Technology and Disability

Impact Factor
2023
0.5
CiteScore
2023
1.2

Volume

35, 4 issues

Latest issue

35:4 online 29 December 2023

Next issue

36:1 scheduled for March 2024

Back volumes

From volume 1, 1992

ISSN print

1055-4181

ISSN online

1878-643X

Aims & Scope

Technology and Disability communicates knowledge about the field of assistive technology devices and services, within the context of the lives of end users - persons with disabilities and their family members. While the topics are technical in nature, the articles are written for broad comprehension despite the reader's education or training. The content of Technology and Disability covers research and development efforts, education and training programs, service and policy activities and consumer experiences.

- The term Technology refers to assistive devices and services.
- The term Disability refers to both permanent and temporary functional limitations experienced by people of any age within any circumstance.
- The term and underscores the editorial commitment to seek for articles which see technology linked to disability as a means to support or compensate the person in daily functioning.

The Editor also attempts to link the themes of technology and disability through the selection of appropriate basic and applied research papers, review articles, case studies, program descriptions, letters to the Editor and commentaries. Suggestions for thematic issues and proposed manuscripts are welcomed. 

Technology and Disability is the official journal of the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE).

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief

Luc de Witte
The Hague University of Applied Sciences
The Hague, The Netherlands
Email: l.p.dewitte@hhs.nl

Founding Editors

Joseph P. Lane

William C. Mann

Editorial Committee

Prof. Dominique Archambault
Université Paris 8
Master Handi

Saint-Denis, France

Dr. Sara Comai
Department of Electronics
Politecnico di Milano

Milan, Italy

Dr. Pedro Encarnação
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Lisbon, Portugal

Dr. Katerina Mavrou
Department of Education
European University Cyprus

Engomi, Cyprus

Editorial Board

Renzo Andrich, MScEng
The Global Assistive Technology Information Network
Belluno, Italy

Luis Azevedo, PhD
University of Lisbon (retired)
ANDITEC
Lisbon, Portugal

S. Balamurugan, PhD
Intelligent Research Consultancy Services
Coimbatoire, India

Hans van Balkom, PhD
Radboud University Nijmegen
Milo Assessment and Interventioncentre on AAC
Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Serenella Besio, MSc
Università degli Studi di Bergamo
Bergamo, Italy

Ignacio Bermejo Bosch, MSc
Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia
Valencia, Spain

Christian Bühler, PDEng
TU Dortmund University
Dortmund, Germany

Alert M. Cook, PhD
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada

Jan J. Engelen, PhD
Kath. Universiteit Leuven (Prof. Em.)
Leuven, Belgium

Luca Fanucci, PhD
University of Pisa
Pisa, Italy

Klaus Fellbaum, PDEng
Brandenburg University of Technology (retired)
Cottbus, Germany

Juan C. Garcia, PhD
University of Alcala
Alcalá de Henares, Spain

Takenobu Inoue, PhD
National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities
Tokorozawa, Japan

Georgios Kouroupetroglou, PhD
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Athens, Greece

Choubeila Maaoui, PhD
Lorraine University
Metz, France

Lawrence R. Normie, MSc
Lawrence Normie Consulting
Jerusalem, Israel

Manik Sharma, MCA, UGC-NET, PhD
DAV University Jalandhar
Jalandhar, India

Cecilia Sik-Lanyi, PhD,
University of Pannonia
Veszprem, Hungary

Dušan Šimšík, PhD
Technical University of Košice
Košice, Slovakia

Constantine Stephanidis, PhD
University of Crete, Institute of Computer Science - FORTH
Heraklion, Greece

Nirmalya Thakur, MSc
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH, USA

Joost van Hoof, DSc
The Hague University of Applied Sciences
Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences
The Hague, The Netherlands

Nadine Vigouroux, PhD
Université Paul Sabatier
Toulouse, France

Wolfgang L. Zagler, PhD
Vienna University of Technology (retired)
Vienna, Austria

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal’s editorial management system: https://www.editorialmanager.com/tad. Note that the manuscript should be uploaded as one file with tables and figures included. This file can be an MS Word document, a PDF, or a zip file.

Required files for final submissions
After the article has been accepted, the authors should submit the final version as source files, including a word processor file of the text, such as Word or LateX (If using LaTeX, please use the standard article.sty as a style file and also send a PDF version of the LaTeX file).

Publication fee
Technology and Disability does not charge a publication fee.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Organization of the paper and style of presentation
Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to consult a professional English language editing service or a native English speaker prior to submission.

Manuscripts should be prepared with wide margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Try to avoid the excessive use of italics and bold face.

