myWebAccess: A platform for repairing, enhancing and re-distributing Web Services accessible to people with disability

International audienceWeb services are an emerging technology which has attracted much attention from both the research and the industry sectors in recent years. The exploitation of web services as components in web applications facilitates development and supports applications interoperability, regardless of the programming language and platform used. However, existing web services development standards do not take into account the fact that the provided content and the interactive functionality should be accessible to, and easily operable by, people with disabilities. This paper presents a platform named myWebAccess, which provides a mechanism for the semi-automated "repair" of web services' interaction characteristics in order to support the automatic generation of interface elements that conform to the de facto standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. myWebAccess enhances interaction quality for specific target user groups, including people with visual and motor disabilities, and supports the use of web services on diverse platforms (e.g., mobile phones equipped with a browser). The users of myWebAccess can create a personalized environment containing their favourite services, and can interact with them through interfaces appropriate to their specific individual characteristics

Teaching DfA core knowledge and skill sets; experience in including inclusive design

The purpose of this document is twofold. Firstly it is to present the teaching pilots that were undertaken by members of the network, and describes the pilot setting and the material taught, as related to the taxonomy of Design for All knowledge and skill sets developed in previous deliverables. Each pilot indicates topics taught and to which categories of the taxonomy they belong. Furthermore, student expectations and reactions to the DfA teaching pilots are described by means of the information gained from questionnaires. In this way the taxonomy is evaluated by the teaching pilot experiences for robustness in completeness and usefulness. The second purpose of this exercise is to highlight best practices in, and possible obstacles and other challenges to implementing and maintaining of Design for All courses and modules in a range of higher education schemes, so that education policies and strategies may be informed accordingly. Both of these objectives help to further the work on recommendations for curriculum work on Design for All, in terms of content and in terms of sustainability

Seven HCI Grand Challenges

This article aims to investigate the Grand Challenges which arise in the current and emerging landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies, coupled with increased and widened societal needs, as well as individual and collective expectations that HCI, as a discipline, is called upon to address. A perspective oriented to humane and social values is adopted, formulating the challenges in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Seven Grand Challenges are identified and presented in this article: Human-Technology Symbiosis; Human-Environment Interactions; Ethics, Privacy and Security; Well-being, Health and Eudaimonia; Accessibility and Universal Access; Learning and Creativity; and Social Organization and Democracy. Although not exhaustive, they summarize the views and research priorities of an international interdisciplinary group of experts, reflecting different scientific perspectives, methodological approaches and application domains. Each identified Grand Challenge is analyzed in terms of: concept and problem definition; main research issues involved and state of the art; and associated emerging requirements

Adaptive Techniques for Universal Access

Abstract. This paper discusses the contribution of adaptive techniques to Universal Access in Human^Computer Interaction. To this effect, the paper revisits the concept of Universal Access, brie£y reviews relevant work on adaptive techniques, and follows their application in efforts to provide accessibility of interactive systems, from the early, product-and environment-level adaptation-based approaches, to more generic solutions oriented towards Universal Access. Finally, the paper highlights some of the research challenges ahead. The normative perspective of the paper is that adaptive techniques in the context of Universal Access have the potential to facilitate both accessibility and high quality interaction, for the broadest possible end-user population. This implies the design of systems that undertake context-sensitive processing so as to manifest their functional core in alternative interactive embodiments suitable for different users, usage patterns and contexts of use. Such a capability needs to be built into the system from the early phases of conception and design, and subsequently validated throughout its life cycle