Tech London Advocates (TLA) Tech For Disability offers a series of regular Inclusive Conversations. As a group, we aim to connect the disabled and tech communities to facilitate the exchange and sharing of information to promote knowledge, awareness, and opportunities so technology can benefit everyone.

For each conversation, a person is normally invited as a conversation starter to spark a discussion around a theme, topic, project or organisation and it is an opportunity to gather and share feedback, ideas and information exchange. Feel free to contact us if you would like to be a conversation starter at a future session.

Our sessions normally take place on a Tuesday on various months at 17:00-18:00 UK time.

Next Tech For Disability Inclusive Conversation – 13 Sept 2022

Independent living – why it is so important for disabled people and how can technology help? What needs to be done to make this happen?

We welcome Clive Gilbert from Policy Connect’s ATech Policy Lab to be our conversation starter. Their Assistive Tech department brings together industry, academics and government to design and inform policy in disability and technology. Clive recently researched and published some relevant reports below in the links.

An inclusive conversation to ask:

How can technology help – what do disabled people need – what do tech startups and businesses need? How could government and others support this?

Views from our International members are very welcome as it’s important to share across boundaries and learn from others.

Some relevant links to Clive’s recent work in this area to get the thinking started beforehand are below:

https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/research/smarter-homes-independent-living – The published independent living/smart homes tech report

https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/assistive-technology – about the Assistive Tech Group

https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/people/clive-gilbert – More about Clive

https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/news/disabled-facilities-grant-delivery-guidance-updated-line-policy-connects-smart-homes – Disabled Facilities Grant delivery guidance updated in line with Policy Connect’s Smart Homes Commission’s recommendation.

Be sure to book your place.

Our Zoom link will enable real-time captions and live transcription both for accessibility and to help in capturing the information but we are happy to keep any attributions anonymous for privacy. Do email us for any other accessibility requirements before the event to [email protected]. See you there!

About Tech For Disability

In previous sessions, we’ve seen early demos of VR worlds and banking management for vulnerable people. We hosted a panel discussion on tech for neurodiversity at London Tech Week that expanded our global audience. There were spontaneous discussions of how retail could understand more of deaf needs, repurposing disabled schemes from one industry to the tech industry, and how public APIs could recognise a schema of accessibility needs shared as an individual profile.

We want to be at the hub of content flowing through this network. One way to do so is through our meetings, so please attend to add to the conversation and ideas. Another way is to contribute relevant news and information to us so we can distribute it through our platform.

We’ll plan to have at least one person as a conversation starter. They might be disability consultants, advocates, researchers, startup entrepreneur or tech business employee.

Please note that this group is backed by Tech London Advocates, a network to promote London as a global capital of technology. TLA is part of Global Tech Advocates, so all are welcome. If you aren’t already a member of Tech London Advocates, you can join by booking attendance, and TLA will follow up to welcome you should you agree.

Contacts

Sign up to our mailing list, Twitter feed or LinkedIn page to stay tuned and connect into the flows.

https://techfordisability.org.uk/join-us/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tla-tech-for-disability

https://twitter.com/Tech4Disability