Activities
EDeAN 2006 coordination in Finland
The secretariat of the European Design for All e-Accessibility
Network EDeAN rotates annually. The EDeAN secretariat for 2006 was
based in STAKES in Finland. The National Research and Development
Centre for Welfare and Health STAKES is also the coordinator for
the Finnish Design Design for All Network.
Throughout the year, Finnish DfA network member organisations
actively transferred Design for All information to citizens,
professionals and policy makers.
Finnish DfA Network is the largest and most cross-disciplinary
national network in EDeAN. Finnish research institutions, higher
education institutions and user organisations have a strong
representation in the network.
International Design for All Conference - September 2006
The 2006 key event was the
International Design for All
Conference on 13-15 September hosted by the University of
Lapland in Rovaniemi. The two day conference discussed Design for
All related policy issues actively on agenda in Europe and present
research results and good practice. The European Information
Society for All objective reflected both in the past eEurope 2002
and 2005 action lines and in the new i2010 action line provided a
major framework for the discussions.
Projects
Finnish DfA network initiatives include the following joint
projects:
University for All 2003-2006
University for All is an umbrella project, covering development
of DfA education [see below]; accessibility of built university
environments; accessibility of communication, including web-based
communication services, and inclusion of students and staff. The
primary objective of the project is to support universities to
develop DfA and accessibility strategies.
Design for All Education in Finnish Universities and
Polytechnics 2003 - 2006
The primary objective of the project is to produce a
cross-disciplinary set of Design for All courses to serve students
in universities and polytechnics in Finland. The whole DfA course
set will be produced as accessible digital learning material in the
context of the Finnish virtual university and the Finnish virtual
polytechnic programmes.
Cities and Municipalities for All 2003-2006
The project will run a survey of the state of the art of
accessibility plans in Finnish municipalities. The primary
objective is to support municipalities in long-term development of
Design for All and accessibility strategies to cover fields from
built environment, traffic and urban planning to communication,
education and training and culture. The survey will be produced in
collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Communication as
part of the implementation of the ministry's long term
accessibility strategy published in 2003.
Website Accessibility 2003-2006
The project involves all Finnish DfA Network members. The
objective of the project is to create a long term action programme
to improve accessibility of web-based services in DfA network
member organisations. The action programme will be developed in
accordance with the Quality criteria for public web-based services,
developed by the cross-disciplinary expert group appointed by the
Ministry of Finance and available since April 2004.
Workshops and DfA forum
The Finnish DfA Network organises 3 to 4 workshops for the
Finnish DfA network members annually, plus an annual thematic
Design for All forum for a specifically defined target audience.
Design for All workshops are also organised for other target groups
in both public and private sector.
dfasuomi portal
The major knowledge transfer tool for the Finnish DfA Network is
the DfA-Suomi website. The primary language of the portal is
Finnish, but material especially relevant in the European context
is published also in English.
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