Accessibility, an ongoing struggle in every domain of daily life

Presented by Karel Van Isacker (PhoenixKM - MCA)

Outline

• Definition eInclusion

• Some numbers

• Opportunities and barriers

• Best practices

– UCD, End-users, Persona usage

• Industry involvement through FP6/7/LLP projects

• Findings from recent surveys

– Older people:• OASIS

– People with disabilities• ÆGIS

• ACCESSIBLE

• ViPi

• Ethical issues

– Omnipresent, often ignored

eInclusion definition

• “all efforts by the public and private sector, civil society and the technology community devoted to developing and using ICTs to address issues of societal exclusion in any dimension; creating new opportunities for inclusive empowerment and development through ICTs, and preventing new ICT-induced gaps from emerging.”

Source: Revisiting eInclusion: from Vision to Action, 2006

• Areas to address in eInclusion

– ICT in support of equitable participation in the

economic sphere (eLabour, eWork, AT);

– ICT to support life-long learning (eLearning,

mLearning, Web 2.0/3.0, Social Media);

– ICT in support of equitable participation in public

and political life (eEngagement, eDemocracy,

eGovernment);

– ICT to minimize individual impairments caused by

ageing, disability and disease (eHealth, and IST for

independent living and active ageing).

Who?

• Who do we aim to support using ICT

(HW/SW)?

– Older people - Facts• 80+ population: doubles until 2050

• 60+ population: from 20% in 1995 to 25% in 2020

• 50+ population: 21% has severe vision/hearing/dexterity

problems

• Today 4 working for 1 retired, in 2050 2 working for 1 retired

• Cost of pensions/health/long-term care: up by 4-8 % of GDP

(2025)

• Lack of care staff

Figures are from 2001, Eurostat

Office for Official Publications of the European Communities: The social dimension on health 2001, section 2, p.49.

Office for Official Publications of the European Communities: The social dimension on health 2001, section 2, p.50.

Figures are from 2001, Eurostat

• People with disabilities - Facts

– Lowest estimate, based on the

extremes of currently defined

disablement categories:• Around 74 Million persons in Europe

alone

– Other estimates that take into

account:• People in the so-called hinterland

between fully able bodied and the

classically termed disabled, should

considerably raise those numbers

– Disability rates vary• Different disability definitions and

classification– E.g. defining disability within the context of

incapacity to work, as they do in Poland, while it

is functionality in UK

IDRM research, 2007

Gérard Abramovici: Social Protection in Europe, Statistics in focus: Population and social conditions Theme 3 – 6/2004, p.1-8

Economic Policy Committee (2001) “Budgetary challenges posed by ageing populations”, EPC/ECFIN/630-EN final, Brussels, p.9.

• ICT can benefit both older people and people with disabilities:

– At Work• Staying active and productive for longer

• Accessible Work environment (AT HW/SW))

• Better quality of work and work-life balance

– In the Community• Overcoming isolation & loneliness

• Keeping up social networks

• Accessing public services

• Accessible Tourism

– At Home• Better quality of life for longer

• Independence, autonomy and dignity

– On the Road• Travel in accessible manner

• Independently

• Multimodal

Source: Hüsing, T. (2004). „The impact of ICT on Social Cohesion: Looking Beyond the Digital Divide

• Conceptual Framework of Independent Living

• Source: Leys, M. and De Rouck, S. (2005). „Active Ageing and Independent Living Services: Core

Propositions Leading to a Conceptual Framework‟. IPTS unpublished project report

• Business opportunities –

Older people– Wealth and revenues in Europe of

persons 65+ estimated at € 3000B +

– Smart homes market expected to

triple between 2005 and 2020

– Tele-health expected to reduce cost

social security

– Tele-care technology at home,

combined with domotics

– ICT uptake

AAL ICT industry in the EU

complex•Market still in an early phase

•No established structures,

prices, networks

•European industries so far have

failed to fully exploit the market

potential of products and

services for the rapidly growing

number of older users

• Business opportunities – People with disabilities

– PwD represent at least 16% of the overall EU

working age population

– Only 40% of persons with disabilities are

employed compared to 64.2% non disabled.

– Gap often exists because of not well adapted

working environments (both in terms of hardware

or software).

