The Vision behind the Dream!

[Nabil Eid]

It was three years ago that e-ISOTIS and AbilityNet decided that they should do something in order to make people aware of and celebrate how ICT, products and services were serving the lives of people with disabilities, and the elderly, and highlight how users could exploit these tools. Together, we wished to make people believe in the power of Accessible ICT and Assistive Technology by promoting best practice and success, to recognise the efforts made by the ICT and AT Industry, disability community and policy makers in making services and products that are affordable, usable and that address the needs of those with a disability or the elderly. This is where the ACCESS-IT award competition accompanied by related seminars, workshops and demonstrations was born. In 2009, ACCESS-IT, following the success of the ACCESS-IT Awards Competition in 2008, offered a two-day event on Accessibility and Assistive Technology on 22nd and 23 rd September 2009 at Microsoft (UK), Victoria, London. It featured a one-day seminar on Accessibility and Web 2.0 and a second day featuring the ACCESS-IT
2009 Award Ceremony along with two workshops on ICT and Ageing and ICT and Accessible Learning. This event built upon the success of 2008 and introduced in parallel to the ACCESS-IT awards ceremony, a series of seminars, workshops and networking activities with key players from across Europe working in the field of e- Accessibility and Assistive Technology. More than 200 attendees from all over Europe attended the events with a shared aim of promoting usable, affordable and needed developments and solutions that enhance the lives of people with disability and the elderly.
For the ACCESS-IT 2009 award competition, around 100 nominations have been submitted from 24 countries including countries outside Europe including the United States, Australia, Syrian Arab Republic, all submissions displayed significant progress, and 19 finalists were selected for the four ACCESS-IT awards. 44 additional nominations were found to represent good practice and were awarded the ACCESS-IT 2009 good practice label.
All of these good practices are included in this special electronic publication on ACCESS-IT 2009. Featuring a wealth of innovation, the publication offers an insight into progress of interest to a wide range of people with disabilities and elderly and their communities (careers, family, rehabilitation experts, SEN professionals, AT Experts, etc) from across Europe.

Kindly, download the best practice publication recognizing nominations as good practice through the website:
http://www.access-it-events.org/