UVic innovation goes to China

Celebration and innovation will be the focus of an intensive upcoming trip to China by UVic President David Turpin and a university delegation that includes a team from UVic’s internationally leading organization CanAssist.

The ground-breaking technology from CanAssist that helps those with disabilities increase their quality of life will be presented at events at the Jockey Club Rehabilitation Engineering Centre in Hong Kong and the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. In China’s capital, examples of the technology—an adaptive iPod, an adaptive joystick to aid with computer access and a one-button camera—will be demonstrated and presented to a young girl and a young man from the Beijing area.

“There are close to 700,000 people with a disability living in BC but there are an estimated 80 million people living with a disability in China,” says CanAssist Director Nigel Livingston. “I think there is enormous potential for partnerships between CanAssist and Chinese organizations to develop technologies that can assist these people. China made great strides in raising awareness about accessibility when it hosted the 2008 Paralympic Games, and I am delighted that there is interest in the CanAssist model in China.”

On Oct. 16 Turpin will join university presidents from around the world at Shanghai’s East China Normal University (ECNU) as it celebrates its 60th anniversary. The occasion will also mark an anniversary for UVic.

“While we’re celebrating this milestone in Shanghai, we’ll also be marking the 30th anniversary of UVic’s partnership with ECNU, one of the longest-standing agreements with a Chinese university in Canada,” says Turpin. “I’ll also be making an announcement that demonstrates our commitment to this partnership and to increasing international exchanges for both students and faculty.”

CanAssist Community Relations Coordinator Elsa Yan will be posting news, photos and possibly video from all three stops on the trip. She’ll be sharing her updates through the UVic website.