Presentation of AEGIS at RAATE 2010

1. AEGIS
Open Accessibility Everywhere
Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards
David Colven
ACE Centre, Oxford

2. AEGIS – What is it?
Mainstreaming accessibility through open source
• A European Commission FP7 ICT Project
• 20 partners from 10 countries
• User and Commercial Organisations, Academic Institutions
• Sept 2009 – Feb 2012
• Open Source - 3rd generation accessibility
• Commercial Partners
– Oracle (Sun Microsystems)
– RIM (Blackberry
– AOL

3. AEGIS – What does it hope to
achieve?
3rd Generation embedded accessibility in
mainstream ICT Development
Environments
Devices and applications that have
built-in accessibility

4. Which specific areas of ICT?
• Rich Internet Applications
• Desktop
• Mobile Devices

5. Developing and Running Software
Applications

6. Target User Groups
• Blind and low-vision users
• Motor Impaired users
• Cognitively and Language impaired users
• Hearing impaired users
• Speech Impaired users

7. Working Together to achieve UCD
End Users Programmers
`Experts`
‘Open Source’ – i.e. Openly available tools and
applications that can be exploited beyond the project

8. User & Stakeholder Involvement
• Pilot sites in:
– Sweden (SU-DART); UK (ACE, RNIB); Belgium (EPR); Spain
(UPM, FONCE)
– End Users, Experts, Developers
• Already accomplished
– User Requirement Specifications
– 1:1 interviews; Workshops (National & International)
– WoZ Trials and mock-ups
– International Conference
– Phase 1 Prototypes evaluated
• Future Programme
– AEGIS Prototype evaluations (Early 2011)
– Final Prototype evaluations (Autumn 2011)
– Demonstrators (Mid 2011 – Early 2012)

9. Prototype:
Concept Coding in OpenOffice.org
• Dynamically annotate text with symbols
– In any language
– For any Symbol set
• Extension to Mainstream Application

10. Prototype:
odt2Daisy (espeak) – odt2Braille
• Extensions to Mainstream Application
– OpenOffice.org
• Guides you
through the
process
– Style guides
– Tutorials
• Output
– Open Daisy format
– supports BRF
and PEF

11. Prototype:
Mobile Contact Manager

12. Prototype:
Open Gazer – dasher …..
• Continuation of OpenGazer:
– gaze tracking with
webcam (Cambridge
Univ)
• Dasher in mobile
environments
•www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/opengazer/

13. Other Prototypes:
• Gnome desktop magnifier
• Haptic maps
• Instant messaging for mobiles
• Screen reader for mobiles
• e-speak Improvements
– English, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Greek
• Support for WAI – ARIA
– Cross platform

14. Prototypes:
Training

15. Other Initiatives
• User forum
• OAEG Site
– Blog aggregator (Blog of blogs)
– A11y Repository
• with links to OATSoft.org
– Professional mobility scheme
• A11y Ontology wiki in development
• Training resources

16. Technological Objectives - 1
• Developers Tools
– Improve speed, accuracy, ease and expense of creating
accessible applications
• Eye-tracking
– Develop highly affordable access to desktop and mobile devices
• Desktop – Mobile communication
– Explore real-time-text transfer
• Concept Coding
– Explore and develop ontology based symbol support in standard
office software

17. Technological Objectives -2
• Mobile Applications
– Develop a Text to Speech Engine (based on espeak)
– Develop alternative text entry (based on Dasher)
– Develop AAC prototype (using CCF)
• Window management
– Develop symbol, magnification & text-to speech techniques to
assist locating applications
• User Interfaces
– Develop methods for exposing API-based accessibility
information from free-form ‘Web 2.0’and other user interfaces
• Accessibility Testing
– Develop framework for rapid detection of accessibility problems

18. Social & Economic Objectives
• Empowerment
– Access to Internet services
– Access to mainstream ICT
– Accessible Desktop and Mobile devices at
negligible extra cost
Affordability for all

19. Contacts
Project website http://www.aegis-project.eu/
David Colven colven@ace-centre.org.uk
ACE Centre
92 Windmill Road
Headington
Oxford
OX3 7DR www.ace-centre.org.uk