Project REALISEââ¬â¢s focus on accessibility and ease of use make it ideal for the application of open innovation principles as it has the potential to develop ground breaking and life changing technology solutions. Equal access through reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities and age related difficulties, is a legal requirement for employment and public services including health and education, especially since the ratification of the UN Convention on disability rights. Many commercial opportunities exist for personalised support for individuals through specialist products and services, or the expansion of existing markets. Simple innovative ideas may not appear particularly valuable until applied to a specific product or use case when it can greatly increase utility and value.
Project REALISE will identify routes to sustainable innovative solutions through engaging key researchers, businesses, developers and users in exploring open innovation. These groups frequently express the unmet need for collaboration in accessibility. REALISE will address this through an on-line community and will combine experience of accessibility and open development in the key education, employment and health sectors.
This project has been extended with support from Devices for Dignity and is continuing to investigate the support needed to enable open source assistive technologies to thrive within a community.