Keynote presentation title: The role of assistive technology into the future of independent living. Opportunities and risks

In this workshop, participants will be exposed to a series of apps that we created as solutions to challenges we found when working with students with complex disabilities in the educational environment.

https://apps.apple.com/il/developer/beit-issie-shapiro/id1189551653

Use of IssieApps can:

• Support core academic skills: Reading, writing, and math.
• Facilitate communication: Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools.
• Promote social interaction: Collaborative activities and games.
• Promote digital literacy: users learn to manage their tablet and apps in a more independent way

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In Europe long term care and support to those that need it, is often provided by care ecosystems of formal and informal caregivers. To make, or keep, care and support effective, efficient, affordable and of high quality, politicians and policymakers at all levels have put their trust in the role of person-centred digital technology in home care settings.

However, the adoption of technology in long term care and support depends on many critical factors that need attention, such as the (digital) competences of formal and informal care givers, the selection process leading to the choice for the most appropriate solutions, the availability or not of support for specific users and user groups, recognising differences and communalities between them, the expectations, motivations and fears of stakeholders (e.g. data protection, dehumanisation, security of Artificial Intelligence).

European, national and local governments could, and probably should, do more to facilitate the adoption of technology in care and support networks in order to meet the aforementioned high level objectives.

In this session we will discuss the need for investments in the skills development of formal care workers (e.g. professionals) and informal carers. Starting from European initiatives such as the Digital skills agenda, the Pact for Skills, the Sector skills Alliance and European projects such as Care4skills (GA 101140263) and AI4HomeCare (GA 024-1-PL01-KA220-ADU-000252371), we will discuss what national, regional and local governments, as well as service providers could do more to respond to information, training and organisational needs of stakeholders in order to facilitate the uptake of digital solutions in care and support services and in home care.

Outdoor Education (OE) in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings has attracted global interest due to its ability to stimulate children’s curiosity and interest, thereby transforming their education from passive to active through interactive activities in the natural environment (Lattarulo & Vandelli, 2021). It has been argued that OE provides children with essential 21st-century skills and competencies that cannot be provided by traditional classroom education (Özgem & Akçıl, 2022). These include learning and innovation skills, life and career skills, and information, media, and technology skills.It is crucial to recognise the benefits of OE and to ensure the equal participation of young children with varying learning needs and abilities in OE learning experiences. Research indicates that integrating technology into outdoor learning can improve engagement and enhance educational outcomes for all children, including those with disabilities (Kuo et al., 2019). Digital tools can enhance accessibility, enabling participation and fostering collaborative learning experiences in outdoor environments (Jerowsky & Borda, 2022), providing equal opportunities for all children to access and succeed, reflecting a transformative pedagogical approach rooted in human rights.

This workshop explores the benefits and challenges of the incorporation of digital tools for accessible outdoor learning, in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings. It also delineates effective strategies to use technology for bridging outdoor and indoor education, thereby fostering a coherent learning process for all children in early childhood. The framework and practical suggestions of this workshop have been developed for the purposes of the Erasmus+ funded project Outdoor4mi (Project number: 2023-1-IT02-KA220-SCH-000165552), with the participation of seven partners.

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We are proposing a Forum for those developing AI-based or enhanced products to share the latest innovations they are engaged in and to discuss the key issues that are emerging for consideration to ensure the future of inclusive AI.

We will highlight products that meet the criteria and were winners of Zero Project awards, or which participated successfully in the Zero Project Technology forum 2023-2025.

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This interactive workshop explores how UDL 3.0 principles can be effectively integrated with AI tools toc reate inclusive and accessible STEAM learning environments. Moving beyond traditional approaches, the session highlights learner identity, equity, and engagement through real-world classroom scenarios and hands-on activities. Participants will examine inclusive STEAM educational practices, assess AI-powered learning tools, and collaboratively design adaptations to lesson plans, teaching strategies, or learning activities that align with UDL 3.0 principles – enhancing accessibility, fostering creativity, and promoting meaningful participation for all learners in STEAM.

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This workshop is about describing (online) images to make visual information more accessible. More specifically, it addresses a holistic approach to describing images that includes both pragmatic, factual information of an image as well as expressive, emotional information.

Given the importance of (online) images in our everyday lives, it is essential that the information communicated by such images is accessible to everyone, including people with a visual impairment. Moreover, the Directive on the Accessibility of Public Sector Websites and Mobile Applications, issued by The European Union, requires websites and apps to be accessible for people with a wide range of disabilities. Although existing guidelines (such as WCAG 2.0 and Diagram) are a good step towards standardization of accessibility of visual information, they remain superficial and focus on the core message images convey. In this regard, these guidelines lag behind current trends in Human-Computer Interaction, where the focus has shifted from pragmatic aspects of computer usage towards a more holistic approach focusing on user experience. The current view is that good computer design should not only guarantee usability but should also induce pleasurable experiences.