– 5 key AT ICT

• Hearing aids

• Braille displays

• Environmental control systems

• Software

• Communication devices

AT ICT industry in the EU

complex•Large number of products

•Large number of small firms

•Different service provider

systems that are used to get AT

ICT products to disabled end-

users

• The variety of actors who participate – directly or indirectly – in the AT

ICT industry

Source: Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry, Final Report, March 2009

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

MARKETPROFESSIONAL & USER

ORGANISATIONS– Lobbyists– User organisations

FINANCING ORGANISATIONS

– Financing agencies (public and private)

– Social security systems– Insurance organisations

TECHNOLOGY-ORIENTED ORGANISATIONS

– R&D organisations (rehabilitation & technology-oriented)

– Universities– Standardisation organisations– Testing organisations

INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATIONS– Manufacturers– Dealers– Wholesalers

INFORMATION, SERVICE & TRAINING

– Service delivery institutions– Institutional users

(rehabilitation centre, hospital, school etc.)

– End-users

GOVERNMENT & LEGAL ORGANISATIONS

– European Commission– Government at various

administrative levels: national, regional, county and municipal.

• Core drivers AT ICT industry

– Knowledge of the disabled end-user

– Knowledge of the diagnostician, prescriptor of product solutions

– Knowledge of the rules and procedures of different national service provider

systems in Europe, but also reimbursement schemes

– Flexibility in product design to be able to serve different geographical markets

• Barriers

– The lack of knowledge by the marketplace of the types of solutions available (i.e.,

not all possible AT ICT solutions are included in national service provider systems).

– The cost and time needed to navigate the different national service provider

systems in Europe in order to ensure compliance

– The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level

(thereby fragmenting a national market into regional markets)

– The lack of a coherent social policy for subsidising/reimbursing assistive

technology products and the lack of coordination between the stakeholders involved.

– High assistive technology ICT equipment prices (i.e., which result in lower overall

sales volume).

Also largely valid for AAL targeting older people

Purchase of AT by end-users

HEARING AIDS BRAILLE READERSAPPLS FOR VOICE

COMMUNICATION

SOFTWARE FOR

COMMUNICATION

ENVIRONMENTAL

CONTROL SYSTEMS

AUSTRIA medical social social social social

BELGIUM medical social social social social

DENMARK social social social social social

FINLAND medical medical medical medical medical

FRANCE medical social consumer social + consumer social + consumer

GERMANY medical social social social social

GREECE medical consumer consumer consumer consumer

HUNGARY medical consumer consumer consumer consumer

IRELAND medical + consumer medical + consumer medical + consumer medical + consumer medical + consumer

ITALY medical medical medical medical social

NETHERLANDS medical social social social social

PORTUGAL medical consumer medical + social social + consumer consumer

SLOVAKIA medical social social social consumer

SLOVENIA medical medical medical social + consumer social + consumer

SPAIN medical * consumer social + consumer social + consumer social

SWEDEN medical medical medical medical medical

UK medical social social consumer social

Source: Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry, Final Report, March 2009, Jennifer Stack, Leire

Zarate, Carmen Pastor, Niels-Erik Mathiassen, Ricard Barberà, Harry Knops, Hugo Kornsten

• Industry as key player (source AAATE)

– Interest shown by Industry still quite fragmented

– Mainly restricted to specialised niches

– Danger: Industry at risk of not recognising the people with

disabilities and older people as target groups showing an

interesting potential.

– Major international industries developed accessible products due to

the market demand generated by specific US regulations, and most

such products are still available only in the US.

– European signal (see eInclusion driven calls within FP6 and FP7 as

first step), both large–players and small and medium size

enterprises

– Developing an appropriate EC legislative framework to stimulate

the inclusive approach

Key to acceptance: UCD Projects apply iterative approach

RESEARCH

Users &

domain

MODELING

Users & use

contexts

REQUIREMENTS

Definition of user,

business & technical

needs

FRAMEWORK

Definition of

design structure

& flow

REFINEMENT

Of behaviour, form

& content

Opportunities, constraints and

context

Who will use the service?

What problems will it solve for

them?

Form, content and behaviour

What is it?

What does it look like?

How does it behave?

What does it contain?

• Experts from the field…

– Greece

• Disability NOW

• Athens & Thessaloniki

• www.disabled.gr

• admin@disabled.gr

– Belgium

• Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie vzw

• Ypres

• www.wvavzw.be

• wim.moeyaert@wvavzw.be

Best Practice 1: User Involvement with …. the users

• Real people

– Who:

• Ms. Anna Evangelinou, 30 years old, quadriplegic

• Academic background in media and ICT,

• Disability Now editor (magazine, website)

• Experienced project manager (EU, national projects, e.g.

