AAATE Conference Participation

Part of the ABILITY consortium participated to the AAATE 2025 conference, in Cyprus, two weeks ago. In particular, ULUND, OFFIS and CEA presented their work with the consortium at two sessions. ULUND presented the work they conducted on their audio-tactile prototype, namely a touch tablet with a tactile graphics overlay triggering audio upon touch and hence adding interactivity to the tactile graphics. OFFIS presented their work on using AI to facilitate access to digital images, in particular in educational contexts, by analysing and retrieving the important elements from the image (e.g. outline and stripes for a Zebra) and providing the corresponding text descriptions and output on a pin display. Finally, CEA presented their work on providing bar charts through different vibrations with the haptic tablet.

Overall, the presentations and project triggered interesting questions and discussions amongst researchers and practicioners in accessibility.

Dr. Saeed presenting ULUND's work

Dr. Salous presenting OFFIS' work

Dr. Panëels presenting CEA's work

In general, the conference was interesting and not only technology oriented, with several sessions and talks on policies and social measures. It was very stimulating to meet with people from around the world (even as far as Australia) striving to not only improve but also endorse and fight for accessibility at a large scale with so many different initiatives.

In that respect, the conference introduced the Nicosia Declaration on Integrating Accessibility and Universal Design Across Higher Education Curricula, which was signed during one of the conference Policy Sessions: https://aaate.net/the-nicosia-declaration/.