Translating this view to images, we argue that accessibility guidelines should take user experience into account and that image descriptions should not only convey factual, pragmatic information, but should also include details about the expressive or emotional content, or the atmosphere of images. This is in line with research on user requirements for image descriptions, which shows that 1) aspects such as the underlying sentiment of an image, humour, emotional expressions, etc. are highly inaccessible for people with visual impairments and 2) people with visual impairments express the need for more expressive, emotional content to be included in image descriptions.

In our research project Experience Matters we have analysed the needs of both makers and users of image descriptions. Together with these makers and users we have developed and evaluated a new set of guidelines that focus on both factual, pragmatic information as well as on expressive, emotional information. In this workshop we will share the findings of our research. In addition, participants will practice with the new guidelines, allowing them to create more holistic image descriptions in their own work. We will also have a look at the (im)possibilities of generative AI and the unique role of human describers in creating holistic image descriptions.

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Fast technological developments and resource scarcity in long-term care are making it more important than ever for organizations in this sector to be prepared for innovation to ensure affordable access to care. Organizations that are innovation-ready are better equipped to implement new solutions. However, there is limited knowledge and few tools available to help organizations become innovation-ready. Within the Living Lab in Ageing and Long-term Care, Maastricht University and Zuyd University developed the Maastricht Innovation Readiness Approach (MIRA). MIRA includes an Innovation Readiness Framework based on literature reviews, qualitative research, and a Q-methodology study. Additionally, the framework includes a questionnaire and a format for conducting a consensus meeting. Care organizations seeking insight into their degree of innovation readiness can ask 15 to 20 of their professionals to complete the questionnaire, which reflects on each factor of the Innovation Readiness Framework. This is followed by a consensus meeting where participants discuss the results, identify strengths and weaknesses in the organization’s approach to innovation, and agree on areas that need improvement.

The workshop will provide insights into innovation readiness based on the studies conducted and the factors within the Innovation Readiness Framework. Participants will complete the MIRA questionnaire during the workshop, after which we will discuss how strengths and weaknesses relate to the successful implementation of technology in care organizations, and how strategies can improve innovation readiness.

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While Accessibility and Universal Design (UD) are increasingly cited in policy discourse, their actual integration into Higher Education (HE) curricula across disciplines remains scattered, superficial, and inconsistent. Findings from the ATHENA project (see Acknowledgement), which examined the current landscape of inclusion in HE, highlight a concerning pattern: accessibility and UD are either absent or marginally included in most university programs. When present, these concepts are often reduced to technological interventions or pedagogical accommodations, sidelining their broader implications as tools for equity, human rights, and social transformation.

The ATHENA Position-Policy Paper recently published makes a compelling case for a systemic rethinking of how accessibility and UD are conceptualized, taught, and operationalized in HE. It reveals how HE curricula—far from being neutral—often reproduce ableist norms and deficit-oriented perspectives by framing disability through a narrow lens of individual adaptation or “special needs.” The project’s analysis shows that where accessibility and UD appear, they are typically linked to assistive technologies or inclusive teaching methods, especially in technical or education-oriented fields. This narrow scope perpetuates the “technicist” view of inclusion, disconnecting it from its rights-based, political, and ethical foundations.

Moreover, the absence of legally binding frameworks and accountability structures at national and institutional levels means that inclusion remains a discretionary initiative, often driven by individual academic interest rather than structural commitment. This policy vacuum sustains exclusionary practices and hampers efforts to cultivate inclusive learning environments that reflect the full spectrum of human diversity and interdependence.

As a leading platform for advancing assistive technology and inclusive policy, AAATE is uniquely positioned to catalyse this shift in higher education. This session aligns with the conference’s objectives to advance inclusive design, foster cross-sectoral collaboration, and build bridges between research, policy, and practice. It also supports broader European and global policy agendas, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the European Accessibility Act, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, in the framework of the AAATE 2025 conference, hosted by a Higher Education institution, the proposed policy session will provide a platform to discuss the ATHENA position paper and explore how we can move from occasional inclusion to structural integration of accessibility and UD in curricula across all academic disciplines.

The session will feature a diverse panel of stakeholders—including project partners, policy actors, academic leaders, and accreditation representatives—who will analyse the current gaps, share strategies, and co-develop a short declaration calling for the integration of accessibility and UD in HE as a mainstream curricular priority.

