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 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 AAL ICT industry in the EU persons 65+ estimated at € 3000B + complex •Market still in an early phase – Smart homes market expected to •No established structures, triple between 2005 and 2020 prices, networks – Tele-health expected to reduce cost •European industries so far have failed to fully exploit the market social security potential of products and – Tele-care technology at home, services for the rapidly growing combined with domotics number of older users – ICT uptake

• 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 AT ICT industry in the EU complex • Hearing aids •Large number of products • Braille displays •Large number of small firms • Environmental control systems •Different service provider systems that are used to get AT • Software ICT products to disabled end- • Communication devices users

• The variety of actors who participate – directly or indirectly – in the AT ICT industry GOVERNMENT & LEGAL ORGANISATIONS – European Commission – Government at various administrative levels: national, INFORMATION, SERVICE & regional, county and municipal. TRAINING FINANCING – Service delivery institutions ORGANISATIONS – Institutional users – Financing agencies (rehabilitation centre, hospital, school etc.) ASSISTIVE (public and private) – Social security systems – End-users TECHNOLOGY – Insurance organisations INDUSTRIAL MARKET PROFESSIONAL & USER ORGANISATIONS ORGANISATIONS – Manufacturers TECHNOLOGY-ORIENTED – Lobbyists – Dealers ORGANISATIONS – User organisations – Wholesalers – R&D organisations (rehabilitation & technology- oriented) – Universities – Standardisation organisations – Testing organisations Source: Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry, Final Report, March 2009

• 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

APPLS FOR VOICE SOFTWARE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEARING AIDS BRAILLE READERS COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION CONTROL SYSTEMSAUSTRIA medical social social social socialBELGIUM medical social social social socialDENMARK social social social social socialFINLAND medical medical medical medical medicalFRANCE medical social consumer social + consumer social + consumerGERMANY medical social social social socialGREECE medical consumer consumer consumer consumerHUNGARY medical consumer consumer consumer consumerIRELAND medical + consumer medical + consumer medical + consumer medical + consumer medical + consumerITALY medical medical medical medical socialNETHERLANDS medical social social social socialPORTUGAL medical consumer medical + social social + consumer consumerSLOVAKIA medical social social social consumerSLOVENIA medical medical medical social + consumer social + consumerSPAIN medical * consumer social + consumer social + consumer socialSWEDEN medical medical medical medical medicalUK medical social social consumer socialSource: Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry, Final Report, March 2009, Jennifer Stack, LeireZarate, Carmen Pastor, Niels-Erik Mathiassen, Ricard Barberà, Harry Knops, Hugo Kornsten Purchase of AT by end-users

• 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

RESEARCH MODELING REQUIREMENTS FRAMEWORK REFINEMENT Users & Users & use Definition of user, Definition of Of behaviour, form domain contexts business & technical design structure & content needs & flow Opportunities, constraints and Form, content and behaviour context What is it? Who will use the service? What does it look like? What problems will it solve for How does it behave? them? What does it contain?Key to acceptance: UCD  Projects apply iterative approach

Best Practice 1: User Involvement with …. the users• 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 2: Knowing the user• 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 3: Personas• 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

Disability Motor impair-ments Hearing impair- Visual impair-ments Speech impair- Cognitive impair- ExpertPersona ments ments mentsJackie Dough X XMagda Paskimada X X XCharles Lewis X XMaria Skoufakis X XJohn Howard Jones X X XMaurice Nalobaka XKathleen de Munck XDavid Burt XPeter Brown XEllen Kell X XNikolaos Souflakos X XAndy Catteeuw XMatthew Perkins X XBenoit Dupré XClyde Channing XRamin El-Fassi XNitesh Sarin X XPeter Vandezande X XEmma Karlsson X XAdam Ljung XJane Brown X XEdward Hodgins XTomasa Almaraz XGert Van Dijk XPaulina Reyes XCarlos Portillo XWayne Edwards X XMikel Vargas XCaroline Combs XMärta Hansson X

Industry involvement through FP6/7 projects• 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 LLP 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)

Findings recent surveys - public• 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 – soon 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 - 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.

Forthcoming surveys – to be 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

Core ethical issues• 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

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” AssociationPlovdiv 4023, Trakiya, 31 Osvobozhdenie Blvd, Karina House fl.1, apt. 4 BULGARIA www.marie-curie-bg.org projects@marie-curie-bg.orgContact person: Mrs. Mariya Goranova-Valkova PhoenixKM BVBA Amersveldestraat 189, 8610 Kortemark BELGIUM www. phoenixkm.eu info@phoenixkm.eu Contact person: Mr. Karel Van Isacker

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Accessibility, an ongoing struggle in every domain of daily life

by AEGIS-ACCESSIBLE Projects on May 10, 2011

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Accessibility, an ongoing struggle in every domain of daily life — Presentation Transcript