White Paper: promoting Design for All and e-Accessibility in Europe.

This White Paper results from the collaboration of Design for All (DfA) and e-Accessibility expert bodies representing the European Union member states [ref: the coordination centres of the national European Design for All e-Accessibility network (EDeAN) in 23 European Union Member States, in this document referred to as NCCs]. The objectives of this White Paper are threefold: (1) to present the current state of affairs of EDeAN, active since 2002 as part of the European Commission’s action line supporting the development of the European Information Society; (2) to outline a roadmap for future initiatives, actively reflecting views of the EDeAN network in specific domains related to DfA, e-Accessibility and e-Inclusion; and (3) to bring forward a set of suggestions and recommendations regarding the activities of the network, aiming to support the creation of a fully inclusive European Information Society. The paper is organised as follows: Section 1 provides a short introduction to DfA and Accessibility in Information Society (IS) and Information Society Technology (IST) developments in Europe. Section 2 provides an overview of policy as well as R&D activities related to DfA and accessibility in IST in Europe. Section 3 briefly describes the role of EDeAN and the new challenges that emerge as a result of the changing European policy environment. Section 4 presents current challenges that emerge in five domains directly related to DfA and accessibility, such as policy and legislation, industry, monitoring and evaluation—benchmarking, standardisation, R&D, and education and training. Finally, Sect. 5 puts forward a number of recommendations with regard to future activities for EDeAN. The contents of this paper reflect results from the open discussion forums supported in the EDeAN website (ref: EDeAN Special Interest Groups, SIGs). The draft paper was written by the EDeAN Secretariat for 2005, FORTH-ICS (Greece), and completed with the support of all NCCs. Support was also provided by the European Commission DG Information Society and Media and by the D4ALLnet project (ref: an EC funded project with the code IST-2001-38833)

What constitutes DfA knowledge? Identification of a range of work that contributes to DfA. Baseline Document for attendees of the IDCnet Helsinki Workshop: “Design for All Curriculum: Towards a synergy of the needs of ICT industry and education"

This document acts as a baseline for the participants of the Helsinki Workshop. In order to situate the tasks to be carried out during and after the workshop, this document describes other efforts at curriculum design for higher education in related subjects, thereby setting the stage for the methodology adopted by IDCnet. This is followed by a brief description of some of the current trends with regard to the teaching of design for all, in terms of learner background, targeted audiences, etc. This section also notes the connection between on line learning and DfA. The next part of the document attempts a taxonomy of types of knowledge and skills identified in taught courses, and indicates useful sources of material. It also lists two examples of curricula plans that influenced this section. The final section summarises the main points of the document and describes the next steps. An annex provides some terminology related to Design for All, as well as definitions of terms used in curricula

The Development of eServices in an Enlarged EU: eLearning in Latvia

In 2005, IPTS launched a project which aimed to assess the developments in eGoverment, eHealth and eLearning in the 10 New Member States at national, and at cross-country level. At that time, the 10 New Member States were Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. A report for each country was produced, describing its educational system and the role played by eLearning within both the formal education system and other aspects of lifelong learning. Each report then analyzes, on the basis of desk research and expert interviews, the major achievements, shortcomings, drivers and barriers in the development of eLearning in one of the countries in question. This analysis provides the basis for the identification and discussion of national policy options to address the major challenges and to suggest R&D issues relevant to the needs of each country ¿ in this case, Latvia.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

Digital Skills, Labour Market, and Productivity

Analysis of the impact of possessing digital skills on labour market outcomes

Analytical Framework for a Comparative Analysis of Accessible Technology Law and Policy

