Contact Ben Bellows (bbellows AT berkeley DOT edu) if you're interested...

A friend of mine recently finished his information technology PhD at Berkeley (now at MS in Redmond) is in the process of negotiating a study proposal for technology and employability in Latin America. One of the countries identified is Ecuador, and the focus of the work is likely to be on technology centers and accessibility. For the purposes of the project, they define accessibility broadly, but a significant part of the intended research is to be on disability issues.

This would entail some primary research on disabled peoples' experiences with accessibility through telecenters, and involves interviewing both recipients of telecenter services and stakeholders at telecenters, interviewing them on the importance (or not) of services for the disabled as part of their work.

They are looking for potential partners who would be interested in the field work part of the project in Ecuador. Ideally such partners would be fairly comfortable working in Ecuador (if they are from Ecuador, that is fantastic). This could be a great project for an existing student working on these issues, or someone planning to apply to graduate school, but an institutional partner -- a university or NGO interested in collaborative work would also be great.