Edu4all Disability as Diversity

Disability as Diversity :The Inclusion of Students
with Disabilities in Higher Education
618103-EPP-1-2020-1-PS-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

Edu4all Disability as Diversity

Disability as Diversity :The Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens​

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA) is the oldest and largest university in Greece, with 43 Departments, 2.104 members of Academic Staff and more than 64.800 students. The Department of Informatics and Telecommunications (participating in the project Edu4ALL with its Speech & Accessibility Laboratory) has 57 academic staff members, over 135 PhD candidates and 180 research associates. It is highly involved in numerous National and International funded research and development projects. The Speech and Accessibility Laboratory (SAL) (https://speech.di.uoa.gr) possesses the required technology knowledge and experience, through its long-time activity in the domains of Computer Accessibility and Voice User Interfaces, as a part of the major domain of Human-Computer Interaction, with emphasis in Accessible Computing, Information Systems/Services and Assistive Technologies for the Disabled, Information Technologies for Interactive Learning, Accessibility of Documents (books, texts, journals, newspapers) and Accessibility of Mathematics. The SAL has 28 Research Staff members. It has strong relations with the Accessibility Unit for Students with Disabilities, (https://access.uoa.gr) which serves annually more than 450 students with severe disabilities. The SAL has a long-lasting experience in a total of 58 national and international research and development projects. SAL has experience in the field of synthetic speech, and has introduced the innovative, open, multilingual and polyglot research platform “DEMOSTHENES”. Furthermore, it holds systematic research in the field of accessible educational material. There is great experience in the development of aids that use Voice Technologies for people with disabilities and in the domain of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). It has developed the ATHENA and mATHENA innovative online free Assistive Technology software inventories (https://access.uoa.gr/ATHENA/). In the framework of the Edu4ALL project UoA will play the role of a Higher Education Institution (HEI) of a Program Country that transfers in HEIs of the Partner Countries relevant know-how, skills, experience and expertise from its: a) “Accessibility Unit for Students with Disabilities” that provides services to the disabled students of UoA in the last 20 years, b) “Speech and Accessibility Laboratory” (SAL) and c) relevant courses provided by the SAL in UoA: “Computer and Web Accessibility”, “Computer Systems for Students with Disabilities”, “Computer-based Rehabilitation for persons with Disabilities” and “Advanced Computer-based Assistive Technologies for the Disabled”. UoA will be the leader/coordinator of WP2 “Development” and will contribute in WP1 Preparation, WP3 Quality plan, WP4 Dissemination & Exploitation, WP5 Management.

Team Members

Dr Georgios Kouroupetroglou

Chairman of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA)  and Director of the “Speech and Accessibility Laboratory”, head of the “Accessibility Unit for Students with Disabilities” at NKUA, as well as Director of the M.Sc. Programme in “Language Technology”. His current research interest focuses on the area of Computer Accessibility and Voice User Interfaces, as part of the major domain of Human-Computer Interaction. He has actively participated in a number of European Union funded and National research projects.

 He has been reviewer/evaluator and member of working groups/technical panels of various European Union’s projects/programs. President elect of the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE). He is author of more than 170 scientific papers in journals/conference proceedings and numerous books and technical reports in the fields of his interest.

Georgios Kouroupetroglou

Professor

Dr Alexandros Pino

Laboratory Teaching Staff, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), Department of Informatics and Telecommunications.Member of the Speech and Accessibility Laboratory (SAL). He teaches: ICT and Web Accessibility; Real Time Digital Signal Processing Systems; University Physics; Circuits and Systems; Introduction to Computers. He has several publications on Assistive Technologies, Accessibility, Augmentative and Alternative Communications (AAC) and Input Devices Evaluation. 

Dr Pino was admitted in 1990 to the Polytechnic School of the Democritus University of Thrace, where he earned the DIng degree in Electrical Engineering. He continued his studies at the UoA, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, where he earned his MSc degree in Networks and Communications, and his PhD in the field of AAC. For several years he worked as an Accessibility and Assistive Technology expert, head of the e-Accessibility department at the University’s Accessibility Unit.

Alexandros Pino

Professor

Christina-Theano Kylafi

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Christina-Theano Kylafi

B.Sc. in Informatics and Telecommunications

John Koutalidis

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

John Koutalidis

B.Sc. in Informatics and Telecommunications