ETNAT, ViPi advisory board Greece, etc.)

– ICT background

• AT specialist/expert user (HW/SW)

• Web 2.0 pioneering at Disability Now

– Challenges:

• Accessible transportation means in Athens (metro is OK,

busses and tram are … a challenge)

• Social security framework in Greece flawed

Best Practice 2: Knowing the user

• Identified barriers in AT usage

– Only 4 in 10 PwD aware of AT solutions that meet

their accessibility needs in using ICT.

– 11% of non-users of ICT with a disability believe

that their disability prohibits them from using AT.

– 9% indicates that there is no AT adapted to their

needs.

– Non-use of ICT attributed to lack of digital skills

for 23% of non-users with a disability.

– 45% of all participants with a disability believe that

using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital

skills.

Best Practice 2: Knowing the user

• Mobility assessment in Athens

– Collaboration between older people groups, tourism services and people with

disabilities

– E.g. 08/05/2011 press contact session on accessibility Athens roads

Best Practice 2: Knowing the user

• Fictitious character based on real data

– Interpreting:

• Problems

• Needs

• Wishes

– Bring target group to life, create empathy

– “Someone to design for”; not just the “average user”

• 47 different personas (Creative Commons Attribution-Share

Alike 3.0 License scheme) - downloadable

– 30 created by ACCESSIBLE project – www.accessible-project.eu

– 17 by AEGIS project – www.aegis-project.eu

Best Practice 3: Personas

Disability

Persona

Motor impair-ments Hearing impair-

ments

Visual impair-ments Speech impair-

ments

Cognitive impair-

ments

Expert

Jackie Dough X X

Magda Paskimada X X X

Charles Lewis X X

Maria Skoufakis X X

John Howard Jones X X X

Maurice Nalobaka X

Kathleen de Munck X

David Burt X

Peter Brown X

Ellen Kell X X

Nikolaos Souflakos X X

Andy Catteeuw X

Matthew Perkins X X

Benoit Dupré X

Clyde Channing X

Ramin El-Fassi X

Nitesh Sarin X X

Peter Vandezande X X

Emma Karlsson X X

Adam Ljung X

Jane Brown X X

Edward Hodgins X

Tomasa Almaraz X

Gert Van Dijk X

Paulina Reyes X

Carlos Portillo X

Wayne Edwards X X

Mikel Vargas X

Caroline Combs X

Märta Hansson X

• Older people

– OASIS

• Vast set of services in 4 domains

(see pic)

• Open and innovative reference

architecture

• Plug and play and cost-effective

services interconnection

• Independent and autonomous living

• Fall detection

Industry involvement through FP6/7 projects

• People with disabilities

– ASK-IT

• Ambient Intelligence (AmI) space for the integration of functions and

services for Mobility Impaired (MI) people

– ACCESSIBLE

• Increasing the use of accessibility standards and the development of an

assessment simulation environment

• Includes suite of accessibility analysing tools as well as developer-aid

tools

– ÆGIS

• Open Accessibility Framework (OAF) through which aspects of the

design, development and deployment of accessible mainstream ICT are

addressed

• Provide Open Source Accessible Desktop Applications

Industry involvement through FP6/7 projects

• People with disabilities

– ViPi (KA3 ICT - Thematic Network – aggregating

results various projects/initiatives)• Virtual Portal for Impaired Groups Interaction

• Vision:– ICT provide alternative and creative solutions for the employment of PwD

– PwD can benefit enormously from digital competences

» core life and employability skills (see Lisbon Objectives)

» Recent studies (www.accessible-project.eu, www.aegis-project.eu)

– Main barrier is the lack of specific training support or material

– ViPi project envisages fulfilling the gap by…

» making available accessible and flexible training,

» designed to be adopted directly by PwD,

» and through centres providing special education and vocational training.

