WWAAC Consortium

The WWAAC consortium consists of:

• four commercial organisations, active in the field of computer and communication aids for people with disabilities
• two service providers: assessment and training centres for the targeted end-user groups
• three research institutes with long-standing expertise in either the field of symbol to text conversion or Human-Information interfaces.

All four commercial organisations are so-called Small-to-Medium-sized Enterprises (SME's).
Handicom (the Netherlands), the coordinating partner, has developed a whole range of symbol-language-based software. The company has also been involved in several RTD projects.
Modemo (Finland) is marketing a group of AAC-related products including several symbol-software products from Handicom.
MITC (Denmark) is actually an IT consultancy, recently involved in localising and marketing symbol-based software originating from Handicom.
50P (Femtio Procent Data AB), an associate partner to DART, is a small, but well established software development consultant with a uniquely long and deep experience in Java component-based software development.

Service Providers
DART is a centre for assessment, training and research & Development in Sweden. DART is focusing on AAC and IT-based support for people with a wide range of disabilities and of all ages, with an emphasis on school-aged children.
The latter also applies to the ACE Centre, in the UK. Being part of a service delivery centre, they provide assessment, advice and information relating to the field of assistive technology and communication/physical disabilities.

Research Institutes
KTH, a research institute in Sweden, is known for its work in speech and language processing, including work with several symbol-based languages, primarily Blissymbolics as well as text-to-speech conversion.
ESRI (the Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute) at Loughborough University focuses on shaping technology to human needs and capabilities. ESRI has particular expertise in using human factors methods and tools for requirements capture and evaluation of systems and products for people who are elderly or disabled.
The Department of Applied Computing (Dundee University) contains one of the largest and most influential academic groups in the world researching into communication systems for disabled people. It also has strong international and national reputations in other aspects of human computer interaction research.