TAD Projects
Project Launch: "On-Line"
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TAD ProjectsProject Launch: "On-Line"
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Presented by Dave Ellis - Director Toucan Europe and Alex McDonald - 'On-Line' Project Manager at theTransnational Meeting in Cagliari, Sardegna, 28th September 1998
Toucan is a non profit co-operative working in the area of research and development, providing technical assistance, management and training and development for organisations within the European Union and in the developing world. The focus of activities is work with people experiencing social exclusion, and innovative actions and developments that offer opportunities for economic and social integration.
Toucan was established in Manchester in 1994,it is registered as a Non-Profit limited company with educational purposes for the benefit of the community. It currently has a staff of eight people of which three have disabilities.
Toucan also provide specific and practical consultancy with all aspects of national and International project work in the area of education and training, research and technological development, and training and development activities of the non governmental sector.
Toucan is also active in the training of staff for national and trans-national projects. The workshops offered in these areas are designed to inform participants on the needs and requirements of all aspects of project development and management and can be tailored to meet individual and organisational requirements.
Information about Toucan and its work can be found on the company web site.
The Online Project has, and will continue, to develop an electronic learning network available through the Internet providing support and facilities for disabled people to access information on training and employment opportunities.
The network allows integrated access to sources of information and advice on:
There is a clear need to consider the requirements of disabled people in the access, use and design of information services available through the Internet. There is also a need to develop services, network services that disabled people want access to, and train and support disabled people for independent use.
Fostering of co-operative links (and provision of physical links) with organisations has been a major task within the project. In order to achieve this result the project is working in partnership with various organisations and projects locally, regionally and nationally. For example:
AN EU recognised qualification ‘Certificate in Telematics’ for Information workers within Information Providers and Disabled Organisations. Giving them the skills to use the Internet and the projects Info Service.
The project has trained 9 information workers from 4 disability organisations and is currently training a further 19 workers from a total of 12 different organisations. These numbers will increase as further training is organised in partnership with other organisations.
Training multiplied out to disabled individuals in use of the Info Service and Internet allowing independent access. This 'multiplying out' has raised its own difficulties, many disabled organisations appear to have limited direct contact with disabled individuals other than advice provision. As a result the project is directly accessing these individuals ourselves and co-ordinating training and 'taster' days around the use of the Internet and of course the access issues.
The organisation of training and 'taster' events itself presents difficulties - the lack of fully accessible facilities, with regard to equipment, hardware and software and format of information. The concept of the Citizen accessing the Information Society has already been mentioned, stating that the Citizen can have full access to this Society, yet it is clear that it is simply not happening, especially for people with disabilities.
2. - The Creation of an Information ServiceThe project will collate existing information and learning resources, as identified by disabled organisations and people, in order to make them more widely accessible to the individuals and organisations that may wish to use them as a resource using information and communication technologies.
The availability of local information will add a dimension well beyond the aspect normally associated with projects that simply connect individuals to the Internet.
3. - Web and User AccessibilityThe emergence of the WWW has allowed disabled users with telecomms equipment to interact as never before. However, new barriers have arisen such as the problem of accessibility.
With the project promoting the issue of accessibility to information for disabled people and developing good guidelines for information providers to follow, it has become clear that most organisations and projects are simply not addressing the issue of accessibility.
This issue was particularly highlighted during the AccessibilITy '98 event held in Manchester on the 25th September 1998. The event, promoted by the On-Line project in conjunction with the Greater Manchester Information Society Awareness project (ISaware), raised the issues that access is in fact being denied, not only in terms of user interfaces, but that people are unable to access the 'Gateways'/'Community Portal Points'. Facilities currently provided are based on the assumption that the Citizen, accessing the Information Society, receives all information visually, uses the computer two-handed, with a mouse etc. It was, and is clear that current and planned 'Citizen's access to the Information Society' projects are not taking into account the differing needs of these Citizens.
The project has now taken on board the wider accessibility issues and is working on developing guidelines that would form the basis of an 'accessible computing facility', as well as raising the issue with the organisation currently responsible for providing public access points.
This work is being carried out with reference to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Project. The Information Service has been built with accessibility in mind, using ‘Bobby’ an on-line disability access checker, and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)’s web page checker in the UK.
4. - Transnational Activities
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