Adaptative Technologies, New Paradigm for Inclusion and Quality of Life

The session “Communication: Adaptive Technologies, New Paradigm for Inclusion and Quality of Life/ Universalization of Digital Content”, held as part of the Seminar “Ability to Communicate and Interact: a New Paradigm for the Right of Handicapped People to Socially Participate”, was held on 11 July 2009, at the Lusófona University, at Campo Grande, Lisbon. As part of this, the President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) gave a talk on “Digital Inclusion and Accessibility” (text in Portuguese).

This session also included talks by Jorge Fernandes, from UMIC’s Access Programme, and Professor Francisco Godinho, Coordinator of CERTIC – the Engineering Centre for Rehabilitation and Accessibility at UTAD –  the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, who in 1999 directed the setting up of the Access Unit – Accessibility to the Information Society of Citizens with Special Needs, of the Ministry of Science & Technology, which later became incorporated into UMIC. The Access Unit was set up after the Council of Ministers approved the National Initiative for Citizens with Special Needs in the Information Society in August 1999 and stipulated that the websites of public bodies had to satisfy accessibility requirements for citizens with special needs. Portugal was the first European country and the fourth worldwide to adopt this type of accessibility rules.