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

  • Title page
  • Body of text (divided by subheadings)
  • Acknowledgements
  • Author Contributions
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Conflict of Interest
  • References
  • Tables
  • Figure captions
  • Figures

Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation.

SI units should be used, i.e., the units based on the metre, kilogramme, second, etc.

Title page
The title page should provide the following information:

  • Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
  • Name(s) of author(s); please indicate who is the corresponding author
  • Full affiliation(s)
  • Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
  • Complete address of corresponding author, including tel. no., fax no. and e-mail address
  • Abstract
  • Keywords

Authorship
Any author included in the author list should have contributed significantly to the paper, and no person who has made a significant contribution should be omitted from the list of authors. Please read the IOS Press authorship policy for further information.

Abstract
The abstract should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory and not longer than 200 words, it should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services.
The abstract for research papers should follow the “structured abstract” format. Section labels should be in bold uppercase letters followed by a colon, and each section will begin on a new line.

BACKGROUND:
OBJECTIVE:
METHODS:
RESULTS:
CONCLUSIONS:

Acknowledgements
Any contributors to the manuscript that do not meet the authorship requirements should be included in the Acknowledgements section. The Statement of Funding, if applicable, should also be included here with the funding source and grant number for the study.

If there are no acknowledgments, do still include this section and insert "The authors have no acknowledgments".

Author Contributions
For every author, his or her contribution to the manuscript needs to be provided using the following categories:
CONCEPTION:
PERFORMANCE OF WORK:
INTERPRETATION OR ANALYSIS OF DATA:
PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT:
REVISION FOR IMPORTANT INTELLECTUAL CONTENT:
SUPERVISION:

Ethical Considerations
Please inform in this section the Institutional Review Board approval number and date to your research. In case informed consent was obtained please also inform it in this section. Studies exempt from Institutional Review Board approval should inform the reason for exemption, e.g. “This study, as a literature review, is exempt from Institutional Review Board approval”.

Conflict of Interest
Statement of all financial and material support for this research and any potential conflicts should also be clearly identified.
If there is no Conflict of interest then still state that “The authors have no conflicts of interest to report”.

Tables & Figures
Tables
Tables should be numbered as Table 1, Table 2, etc. All tables must be referred to in the text. Each table should be provided on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should not be included in the text. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be included in parentheses. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns, instead leave some extra space between the columns. Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in brief footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Figures
Number figures as Fig. 1, Fig 2, etc. and refer to all of them in the text. Each figure should be provided on a separate sheet. Figures should not be included in the text. Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption.

Colour figures can be included in the print version, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. The online version has no extra charges for color figures.

For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account:
- line art should be have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, save as EPS or TIFF
- grayscales (including photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (no lettering), or 500 dpi (when there is lettering); save as tiff
- do not save figures as JPEG, this format may lose information in the process
- do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing
- do not use color in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color, you should change the settings)
- for figures that should be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF

Figures should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%. Photographs should have good contrast and intensity.

References

Authors are requested to use the Vancouver citation style.

Place citations as numbers in square brackets in the text. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references at the end of the manuscript. List the references in the order in which they appear in the text. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be listed as (author(s), unpublished data). If an article has a DOI, this should be provided after the page number details. The number is added after the letters 'doi'. Manuscripts will not be considered if they do not conform to the Vancouver citation guidelines.

References must be listed in Vancouver style:

[1] Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002; 935(12): 406.
[2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
[3] Berkow R, Fletcher AJ, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 16th ed. Rahway (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1992.
[4] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGrawHill; 2002. p. 93113.
[5] Canadian Cancer Society [homepage on the Internet]. Toronto: The Society; 2006 [updated 2006 May 12; cited 2006 Oct 17]. Available from: www.cancer.ca/.

Footnotes
Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it is possible to incorporate the information in the text.
If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers and kept as short as possible.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of your article
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Article sharing
Authors of journal articles are permitted to self-archive and share their work through institutional repositories, personal websites, and preprint servers. Authors have the right to use excerpts of their article in other works written by the authors themselves, provided that the original work is properly cited. The consent for sharing an article, in whole or in part, depends on the version of the article that is shared, where it is shared, and the copyright license under which the article is published. Please refer to the IOS Press Article Sharing Policy for further information.

Quoting from other publications
Authors, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or tables from a book or journal article, should make sure that they are not infringing a copyright. Although in general authors may quote from other published works, permission should be obtained from the holder of the copyright if there will be substantial extracts or reproduction of tables, plates, or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.

PROOFS AND PRE-PRESS

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors.

The corrected proof is published online in the journal’s pre-press module. This is not the final version. When the article is published in an issue, the final published version replaces the pre-press file. Pre-press articles are fully citable by using their DOI number.

