Mobile Monday London: Accessibility Workshop

Event Info

Mon 26 Sep, 2011 from 3:00pm - 7:30pm
Siemens Room at The IET
1 Savoy Place
London, WC2R OBL, UK (Map)
Cost: Free. RSVP required.

Description

Vodafone Foundation has set up the Smart Accessibility Awards which Mobile Monday London is actively supporting.

These awards are to celebrate apps that help people in four key areas: Social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being. They are free to enter and there is a prize fund of Euro 200,000. The awards are now open for entries until 15 October 2011 so you have a month to go.

As part of this initiative, we've teamed up with the ICT KTN and Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards to bring you a half-day workshop looking specifically at this area.

The goal of the workshops is to inspire and enable app developers and entrepreneurs to create useful tools for people who have visual, aural, cognitive or other impairments by helping you understand and empathize what life is like for people in this situation. This empathy and understanding is created by bringing together app developers, entrepreneurs and accessibility advocates and people with impairments to exchange information, and allowing developers to experience simulations of being impaired.

App developers who have had the opportunity to experience as directly as possible, first or second-hand, what it means to live with specific impairments, and have been put in touch with the larger community around accessibility, create more effective apps to better the quality of life for everyone. The result not only helps people with major disabilities, but also people with minor or temporary impairments, for example due to ageing or illness.

The format of the workshops will be discussion based and there should be technical people on hand to answer specific questions related to Android, but there will be different speakers and contributors to reflect the local scene. Plenty of time will be allowed for discussion and networking and refreshments will be provided.

Speakers include:

Mauricio Reyes who will be telling us of his own experience of technology - both the frustrations and the usefulness - whilst suffering a temporary but serious impairment.

Antony Ribot will be sharing the Threedom Phone story - the insight and research that went into the concept and how that informed their design.

More tbc.

Doors will open at 3pm for a 3.30pm start. We'll aim to have all the presentations done by 6.30pm and then there'll be drinks and networking afterwards for about an hour or so.

The sessions will be informal in nature and there is room for 50 people only.

We are being hosted by The IET at 1 Savoy Place, London. Nearest tubes are Embankment or Temple and you'll find us in the Siemens Room.


Map

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Organiser

Email / +44 794 053 8802