Deliverable 7.1 poses the basis of the comparative analysis to be conducted throughout the whole WP 7 and reviews existing studies on accessible technology and accessibility law and policy in Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Serbia, Sweden and the UK. Deliverable 7.1 is divided into two main sections: an Analytical Framework and an Annotated Bibliography. The Analytical Framework discusses the interrelation between accessible technology and ‘active citizenship’, and defines the scope, the main concepts and the methodology of the research conducted under WP 7. It also positions WP7 within current legal scholarship, highlighting its innovative contribution. The Annotated Bibliography, annexed to the Analytical Framework is composed of two main complementary parts (i.e. parts A and B), each one preceded by a roadmap. Part A reviews selected sources on accessibility law and policy in Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Serbia, Sweden and the UK. Even though it cannot be regard as exhaustive, it aims to give a ‘big picture’ of current official legislation and policy on accessibility, and scholarship on accessibility. It is intended to be an immediate and easy to read bibliographic tool for scholars approaching accessibility law and policy in Europe. Part B has complements Part A: it does not list legislation or policy programmes on accessible technology, but focusses on the most recent literature on accessible technology

Business impacts of web accessibility in the Austrian hotel sector

Diese Magisterarbeit behandelt die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen von barrierefreiem Web im Tourismus Bereich und fokussiert dabei insbesondere auf die österreichische Hotelbranche. Ein Literatur Review gibt vorerst einen Überblick über die gegenwärtige Situation von barrierefreiem Web und barrierefreiem Tourismus. Ferner werden mit Hilfe von statistikbasierten Schätzungen wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen von barrierefreiem Tourismus in der österreichischen Hotelbranche ermittelt. Um die Komplexität der Barrierefreiheit in der Tourismusbranche adäquat darstellen zu können, wird ein drei-dimensionales Hotelkategorisierungsmodell entwickelt, mit Hilfe dessen die Evaluierung des Status quo eines Hotels im Hinblick auf Barrierefreiheit vorgenommen werden kann. Darüber hinaus ist dieses Kategorisierungsmodell für weiterführende Benchmarking Aktivitäten einsetzbar. Eine Fallstudien-Analyse vereint quantitative und qualitative Forschungsmethoden und untersucht die betriebswirtschaftlichen Effekte von barrierefreiem Web in der Hotel Branche. Ergebnisse zeigen, dass derzeit nur ein Bruchteil der österreichischen Hotels über eine barrierefreie Webseite verfügt, obwohl durch die Implementierung von Barrierefreiheit zusätzliche Investitionen entfallen würden sowie Vorteile für alle Kunden generiert werden könnten. Die im Zuge dieser Magisterarbeit durchgeführten Studien bekräftigen bisherige Forschungsergebnisse, welche das fehlende Bewusstsein von Tourismus Akteuren in Bezug auf barrierefreies Web als Hauptgrund für die mangelnde Implementierung identifizierten. Ferner kann festgestellt werden, dass Reisende mit Beeinträchtigungen eine wirtschaftlich signifikante Touristengruppe darstellen und in ihren Eigenschaften sehr loyal und zunehmend mobil sind.This contribution aims to investigate the business impacts of web accessibility in the tourism industry with the focus on the Austrian hotel sector. Case study research methods are used for the research. The results of the conducted studies verify previous research, showing that tourism stakeholders considerably lack awareness of web accessibility. The literature review on web accessibility and accessible tourism gives an overview on the current status. Estimations based on statistical data are used to assess the economical impact of accessible tourism in the Austrian hotel sector. A three dimensional hotel categorization model on accessibility is introduced to encompass the complexity of accessibility in the hotel sector. It can be used to evaluate the status quo of hotel accessibility and may therefore provide a valuable tool for further benchmarking activities. Quantitative and qualitative studies are used to assess the implications of web accessibility in the hotel sector in praxis. The study on the accessibility of the Austrian hotel web pages shows that currently only a fraction has implemented web accessibility. The conducted in-depth interviews reveal that implementing web accessibility doesn’t require additional investment and has advantages for all costumers. The interviews also confirm the results of previous studies: travelers with disabilities can represent a significant guest group, are very loyal to the place their like and they are increasingly mobile, this groups of travelers is ever more important. Additionally, this study confirmed that accessibility has to be promoted, so people with disabilities can find these hotels