PURCHASES

How to order reprints, a PDF file, journals, or IOS Press books
The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal will receive a complimentary PDF Author’s Copy of the article, unless otherwise stated. This PDF copy is watermarked and for personal use only. A free PDF copy will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues. An order form for a PDF file without watermark, reprints or additional journal copies will be provided along with the PDF proof.

If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation using the contact form.

An author is entitled to 25 % discount on IOS Press books. See Author's discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

KUDOS

Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at our authors section.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK

Would you like some pointers on how to help your research achieve a wider reach and greater impact? Please consult our Promotional Toolkit for Authors for tips.

Please visit the IOS Press Authors page for further information.

Abstracted/Indexed in

Academic Search
Biomedical Reference Collection
Cabell's Guide or Directory
Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus
Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature print index
EBSCO Databases
Educational Research Abstracts
Embase
EMCare
Ergonomics Abstracts
Exceptional Child Education Resources (ECER)
Microsoft Academic Search
REHABDATA
Science & Technology Collection
SciVerse Scopus
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
Web of Science: Emerging Sources Citation Index

Open Access

By default, articles published in Technology and Disability are available only to institutions and individuals with access rights. However, the journal offers all authors the option to purchase open access publication for their article as part of the IOS Press Open Library. This means that the final published version will be freely available to anyone worldwide, indefinitely, under a Creative Commons license and without the need to purchase access to the article. This is also referred to as “gold” open access.

Gold open access pricing
Authors who choose gold open access publication will be subject to an article publication charge of € 1500 / US$ 1500 for publication under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license or € 2150 / US$ 2150 for publication under the CC BY 4.0 license. Pricing is exclusive of possible taxes. After an article is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be informed regarding the open access option during the production stages, and will have the opportunity to purchase open access for their article. It could be that the open access fee of an article is waived completely due an institutional agreement IOS Press has with the corresponding authors' institution. Please check the institutional agreements page for details.

Green open access
Authors who do not make use of the gold open access option may still make their article freely available using self-archiving, also referred to as green open access. Authors may make their final accepted manuscript available for free download from their personal or institutional website or institutional archive. This model is free for the author.

PubMedCentral deposits
This journal deposits open access articles in PubMedCentral (PMC) as part of the IOS Press Open Library but can only do so if the article received NIH funding or if any of the authors are NIH, or associated partners, employees. Please refer to the PMC Funder Deposit List at the NIH Public Access Policy for details.

Peer Review Policy

Technology and Disability is a peer-reviewed journal. Articles submitted to the journal undergo a single blind peer review process. This means that the identity of the authors is known to the reviewers but the identity of the reviewers is not communicated to the authors. Please visit our reviewer guidelines for further information about how to conduct a review.

After automatic plagiarism screening through iThenticate, all submitted manuscripts are subjected to initial appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief and, if found suitable for further consideration, to rigorous peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. Reasons to reject a paper in the pre-screening process could for example be because the work does not fall within the aims and scope, the writing is of poor quality, the instructions to authors were not followed or the presented work is not novel.

Papers deemed suitable to the journal will be forwarded to three reviewers. Reviewers are asked to excuse themselves from reviewing a submission if a conflict makes them unable to make an impartial scientific judgment or evaluation. Conflicts of interest include but are not limited to: collaboration with the authors in the past three years; any professional or financial affiliations that may be perceived as a conflict of interest; a history of personal differences with the author(s). The Editorial Office strives to ensure a typical turnaround time of 3 months.

Reviewers are asked to judge a paper on at least:

  • Significance to field    
  • Relevance to journal
  • Methodology    
  • Data analysis    
  • Literature review    
  • Writing style/clarity

Based on the received reviews the Editor-in-Chief will write a decision letter:

  1. Accept
  2. Minor revisions required
  3. Major revisions required
  4. Revise and resubmit
  5. Reject

They mean the following:

  1. The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further reviews are requested.
  2. The authors are required to make moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and editors are successfully addressed. The revised manuscript will be examined by the Editor-in-Chief and possibly sent back to all (or a selection of) reviewers for a second round of reviews. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
  3. The manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in its current form. However, a major revision addressing all issues raised by the reviewers may be acceptable for publication. The revised manuscript will undergo a full second round of review. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
  4. In its current form, the manuscript is not suitable for publication. A resubmission would require substantial revisions and is only encouraged in special cases. The resubmitted manuscript will be considered as a new submission.
  5. The manuscript is rejected as it is deemed to be out of scope, not relevant, or not meeting the journal’s quality standards in terms of significance, novelty, and/or presentation.

Authors are notified by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

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