Projects

Anseo Project

Client Technical Services are the technical support service providers for the Anseo video conferencing project. This project, proposed by the Centre for Independent Living (CIL) is being funded by Pobal under the dormant accounts scheme.

The project aims to build a pilot network of fifty people with significant physical and sensory disabilities located in Dublin, through the technology of video networking. The project aims to:

Enable people with significant physical and sensory disabilities, who utilise the services of a personal assistant (PA), to talk to other users of the service or experts.
To enable people with disabilities to participate in Boards and Committee meetings that could be more time-effective being conducted via video-networking.
To support the development of e-learning and to demonstrate its potential to dramatically impact on the lives of disadvantaged groups.
To provide people with disabilities with the opportunity to get to know what is going on in their community, giving them the opportunity to access services via technology, and to encourage them want to participate more in their community.
Give people with disabilities the opportunity to learn about technology and through this understanding see the potential for making their lives easier, more sociable involved in the wider community.

For further information, visit the project website: www.anseoproject.ie

ARTEMIS project

The ARTEMIS project, funded by the European Union under the Fifth Framework Programme, aims to improve elderly and disabled persons’ quality of life, especially through advanced and distance rehabilitation, tele-assessment and readaptation services and products.

The information Society offers great opportunities to improve the quality of life of persons with mobility impairments, including elderly people and those with movement disorders. However, there is a risk that information technology can also increase the physical and psychological barriers for these persons and therefore the information gap.

Such barriers impede the access that people with disabilities have to existing Internet services and limit the development of dedicated products and services delivered via the Internet. These barriers not only hinder the development of new business areas that would improve the quality of life of this population, but also inhibit the development of an open European market of assistive technologies.

Our aim is thus to provide affordable computer access devices and related services necessary in order to accomplish the tele-assessment and tele-adaptation services.

The figure below shows a schematic of the current concept of Artemis service and system with example technology:

Image of a Chart Illustrating a schematic of the current concept of Artemis service and system with example technology

For more information, go to http://www.tele-assessment.com.

E4 Project

The Education for Employment Project is a new exciting venture that has been designed to provide high quality, flexible and supported life-long learning pathways to employment for individuals that are currently under-represented in sustainable employment e.g. long/short-term unemployed, people with disabilities or early school leavers.

The E4 Project operates within a flexible, non-traditional training model. This means that the approach adopted within E4, aims to shift the focus from one of fitting the individual into already existing education systems, to designing education systems to fit each individual student. This model of further education has multiple entry and exit points, according to the students own experience, ability and ambition. Each individual may simply wish to attain a FETAC qualification and get into the workplace as quickly as possible, or they may have a desire to aim for, and achieve a degree. The E4 Project currently have students studying at Killester College of Further Education and Insititute of Technology, Blanchardstown. For further info, please see www.e4project.ie

ILT Project

The Inclusive Learning through Technology [ILT] is an innovative project launched in January, 2004 at the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) school in Dublin and St Gabriel’s School in Limerick. The Project has since expanded and now includes St. Mary's National School, Fairview and St. Tiernan's Community School. It has been funded by The McMahan Center in the States. The project has introduced students to new learning techniques and lateral thinking as presented through the CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) thinking programme produced by The Edward DeBono Foundation.

The students have also been introduced to new technology through the Client Technical Services Department in the CRC at three levels:

Information Communication Technology (ICT), to facilitate easier communication and exchange of information Educational technology and Assistive technology to facilitate educational instruction with the introduction of interactive white boards Assistive technology provision – to enable students access to the curriculum and online resources.

The following quotes are from some of the students involved in the ILT project.

“It was a different way of thinking.”

“We learned in the best way possible. Not through sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher but by working with each other and by finding information on the internet.”

“We made new colleagues and friends, sending our PMI etc. It was brilliant to see all the ways of communicating and how far we’ve come.”

MAPPED

Many disabled users are prevented from accessing functionally and socially important activities such as shopping, visiting public parks, theatres etc. because of a lack of real-time accessibility knowledge. Currently the simplest of excursions can involve military scale planning to ensure that the planned journey is feasible.

MAPPED will provide users with the ability to plan excursions from any point to any other point, at any time, using public transport, their own vehicle, walking, or using a wheelchair, taking into consideration all their accessibility needs. In addition to this, MAPPED will provide the users with location-based services tailored to their accessibility needs.

To meet these goals MAPPED will incorporate:

a multi-modal route planner that allows for disability specific routing information and reservation of accessibility services
Geographically indexed accessibility information
disabled friendly mobile user interfaces MAPPED will "develop an intelligent system that will empower persons with disabilities to play a full role in society and to increase their autonomy".

It therefore fits squarely the specific objectives of strategic objective 2.3.2.10, eInclusion. MAPPED will be clustered with ASK-IT (Ambient Intelligence System of Agents for Knowledge-based and Integrated services for Mobility Impaired Users), an Integrated Project that aims to develop an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) space for the integration of functions and services for Mobility Impaired (MI) people across various environments, enabling the provision of