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Provision of assistive technologies (AT) is strongly connected to applying a person-centred approach, with focus on exploring the person’s individual abilities, needs and desires, to enable provision of matching AT. In the process of provision, it is also important to assess and facilitate the person’s understanding of how to use the AT, to enhance optimal usage and enable AT integration in everyday life. 

The universal Assessment of Learning Process (ALP), is a process-based tool for assessment and intervention. It includes the ALP-instrument for assessment of stage of exploration and phase of learning, as well as the ALP-facilitating strategies guiding the approach for intervention at each stage and phase in the process. Focus for observation is tool-use behaviours and finding indicators for actual stage of exploration and phase of learning. The assessment enables tailoring of the facilitating approach to give the person a just right challenge in a learning situation of their choice. With the instruments focus on indicators in tool-use behaviours the universal ALP can be applied with any person, age, abilities or AT. More information and material for download can be found at https://www.lisbethnilsson.se/en/alp-tool/ 

The session will begin with an instructional part for presentation of the ALP-tool and its application. Then it turns into an interactive workshop where the attendees use a short-version of the ALP-instrument to assess video-clips illustrating a variety of AT-use, from simple to more complicated. Towards the end, discussion is opened for reflections on how to apply the ALP-tool in attendees’ own fields of AT expertise.

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We will explore the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in advancing inclusive education through differentiated teaching practices. As educational systems grapple with increasing classroom diversity and persistent equity gaps, AI offers innovative tools to personalize learning, enhance accessibility, and support teachers in meeting varied student needs. Drawing on global case studies and empirical research, the study examines how AI-driven platforms—such as adaptive learning systems, assistive technologies, and real-time feedback tools—can facilitate individualized instruction and foster meaningful participation for all learners, including those with disabilities and learning challenges. The paper also critically addresses ethical concerns related to data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the digital divide, underscoring the need for responsible and context-sensitive implementation. Emphasizing the importance of teacher training, co-designed solutions, and equitable access, the study concludes that while AI is not a panacea, it holds significant promise when aligned with inclusive pedagogical frameworks. By integrating technological innovation with systemic reform, AI can play a vital role in realizing the global vision of equitable, quality education for all.

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This educational session explores the potential of emerging technologies to promote inclusion and participation in education. Using the World Café methodology, the session invites educators, technologists, researchers, and policymakers to engage in collaborative dialogue around three key questions:

1. Which educational technologies hold promise for promoting inclusion and participation? What are opportunities and good practices? 
2. Which barriers and facilitators affect the implementation of educational technologies in the school context? 
3. Which strategies may foster a successful implementation of educational technology into educational contexts?

Conference participants will rotate between discussion rounds, co-creating insights that will be synthesized and shared in a plenary reflection. The session is designed not only to foster peer learning and exchange but also to generate empirical data for a potential follow-up project or scientific publication. With informed consent, anonymized notes and observations from the session will be thematically analyzed to uncover stakeholder perspectives on the inclusive use of technology in education.

This session bridges the gap between theory and practice, and between research and real-world challenges, by engaging the audience as co-creators of knowledge. It is ideally suited for professionals interested in inclusive design, technology-supported education, and participatory methods.

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This policy session brings together global minds to discuss chaotic developments, which are creating high levels of risk to access appropriate assistive technology where immediate and emergency response is required to support citizens and the impacts of war. We as assistive technology and rehabilitations professionals, cannot remain silent and the symposium that we have visioned is an opportunity for AAATE to indicate the sort of conditions most likely to facilitate effective assistive technology provision internationally, to provide appropriate and timely responses by creating sustainable infrastructure within diverse contexts, particularly during and post conflict. This session will emphasise the urgency to consider the vulnerability of sustainable development and the risks of reversal of achievements, through local systems strengthening, back to more reactionary charitable, short-term solutions. The lack of sustainable in-country infrastructure, including skilled workforce, undoubtedly impacts provision causing major disruption to peoples’ lives.
As fellow human beings we need a willingness to work in partnership to create a plan for action which nourishes a sustainable assistive technology community of practice. As assistive technology and rehabilitations professionals who share a common goal, we need to find community led solutions which embrace a middle ground approach, moving this debate out of silos, linking people at all levels and recognise the realities of disruption and destruction of structures, without being stilted by them.

The workshop explores the historical development of assistive technology (AT) and how it can inform the creation of more sustainable and inclusive AT ecosystems today. Drawing on a historical survey and a recent book Vi fick snurr på det (We Got a Spin on It), Dr. Emil Erdtman traces the evolution of AT in Sweden from early 20th-century public institutions to Sweden’s pioneering innovations such as the electric wheelchair, the rollator, and various digital tools. The session highlights the role of disabled people not only as users but as co-creators of AT, and examine the tensions between universal and specialized design, policy and practice.

