disabilities, submitted an Expression of Interest for a Network of Excellence on behalf of all its members.
AAATE is a major representative of the interest and expertise in the field, as described shortly in the following facts. AAATE membership is individual; to-date it accounts to over 200 scientists working in the field of barrier-free technologies and AT in the domains of research, industry, and services, and distributed throughout some 90 Institutions in the various countries of the European Union and Associated States. These include research / academic institutes, clinical / rehabilitation centres, public agencies, companies, and users organisations. A forum of such Institutions has been just initiated within AAATE to provide a more effective means for the collaboration that already exists among several of them.
| Membership | Number of registered members: 224 Members' domains of activity: research & academic (121), Service Delivery (63), Industry (37) |
| Geographical Coverage |
EU 166 (Uk 36, Nl 19, S 19, Irl 16, I 14, D 13, Dk 9, Es 9, Pt 8, F 7, Fin 7, B 4, A 3, Lux 1, Gr 1) European non-EU 20 (Slo 6, Bg 4, N 3, Ch 2, Sk 2, H 1, Pl 1, Isl 1) Non European 38 (Usa 8, Jp 6, Il 5, Cnd 4, Br 4, Aus 2, Other 9) |
| Governance: AAATE Board 2002 elected by Assembly |
Renzo Andrich from Siva Fond. Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus, Milano I, president Harry Knops from IRV, Hoensbroek NL,president elect Helen Petrie from City University, London UK,secretary Jan Persson from CMT University of Linkoping, S, treasurer Ger Craddock from Central Remedial Clinic, Dublin IRL Pier L. Emiliani from IFAC CNR, Florence I |
| Office | C/o Danish Centre for Technical Aids, Taastrup DK |
AAATE membership includes the majority of researchers who led or participated in AT-related projects in the 3rd, 4th and 5th Framework programmes, or other programmes such as the e-Accessibility initiative. On several occasions it contributed the expertise of its membership to the EC during the development of new programmes.
AAATE currently has a fundamental role in promoting knowledge and advancement in the area, by means of:
AAATE has also relations with various other organisations such as the EIDD (European Institute on Design and Disability), ISAAC (Int'l Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and the EDF (European Disability Forum), and is registered in the Coneccs Base of the EU in that it satisfies the EU requirements established for "organisations of civil society".
As mentioned before, a disability can be overcome by means of a mix of mainstream and assistive technologies that is different from one individual and another, and from one context to another. Thus a broad view should be taken of the entire technology chain that encompasses:
Any links of the chain should be compatible with each other; having just one link missing or incompatible is sufficient to generate a disablement even when the other links work perfectly (similarly to what happens when a bug in the operating system of a computer makes the user stuck even when running a perfectly coded application). When looking at the various components of the technology chain, it is apparent that a range of diverse competences is needed that must be integrated within an interdisciplinary context.
The range of topics to be considered by the network can be clustered around three main subject areas:
Each of these includes three dimensions:
In particular, the last dimension has a key role in making the network useful and effective. Education and training for professionals and users will be the main avenue for transferring knowledge to all actors involved, along with a network of Internet portals delivering information in the various EU languages.
Technology / design issues are related to the tangible shape that technologies should assume in terms of infrastructures, products, and services. Major topics under this heading are:
Socio-economic and policy issues are related to the implementation of AT and DfA and their impact in society. Major topics under this heading are
Human issues are related to the knowledge of the user needs, the human factors involved in the implementation of Dfa and AT, and the impact of AT solutions on the user's way of life.
The above-mentioned Institutions - where the bulk of the AAATE membership originates - already are active with respect to AT and DfA issues in their respective countries. Most of them have considerable experience with international collaboration, having participated - or being currently involved - in international R&D projects or EU initiatives (such as eEurope / eAccessibility) in this domain.
On the whole, they are the owners of immense know-how resulting from long-term experience that has never been exploited to its fullest in the European arena. Without doubt, the network of excellence is an appropriate instrument to promote this domain of knowledge in the European Research Area, thereby contributing to the creation of an inclusive European society.
This document was written by the President of AAATE, Renzo Andrich, with the collaboration of several experts from the AAATE Board and the AAATE membership, following an extended e-mail consultation with all Members taking part in the AAATE Internet discussion list.
July 15, 2002