Industry involvement through LLP projects

• People with disabilities

– ViPi• Main aims:

– A “one-stop-shop” interactive portal & learning environment (online and via

Android/Blackberry mobile devices) that deliver:

» a multilingual platform (English, Dutch, Greek, Lithuanian) with:

» an embedded social community (for VET centres, PwD, ICT training centres, etc.);

» accessible (WCAG 2.0) online ICT for learning environment for PwD, their trainers;

» with an interactive and vast repository of interoperable SCORM compliant learning

objects

» supported by Web 2.0 social services, and Web 3.0 for semantically enriched

content

– Bring together key stakeholders and gatekeepers (VET, target groups, umbrella

organizations)

Industry involvement through LLP projects

• Older people – OASIS

– Fall and other accidents detection

• Directly touches a main concern for older people, namely falling

• Very much liked by the User Forum participants

– Specific cognitive training exercises and activities

• Closely connected to the memory losses with which most older

people are confronted, and which all want to “fight against”.

– Remote health monitoring

• Provides older people with a safety beacon

• Directly linked to it is also the health profile definition and

personalization which is to ensure a personalised approach

• Alerting and assisting applications provide support in cases of

emergencies.

Findings recent surveys - public

• Older people – OASIS

– Rehabilitation support system

• Ensures recovery after a possible injury, possibly combined with

the activity management service

• Latter also supports any rehabilitation that is needed, or in other

cases supports daily training on a personalised level.

– Cultural differences become obvious

• Bulgaria, China and Greece– overall the participants rate all services very positively.

• Germany, Italy and Romania:– participants are more critical and have doubt in some of the services.

• United Kingdom– Participants critical to most of the services.

– Way of organising this User Forum was different from others: expert end-users

involved

Findings recent surveys - public

• People with disabilities – ÆGIS

– Desktop application usage

• Majority uses computer

• Most use desktop (although laptop is increasing quickly)

• OS– Proprietary: Mostly Windows XP followed by Vista

– Non-proprietary: Ubuntu

• Mainly used at home and to a lesser extent at work

• Barriers– Lack of training

– Cost of computer

– Cost of AT

– Accessing specific software

• AT– Speech output, Braille displays and embossers, OCR, on-screen keyboard, integrated OS settings

Findings recent surveys – soon public

• People with disabilities – ACCESSIBLE

– Main findings – Public/Private Service Providers

• Accessibility requirement in provided services.

• Interest in further knowledge about web and mobile accessibility, through real work

in this area.

• High awareness level of various accessibility standards and guidelines, especially

WCAG 1.0, with an interest to go to WCAG 2.0.

• Up-to-date information and access to new tools via online resources

• Customers desire accessibility certification.

• Accessibility now evaluated with assessment and simulation tools, followed by the

use of AT and the participation of potential users with disabilities.

• Usage of assessment and simulation tools, both for accessibility and for AT.

Findings recent surveys - public

• People with disabilities – ViPi

– Understanding basic ICT skills needs

for people with disabilities

– Assess current training practices

– Soon to be available from www.vipi-

project.eu

– Data from Belgium, Cyprus, Greece,

Lithuania, UK, but also Pan-European

Forthcoming surveys – to be public

• Privacy protection and confidentiality

• Transparency of the collected data

management by the system

– Location

– Interests

– POIs

• IT-Security and identity management

• Risk assessment (Insurance) when

piloting

• Delegation of control

Core ethical issues

Forthcoming event• Final AEGIS Workshop and Conference “Accessibility reaching

everywhere”, 28-30 November 2011 - Brussels, Belgium [ahead of

EDPD event (1-2 December 2011)]

• Scope

• Present the status of the ÆGIS project, notably the accessible OSS AT products

– plenary meeting

• Discuss AT policies and role of ÆGIS in policy (and industry) developments –

plenary

• Present research on accessible technology (parallel sessions/workshops –

papers)

• Showcase (OSS) AT projects (exhibition halls)

• Highlight accessibility overall (airline industry, tourism, etc.)

• Free entrance but registration required

• Registration, call for papers, exhibitors www.aegis-conference.eu

www.AccessForAll.eu

Project websites

• www.oasis-project.eu

• www.aegis-project.eu

• www.accessible-project.eu

• www.vipi-project.eu

“Marie Curie” Association

Plovdiv 4023, Trakiya, 31 Osvobozhdenie Blvd,

Karina House fl.1, apt. 4

BULGARIA

www.marie-curie-bg.org

projects@marie-curie-bg.org

Contact person: Mrs. Mariya Goranova-Valkova

PhoenixKM BVBA

Amersveldestraat 189, 8610 Kortemark

BELGIUM

www. phoenixkm.eu

info@phoenixkm.eu

Contact person: Mr. Karel Van Isacker