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The European Commission’s European Disability Strategy 2021-2030 has identified social exclusion as one of the grand challenges that people with disabilities in Europe are facing. People with disabilities are the most disadvantaged in society, exacerbating many inequity issues. For example, they may have limited access to basic education, significantly reducing their chances of obtaining meaningful and gainful employment in adulthood. The risks of social exclusion are even more challenging for autistic people.
Autism is a global societal challenge. The prevalence of autism has increased by 200% over the past 20 years resulting in rising societal costs and impact. Many autistic students have unmet educational needs as they are not receiving the personalised support they require. This has caused higher rates of school dropouts and exclusion among autistic children compared to their peers without autism. For example, in the UK, only 16% of autistic students attend tertiary education. Consequently, the lack of education often leads to lower employment rates among the autistic population. Only 10% of autistic individuals in the EU are employed, as opposed to 47% of people with disabilities and 72% of people without disabilities.

Cost Action CA19104, advancing Social Inclusion through Empowerment and Technology (a-STEP) is a pan-European consortium of 135 members from 35 countries. The COST Action is a multi-sectorial consortium of researchers, practitioners, service providers, educators, developers and people with disability. The COST was established to build an interdisciplinary, intersectoral pan-European and beyond, network which is dedicated to promoting the social inclusion and empowerment of the autistic community and their families through assistive technology (AT).

AT can help to bridge the gap between social exclusion and social inclusion for autistic people. Building global capacity for AT will provide a unique opportunity to support independence, inclusion and the transition from education to employment for the autism community. Despite the technological advances in recent years, there are low rates of AT adoption throughout Europe by service providers, educators, employers and policymakers. The findings from our Delphi study highlighted the economic challenges surrounding funding and resource allocation is the primary barrier to the advancement of AT in Europe.
This session will discuss the main challenges and barriers in accessing and utilising AT and will propose solutions. The session will highlight the main findings from a-STEP as well as lessons learnt and recommendations. This paper will advocate for policy change as it is only by ensuring a strong policy foundation and enabling regulatory environment that the extraordinary enabling potential of AT can be realised.

Long-term care is facing many significant challenges, including an ageing population and a decline in the recruitment of young care workers, which results in significant staff shortages in the coming years. It is therefore important that older people continue to function independently for as long as possible. Assistive technology (AT) devices can be a solution to achieve this. To ensure the optimal utilization of AT devices it is imperative that individuals have access to the most suitable AT devices and the appropriate AT care needed to achieve independence.

In the Netherlands, the provision of AT devices via the Health Insurance Act is governed by a specific mandate. Rather than being guided by a diagnosis, the focus is on the intended functioning of the client/ AT user. This is defined as the activities that the client wishes to perform, can perform, and is permitted to perform from a care perspective. It is also standard practice in the Netherlands to advise on the basis of stepped care, which means that clients obtain the most effective, least burdensome and cheapest care or AT device possible, related to the nature and severity of the problem. It is imperative to acknowledge the diverse interests of stakeholders involved in the provisioning process, as these interests significantly influence their approach to providing AT. In the Netherlands, a method has been developed using a co-design approach with all stakeholders to design an optimal process for AT distribution, considering the different interests, laws and mandates. This method has already been successfully applied twice by the Living Lab Assistive Technology for Independence (coordinated by Zuyd University of Applied Sciences) for a) dynamic arm supports and robotic arms and b) assistive devices for donning and doffing compression hosiery.

The workshop will provide insights into this experience based co design method to develop a provision process of assistive devices with all stakeholders and actions and related tools to implement the optimal provision process.

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Building on the momentum and insights generated by the SEURO project’s “Laying the Groundwork” workshop on 28 May 2028, this follow-up session is designed to consolidate and extend our collective understanding of what drives and what impedes the successful implementation of EU-funded digital health initiatives. By validating and refining the key drivers and barriers previously identified, this session aims to ensure that our recommendations reflect lessons learned and real-world experience from those implementing these projects. Bringing together a broader coalition of stakeholder, including policymakers, legal and ethics experts, technology developers, healthcare providers, and patient representatives will enable discussions in diverse perspectives and practical realities of EU digital health research. In this interactive session through input from an expert panel and whole room discussion we will vote on insights obtained, converting them into a draft policy-brief with concrete recommendations for future funding calls and projects to maximise successful implementation and impact. In doing so, we aim not only to shape the next phase of EU digital health research but also to catalyse sustainable, high-impact innovation and outputs that meets the needs of European citizens and health systems.