TransMedia Catalonia present TRACTION for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020 The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an event that takes place every year all around the world and aims at raising awareness about the importance of digital accessibility for a more inclusive society. The 9th Annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day will take place as scheduled on the third Thursday of May, May 21st, 2020. TransMedia Catalonia is an interdisciplinary research group created by Dr Pilar Orero at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), one of [...]

Remote participation in the 5th Comunicación y Pensamiento conference, (Sevilla, Spain) (Photo from: https://comunicacionypensamiento.org/inicio/) The V Congreso Internacional Comunicación y Pensamiento was organised by the Spanish R&D Project “JUVEN-TV: Nuevos consumos frente a viejos estereotipos: Análisis de la recepción por parte de la juventud española de sus representaciones televisivas actuales” (CSO2017-85483-R), with researchers from the Universities of Málaga, Sevilla and Granada (Spain). The conference was organised for April 1-3rd but due to the circumstances regarding COVID-19, it has become an online conference. The UAB team lead [...]

Traction in the European Parliament Born Accessible Day POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 Due to the outbreak and spread of the viral disease COVID-19, non-core events involving outside visitors or attendees to Parliament’s premises have been cancelled until further notice. One of the future policy priorities for the Union is a Fair Europe, which centers on social inclusion, health, rule of law and fundamental rights. Accessibility is a core component of social inclusion to secure full democratic participation of all people living in [...]

“A Million Dreams for the world we’re going to make” - Camille Donegan, Virtual Reality Ireland (from "The Greatest Showman" soundtrack) (Carlow Arts Festival 2019 where young people used the Kingsray Graffiti VR tool to graffiti virtual walls) The lyrics of the song, ‘A Million Dreams’ from the Greatest Showman, rattle around in my head while I research Virtual Reality creation and co-creation tools for the TRACTION project. In the strangest time I have witnessed in my 42 years on this planet, my dreamer nature has my [...]

Why we’re making a VR community opera James Bingham, Irish National Opera One of the many reasons why I love working on a European project is the opportunity to interact with new colleagues. One outcome of this was seeing this short video sent to the consortium by François Matarasso featuring hundreds of people in the Nottinghamshire area recreating the famous gold medal winning performance of Torvill and Dean in the 1984 Winter Olympics. I found the video to be so moving, not because of the dance itself, [...]

How technology will contribute to TRACTION According to writer, speaker and consultant Steven Johnson[1] - a specialist in behavioural change, sustainability, and social innovation - “digital technology is creating unprecedented opportunities to encourage, enable and empower more sustainable behaviours. (...) The true potential of technology lies in its ability to do things that nothing else can do. (...) Human beings are inherently lazy and self-consciously changing our behaviours requires great effort and energy. As such, the initiation of a change effort might be relatively [...]

François Matarasso, the Creative, Artistic and Social Manager of TRACTION Work in process on a community opera project in Šančiai, Kaunas, Lithuania that François has supported since 2018, (photo by Darius Petrulis) With more than 40 years experience working as a community artist, researcher and writer, he explores the theory of participatory art and the importance of cultural identity. His work for TRACTION principally concerns helping the artistic partners make the most of their projects in collaboration with communities and to encourage the [...]

TRACTION has been chosen as “Projectes de Reflexió al Palau Macaya 2020” A call to fund proposals is held every year by ”la Caixa Foundation” with the aim of fostering dialogue and reflection on the subject of human development and sustainability. The goal is to strengthen its role as a meeting point for key agents in society, such as associations, public administrations and professionals, and to tackle today’s challenges in a holistic way, overcoming academic and sectorial barriers. The aim is to become the meeting [...]

TRACTION is inspired by the EU standard EN17161 Design for All TRACTION is inspired by the EU standard EN17161 Design for All – accessibility following a Design for All approach in products, goods and services – broadening the range of users. This standard is the result of the European Commission Standardization Request M/473 to include the ‘Design For All’ paradigm in all associated parts of organisations, regardless of type, size, or of the product(s), goods and service(s) being provided. TRACTION will fulfill the [...]

Kick-off meeting of Traction in San Sebastian The kick-off meeting of the Traction project coordinated by Vicomtech was held in San Sebastian (Spain) from February 3rd to 5th. This meeting was attended by representatives of the project partners from 5 different countries that launched the work plan for the next 3 years. The aim of this project is to promote, through their empowerment, a transformation of communities at risk of exclusion. To achieve that goal, we will establish an effective collaborative and participatory production workflow for [...]