Educational and Assistive Technologies for People with Disabilities

Dear Colleagues,

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there are approximately 1.6 billion people with disabilities worldwide (blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, autism, and the elderly, just to name a few). They face severe discrimination in their lives as they have limited access to education, healthcare, transportation, and cultural places among others which can lead to exclusion, lower expectations, and limited access to resources and opportunities.

Access to education and lifelong learning, either through primary, secondary, and higher education institutions or via independent learning, is particularly important for people with disabilities as it offers the opportunity to significantly improve the quality of their lives across all aspects. The recent advancement of technologies including but not limited to assistive technologies (AT), artificial intelligence (AI), smartphone applications, GPS and geolocation technologies, human–computer interaction, and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) as well as accessible web applications present opportunities for improving the educational and lifelong learning tools in both physical and digital environments, fostering exploration and deepening learning.

However, the multitude of technological tools available today alone cannot overcome all of the challenges and hurdles that people with disabilities face in their education. The challenges manifest in various forms, including physical, attitudinal, social, and institutional barriers. To complicate matters further, each type of disability places different demands on the technologies that support the various modalities and methods for education and life-long learning.

This Special Issue seeks novel publications that address the challenges in education and lifelong learning of people with disabilities where the solutions either independently or in combination utilize, but are not limited to, technologies such as AI, VR/AR, smartphone applications, and assistive technologies (AT). These novel solutions should be the central components for the creation of productive and effective learning environments both within traditional classrooms and beyond and offer engaging and immersive experiences for primary, secondary, and higher education and lifelong learning in combination with various multidisciplinary STE(A)M approaches.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Interactive platforms for accessible teaching and learning for people with disabilities;
• AI tutoring systems for people with disabilities;
• AI systems that monitor the progress of students and personalized training for people with disabilities;
• Explainable AI in the context of education for people with disabilities;
• Chatbots;
• Assistive technologies for people with disabilities in the context of the classroom;
• Challenges in the integration of technologies for people with disabilities;
• Smartphone-based assistive technologies for learning in the classroom and beyond;
• Design guidelines for systems for teaching and learning for people with disabilities;
• AR/VR in STEM and STEAM approaches;
• Privacy modalities, data protection, and ethics related to the above issues;
• Tools to develop educational AR/VR applications;
• Mixed-reality applications in non-formal, informal, and life-long learning;
• Immersive learning environments for people with disabilities.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Paraskevi Theodorou
Dr. Ioannis Paliokas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• AI
• assistive technologies
• AR/VR
• smartphone-based solutions
• educational technology
• eLearning
• mLearning
• interactive platforms

• Virtual/Augmented Reality Applications in Education & Life Long Learning in Electronics (8 articles)