Cognable

About

Simon Evans is a researcher and developer with particular interest in use of the internet, assistive technologies and new media by and for people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID).

Current Activity

• Exploring the use Kinect and Makey-Makey controllers with young people with complex needs in and around multi-sensory rooms.
• Developing switch and touch apps for children with complex needs - including Switch Box Invaders on iPad and Cause and Effect Sensory Light Box available for Kindle, Android & iOS.
• Working with teachers, parents and a small development team to produce a free switch accessible communication board maker for Android and iOS devices. Versions are now available for iOS and Android - See PhotoVOCA Website.
• Rix Centre Work: Rix Centre Website.
  Still working intermittently with the Rix Centre (where I was Technical Director for 5 years) on a number of projects related to ID and new media:
  • Working with Action for Kids which developed accessible communication tools and participatory approaches with young disabled people.
  • a Nominet Trust funded project evaluating free head and eye tracking software as mouse replacements for children and young adults with complex needs.
  • W2ID: A pan-European project examining open-source and cost-free solutions to social networking and self-advocacy by people with intellectual disabilities.

Older Activity

• Inclusive New Media Design : INMD Project Website
  Consultant Researcher on this 2 year AHRC funded research based at Leeds University. The project looked into the barriers to accessible practice in commercial web design and had a particular focus on the needs of Web users with an ID
  
• Parsing text-to-speech plugin for use with WordPress and Drupal
• Trans-Active : Trans-Active Website.
  Developed the Trans-active Passport (ePortfolio) application, which won the Guardian Award for e-Involvement in 2002 - now offline as of June 2011, but a pretty good run nonetheless.

Publications

• 2001 homepage - SEN Teacher. During the academic year 2011-2012, SEN Teacher had 2.5 million visits from 1.6 million unique visitors in 220 different countries (source: Google Analytics).
• 2004: International Conference on Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-based Systems
  Accessibility through Personalisation for People with Cognitive Disabilities - a Presentation of work in progress on 'Project @pple'
• 2005: CSUN Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities
  Individual difference and the World Wide Web: developing an online learning environment for learning disability communities in Project @PPLe
• 2008: CSUN Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities
  Multimedia Advocacy for People with Intellectual Disabilities – Models of Best Practice
• 2009: ICTA International Conference of Information and Communication Technologies and Accessibility
  Intellectual disability and e-accessibility: Raising awareness of web accessibility's invisible community. Proceedings in ICTA, Edited by Jemni, ISBN 987-9973-37-516-2.
• 2009: ICTA International Conference of Information and Communication Technologies and Accessibility
  Intellectual disability and e-accessibility: Raising awareness of web accessibility's invisible community.
• 2010: Chapter on INMD in Designing for the 21st Century: Volume 2, Tom Inns, Gower Press. ISBN 1409402401.
• 2011: Journal Article Can the Web Be Made Accessible for People with Intellectual Disabilities? in The Information Society, Volume 27, Issue 1. Routledge. ISSN: 1087-6537
• 2012 [Forthcoming]: Co-Authored Chapter in Understanding Creative Users of ICTs , Edited by Herold, Sawhney and Fortunati. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-69747-7.