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Access for All in the desktop, web and mobile field: an end-user and developer perspective

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:19:58 +0000

Seville, Spain, 6-9 October 2010

The AEGIS project would like to kindly invite you to the 2nd Pan-European Workshop/User Forum and the 1st International AEGIS Conference entitled “Access for All in the desktop, web and mobile field: an end-user and developer perspective” which will take place in Seville, Spain on 6 and 7-8 October 2010 respectively. For the dedicated developers, a free developer camp (clinic) will take place on the 9th of October 2010. All events are organised by the AEGIS IP initiative (Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards – www.aegis-project.eu), partially funded under FP7 (Theme: ICT‐2007.7.1; ICT & Ageing).

With an estimated total population of 501 million (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, 1 January 2010), an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD (long-standing health problem or disability). A mere 20-30% are believed to use Assistive Technology (AT), but concrete figures do not exist. In fact, most people with disabilities are not even aware of what AT exists. This workshop and conference aims to help spread the word on the existence of AT, and especially on technology that is freely available.

The Workshop/User Forum aims to bring together end-users and experts in the field of assistive technologies, from both the OSS community as well as the proprietary one, that focus on the accessibility of desktop, web and mobile applications. During the workshop the project will present the tools developed so far, and will stimulate discussions between both end-users and application developers vis-à-vis the project’s outcomes so far. The outcomes will be taken into account by the Consortium during the further course of the project. Participation to the workshop will be free of charge.

The conference aims to gather presenters that address both the end-users as well as the developers’ perspective in a number of areas (see topics below). Interactive demos of Assistive Technology ICT, in the Rich Internet Applications, Desktop Applications and Mobile Applications areas as well as developers’ tools that embed accessibility plug-ins will also be demonstrated in a separate exhibition area.

The participation fee will be €150 for researchers, €50 for students and people with disabilities and free for personal assistants.

In addition, an exhibition space will be provided as well which will be open throughout the conference duration. The fee for exhibitors will be € 300.

The registration form for each of the aforementioned events will be available shortly via the project’s website (www.aegis-project.eu).

We kindly invite you and your colleagues to submit papers in the following categories:
- Scientific papers
- Technical papers

Conference topics (non-exhaustive list):
- Accessible desktop applications (AT, developer tools and accessible applications)
- Accessible mobile applications (AT, developer tools and accessible applications)
- Accessible Rich Internet Applications (AT, developer tools and accessible applications)
- Accessibility and Standardisation (e.g. ISO, eInclusion, Policies, Legislation)
- Accessibility and Usability (e.g. Design for All)
- Accessibility research (e.g. Assistive technology usage by end-users and their satisfaction, innovative AT training via accessible e-learning)

Important dates:
- Call for papers: 31st March 2010 (to be published on-line at www.aegis-project.eu)
- Abstracts submission deadline: 30th April 2010
- Notification of abstracts acceptance: 15th May 2010
- Paper submission deadline: 15th June 2010
- Notification of acceptance and outcome of review process: 30th June 2010
- Final camera ready papers: 15th August 2010
- Submission of external exhibitions by 31st August 2010
- Registration by 30th September 2010

Abstracts submission:
Abstracts submitted in the context of one of the above topics should not exceed 500 words. The title, authors and their contact and affiliation details (authors’ email address, telephone and fax number and affiliation name and address) as well as keywords (up to five) should be included.

Under the title of your abstract, please quote the relevant conference topic. We would strongly recommend you to propose more than one conference topics, if applicable, quoting them in priority order.

Abstracts should be submitted to info@aegis-project.eu by 30th April 2010.

Download the complete AEGIS 1st International Conference and 2nd User forum and Workshop Invitation (PDF).

JISC TechDis launches new free tool to improve internet accessibility

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:30:00 +0000

JISC TechDis has launched a new internet browser tool that will make information on the web more accessible for everyone, especially disabled users.
The JISC TechDis toolbar has been created in partnership with the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science. The free application, released as a beta version, provides a range of editing and speech tools to enable internet users to better access information and interact with web pages.
JISC Techdis Toolbar has been created as an open-source, cross-browser toolbar to help aid students customise their browser in a manner to aid learning.
The concept behind JISC Techdis Toolbar is simple: One toolbar to provide all of the functionality you would usually get in many different products, and which will run in any desktop web browser. There are two versions of JISC Techdis Toolbar available, depending on what you want to do with it. If you are a user, you have two choices – either install the Full version, or grab the quick install Lite version.
More information on the JISC website. A JISC Techdis Toolbar Demonstration is also available.

Click here to use the JISC Techdis Toolbar Lite on Access For All website.

