June 5 - June 8, 2011: Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Seven conferences have been confirmed!

The registration process will be simple – registering for any ONE of the conferences will give you access to all SEVEN conferences!

Caregiving in the 21st Century
Co-chairs are Dr. Jane Barratt, Secretary General of the International Federation on Aging, and Dr. Janet Fast, Co-Director of Research on Aging, Policies and Practice at the University of Alberta.  The Caregiving Conference in 2007 included very significant representation from the UK and Australia.  A major objective of this conference in 2011 will be to increase participation from other parts of the world.

34th Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Conference
Co-chairs are being confirmed by the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES), which intends to hold its annual conference again as part of FICCDAT.  The presence of CMBES in 2007 provided an opportunity for caregivers, consumers and researchers to learn more about medical technologies that are increasingly being used in the home environment with, for example, home dialysis and drug infusion.  This was also an important opportunity for medical engineers involved in device development to gain an understanding of the needs of people in the community beyond the walls of hospitals.  This conference attracts a large number of medical device exhibitors. 

Growing Older with a Disability
Co-chairs are Ms Sandy Keshen, President and CEO of Reena and Dr. Margaret Campbell, Senior Scientist for Planning and Policy Support at the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education.  This conference will further explore the nexus between aging and disability.  This topic is increasing in relevance year by year now that people with disabilities are living longer.  The disciplines surrounding both fields, and the people involved in all aspects; policy, research and practice, have much to learn from each other.

The 3rd International Conference on Technology and Aging
This conference will be chaired by Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto and Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, who is a world leader in the development and application of intelligent systems to assist people with dementia.  The 2nd International Conference on Technology and Aging in FICCDAT 2007 attracted large numbers of overseas participants.  We hope to increase the scope of the assistive technology that is represented to include all of rehabilitation technology and to attract a larger presence of occupational therapists, physiotherapists and rehabilitation engineers.

Advances in Neurorehabilitation
Co-chairs are Dr. William McIlroy, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, and Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Dr. Milos Popovic, Chair, Spinal Cord Injury Research and Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Associate Professor, Institute of iomaterials & Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, and Prof. Molly Verrier, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.  The Conference was an enormous success in 2007 presenting the very latest research from around the world in treatment resulting from recent advances in neuroscience.   There is also early discussion about the potential involvement of organizations involved with head injuries.

Independence, Community and Impowerment
Co-chairs are Ms Nora Rothschild, Speech Language Pathologist at Bloorview Kids Rehab and Ms Donna Mackay, Associate Director of National and Provincial Programs at March of Dimes.  March of Dimes has organized, supported and participated in the precursor conferences for people who rely on various forms of augmentative and alternative communication.  The conferences have attracted up to 200 people who rely on technology to enable them to communicate, along with specialists in augmentative communication. 

Participants and speakers may use augmentative and alternative communication for their interactions during the conference.  Reports of the first conference indicate that participants and their families were often overwhelmed by the emotional experience of encountering a whole community of people using communication technology, including role models who were presenting at the conference.  The opportunity for researchers and practitioners attending other conferences to participate in this extraordinary event is likely to have a very powerful impact on their awareness of the importance and opportunities that these technologies provide.

International Conference on Best Practices in Design
Co-chairs are Edward Steinfeld, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Dr. Peter Blanck, University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, and Dr. Aaron Steinfeld, Systems Scientist in the Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University.

The concept of universal design is becoming better known and being adopted more enthusiastically around the world.  However, the practical guidelines that are needed to help architects, designers and others achieve successful universal design are still under development and this conference will provide a major stimulus internationally to their creation and application.  Topics will include the design of housing, transportation, public spaces, furnishings and every other product and service field where the philosophy is to design not just for a percentage of the population, but to be inclusive of all.