Project plan
NAP is a 5 year research and innovation project that aims to enhance the development and independence of persons with disabilities.
Project Phases
The initiative has been structured into 3 phases, spanning 5 years from commencement. Phase 1 ran from February 2004 to December 2004, Phase 2 will run from January 2005 to December 2006 and Phase 3, which includes national expansion, will run from January 2006 to December 2009. Phase 1 has already been successfully completed resulting in a prototype technology demonstrator, verifying the concept and illustrating the potential impact of the project results.
Funding from the ESKOM Development Foundation enabled the team to commence work on Phase 1 of the NAP project. Phase 1 is now complete and a technology demonstrator was delivered.
Phase 2 has started. An on-line deployment of This link opens in a new window NAP Portal version 1 was successfully released on 17 July 2006.
Demonstrator
The main objective of the technology demonstrator was to obtain an understanding of the disability domain and available technologies and to show the potential impact of the project. The demonstrator focused around an employment application for people with different disabilities and supports on-line collaboration between people with different disabilities. This prototype demonstrates how blind, deaf and physically disabled users interact with each other and with an employment application.
In development of the demonstrator, the NAP team has become intimately familiar with the status of technology that supports disabled people. It has also tested and used many of these technologies and built a demonstrator that incorporates both open source and commercial technology into the system.
The prototype was only developed to demonstrate concepts and thus is not available as a live system. A video where the functionality of the demonstrator can be observed can be ordered from the CSIR. Please contact us.
View screen shots of the Demonstrator
Project Timeline
The NAP timeline
The first phase of NAP was from February 2004 until December 2004. The main deliverable of this phase was the prototype demonstrator and the NAP concept video. Key actions during this phase included:
- visits
- prototype development
- demonstrations
The second phase of NAP is from December 2004 to December 2006. The main deliverable of this phase is the NAP version 1 deployment and the establishment of a pilot centre. Key actions during this phase include:
- platform development
- liaison with service providers and governmental departments
- service centre rollout
- capacity building
- skills transfer
- knowledge dissemination
- sustainability activities
- community ownership (utilise and contribute to NAP)
The third phase of NAP is from December 2006 to December 2009. The main deliverable of this phase is a national roll out in various service centres. Key actions during this phase include:
- platform development
- liaison with service providers and governmental departments
- service centre rollout
- capacity building
- skills transfer to end-users, service providers, etc.
- knowledge dissemination
- sustainability activities
- community ownership (utilise and contribute to NAP)
Activities across all 3 the different phases include:
- Disability domain research and development
- Technology research and development
- Replicable methodology
- Advocacy and awareness
- Planning and management