Internet access and use in 2009 : One person in two in the EU uses the internet daily

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:23:50 +0000

In the EU27, 65% of households 1 had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 60% during the first quarter of 2008, and 56% had a broadband internet connection in 2009, compared with 49% in 2008.
These data 2 published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, represent only a small part of the results of a survey on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage in households and by individuals in the EU27 Member States, the candidate countries, Norway, Iceland and Serbia . As well as internet use and broadband connections, the survey also covers other indicators such as e-shopping, e-government and advanced communication and content related services.
Household internet access ranges from 30% in Bulgaria to 90% in the Netherlands.
In 2009, the proportion of households with internet access was three quarters or more in the Netherlands (90%), Luxembourg (87%), Sweden (86%), Denmark (83%), Germany (79%), Finland (78%) and the United Kingdom (77%). The lowest shares were registered in Bulgaria (30%), Greece and Romania (both 38%).
The proportion of households with a broadband connection in 2009 was highest in Sweden (80%), the Netherlands (77%) and Denmark (76%).
Almost 40% of individuals shop online.
Nearly three quarters of those aged 16-24 in the EU27 used the internet on average daily or almost daily in the first quarter of 2009, compared with nearly half of all individuals aged 16-74. The highest shares for those aged 16-24 were found in the Netherlands (90%), Denmark and Estonia (both 88%), Finland and Sweden (both 87%), and the lowest in Romania (41%), Greece (57%) and Ireland (58%).
In 2009, 37% of individuals aged 16-74 in the EU27 had bought or ordered goods or services over the internet in the last 12 months. This share varied considerably between Member States, ranging from 2% in Romania , 5% in Bulgaria and 8% in Lithuania to 66% in the United Kingdom , 64% in Denmark and 63% in the Netherlands and Sweden . In the EU27 , 40% of men had ordered goods or services over the internet, compared with 34% of women. The share for men was higher than for women in almost all Member States.
Download the full press release and the Internet usage in 2009 – Households and Individuals – Issue number 46/2009 survey.

Study report: Web accessibility in European countries

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:12:54 +0000

This report (Study report: Web accessibility in European countries: level of compliance with latest international accessibility specifications, notably WCAG 2.0, and approaches or plans to implement those specifications) presents the results of a study to provide data and analysis to support the European Commission in the identification of EU-level measures that can help to progress the achievement of greater levels of web accessibility across the Member States. The aim was to provide evidence and analysis to help understand and compare the approaches followed by the European countries, with a view to identifying issues and challenges, good practices and future priorities in the web accessibility field.
A core focus of the report is on the issue of transitioning to WCAG 2.0 guidelines against the current background where Member States have, in the main, being targeting their efforts towards the earlier WCAG 1.0 guidelines.
Download the report and its annexes

A relevant project in this area is ACCESSIBLE which will soon provide access to free accessibility assessment and simulation tools, applicable for websites, webservices and mobile services.

Raising the Floor (RtF)

admin — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:05:25 +0000

Raising the Floor (RtF) is an international coalition of individuals and organizations working to ensure that the Internet is accessible to people experiencing accessibility or literacy problems, even if they have very limited or no financial resources. The goal is to ensure that individuals who need special interfaces are as free and able as everyone else to use the new and emerging Internet tools and resources to live more independently and productively, and to achieve their life’s goals.
More information is available on the Raising the Floor website.

2nd ACCESSIBLE newsletter available

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:32:24 +0000

The 2nd ACCESSIBLE project newsletter focuses on the progress of a survey on Accessible Software Implementation practices that was conducted by the project and which will continue to collect data till the end of the project duration.
Accessibility is a paramount issue nowadays. Authorities and experts are putting a lot of effort in pushing forward accessibility of software applications. However, despite this, ICT applications are in most cases not fully accessible yet. The triggering idea behind ACCESSIBLE is to contribute for better accessibility for all citizens, to increase the use of standards, and to develop an assessment simulation environment (including a suite of accessibility analysing tools, as well as developer-aid tools) to assess efficiently, easily and rapidly the accessibility and viability of software applications for all user groups. ACCESSIBLE will exploit the technologies behind the recent expansion of accessibility tools and standardisation methodologies, in order to provide an integrated simulation assessment environment for supporting the production of accessible software applications mobile or not. This will enable organisations and individuals (e.g. developers, designers, etc.) to produce software products of superior accessibility and quality, accompanied with appropriate measures and proposals for best practice. The proposed system will be demonstrated in the four pilots of ACCESSIBLE for the assessment of mobile applications, Web applications, Web services (mainly focusing on info-mobility services), and description languages (e.g. UML, SDL, etc.).