Technology, social and educational inclusion for people with disabilities- CIIEE 2017

UPS, viernes 2 junio 2017
UPS president Javier Herrán during the inauguration of the Congress
UPS president Javier Herrán during the inauguration of the Congress

 

Universidad Politecnica Salesiana's branch campus in Cuenca held the 12th Ibero American Congress on Inclusive Education with emerging technologies (CIIEE 2017) from the 24th to the 26th May. 

The congress began with a welcome speech from UPS President Javier Herran who said "The CIIEE is an important part of the development of inclusion in the country, here people will share scientific advances that will favor people who need it the most, and therefore seek equality through technology".

The coordinator of the congress, Paola Ingavelez, explained that this congress is held every two years and it has a great number of attendees since it is a place where researchers in the field of technology and disabilities can exchange their research. 

The CIIEE has been organized and held since 1998. It was first held in Argentina, where they presented research and development of computing support for people with disabilities. Since then, the congresses have been held in different cities of America and Spain.

To hold this congress, the UNESCO chairs program "Technological support for Inclusive Education", Free Creatica Foundation and UPS got together to enhance the technological possibilities presented in CIIEE and support people.

Several conferences were held during the congress, the first was titled "Los siete pecados capitales en el desarrollo de tecnologías inclusivas", presented by the Chilean researcher Ricardo Rosas, who explained his research explains all the problems that may emerge when working on this type of job, but more importantly he gave some tips on how to overcome them.

Important authors from Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and Peru presented papers, posters and keynote speeches. All of the contributions in the congress seek to support inclusive education based on methodological innovation, analysis and experiences of case studies of people in vulnerable situations and the development of assistive technologies. 

UPS's branch campus in Guayaquil has a support center for the inclusion of people with disabilities; students from the center attended CIIEE and presented a software which helps people with disabilities. It is important that professors can guide students with disabilities.

UPS's branch campus in Cuenca along with Universidad de Cuenca are planning to build three robots for inclusion. 

"I invite you to keep dreaming that a better world is possible, where we all have the same possibilities of performing without any problems. Work is not over here at CIIEE. I thank each of the speakers for having shared their experiences and the participants for having attended this event", said Cesar Vasquez, vice president of the UPS's branch in Cuenca, to close the congress that was attended by over 400 people.