Editorial

Citation

Abbott, C. (2016), "Editorial", Journal of Assistive Technologies, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 177-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAT-09-2016-0019

With this issue we complete our tenth volume and I come to the end of my time as editor. I am delighted that my last issue contains papers ranging as widely as the first, and it is gratifying to note how we have now been able to bring together interesting and edifying assistive technologies research across the overlapping fields of education, health and social care.

We include three peer-reviewed papers in this issue, and the first comes from Florian Feldwieser from the Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany, writing with colleagues Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen (from the same institution), Markus Meis (Hearing Centre, Oldenburg) and from the Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Braunschweig, Hannover: Michael Marchollek and Matthias Geitzelt. The paper from this team deals with their investigation of the acceptance on the part of seniors of automatic fall alert devices, an area of assistive technology that has featured regularly in our pages. Using accelerometers and questionnaires, the group found that acceptance was highest amongst those in comparatively better health and at ease with technology.

The next two peer-reviewed papers are based on work presented at the most recent ITAG event in Nottingham. We have been pleased to publish several papers from ITAG over the last few years, and we commend the event to our readers; it takes place every October in Nottingham and looks at the field of assistive technology and games. The first of these two papers deals with the use of a sonification system for science learning by people who are blind, and is contributed by Orly Lahav, Nuha Chagab and Vadim Talis, all from the School of Education at Tel Aviv University in Israel. This is a paper about an emerging field of assistive technology, and about a topic that may have much to offer learners who are blind.

The final peer-reviewed paper in this issue describes PROCEE: a prostate cancer evaluation and education serious game for African Caribbean men. The use of games to educate and inform is an increasing focus for papers submitted to JAT, and this paper is authored by Georgina Cosma from the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University, writing with colleagues David Brown, Nicholas Shopland, Steven Battersby, Sarah Seymour-Smith, Matthew Archer, Graham Pockley and, from the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Masood Khan.

We end this issue with a short project report about virtual reality and robots for autism, from Sarah Good at the University of Sussex, writing with colleague Nicola Yuill, Mark Brosnan of the University of Bath, and Sarah Parsons from the University of Southampton: an appropriate name with which to end this editorial, as it is to Professor Sarah Parsons that I now hand the reins of this journal, ably supported as I know she will be by Dr John Woolham. I wish them well as they take on the editorial role and I look forward to reading future issues. My thanks to all authors, publishers and especially the reviewers who have been willing to offer such detailed advice to our contributors.