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51 etna
1. ETNA – European Thematic
Network on Assistive Information
and Communication Technologies
Lindsay Evett, David Brown, David Colven, Andrew Lysley, Renzo Andrich
ISRG NTU, ACE centre, Polo Tecnologico Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus
AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, Brussels
2. Introduction
The overall goal of the ETNA thematic network is to
establish a European Web Portal able to provide
information on assistive products based on ICT
(information and communication technologies) and e-
accessibility solutions which are available in Europe, and
on related organizations and services
To give access to repositories of freeware, open source
software products, tools for developers of assistive
solutions, and for mainstream developers to make their
products accessible
Platform to share expertise, ideas, views, resources and
experience
AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, Brussels
3. Introduction (contd.)
European Assistive Technology Information
Network (EASTIN) portal is the start
Will take advantage of existing repositories such as
SpeechBubble, OATSoft, OAEG
Will be maintained through a collaborative effort of
the partners
Full multilingualism for all EU languages; integrate
range of various different Info Systems
resources
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4. Six main stages
1. Identify information needs of all stakeholders, to specify
requirements of the portal
2. Inventory of existing EU resources, deciding what to
include
3. Classify the key features of ICT AT products through
appropriate ontologies
4. Classify authoring systems and developers tools through
appropriate ontologies
5. EASTIN portal upgraded to ensure unified and efficient
access to all resources
6. Field-test the portal, to evaluate effectiveness in
meeting the identified needs, fine-tune the portal
AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, Brussels
5. Consortium
Partners chosen to represent the range of commitment and
expertise, at national and international level, across the
AT domain – academic/research, industrial/development,
service delivery, health/social services, AT usage/user
organisations across Europe:
Organisations committed to public information provision in
AT and educational technology, many part of EASTIN
Organisations specialised in research, development and
application of ICT accessibility and assistive solutions
Organisations of people with disabilities with significant
experience of research and promotion of social inclusion
through ICT
Professional networks supporting the advancement of AT
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6. Impact
Make information on available AT and accessibility products
and services across Europe more transparent and easily
available to users
Connect developers, providers and suppliers of ICT AT
solutions across Europe, to advance solutions
Connect researchers, developers, professionals with end-
users
Enable mainstream developers to create more accessible
products
Overcome fragmentation in ICT AT and accessibility
markets, to improve and support performance in the
market
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7. Challenges
Pace of development – ICT AT fastest developing
in AT world, adaptive, can be mainstream, don’t
fit easily in to existing classifications
Specialised knowledge of needs can be isolated –
needs connecting
Knowledge of ICT assistive products can also be
fragmented
Wide range of stakeholders have different
information needs – unified access to all
resources for all stakeholders
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8. Progress so far
WP2: Map of information needs – identify ICT AT domains,
stakeholders profiles and their search needs, types of
information to be covered to meet those needs,
challenges (dynamic, mainstream, pervasive,
accessibility, inclusion, social participation, digital
natives)
WP3: focused on exploring and classifying useful, varied,
internet resources concerned with various aspects of ICT
AT; inventory; analysing criteria for inclusion/exclusion
and strategies for linking to the ETNA portal search
engine; possible quality indicators; review of newly
reengineered EASTIN portal; ISO 9999:2011
WP4: to consider creation of an ontology of ICT-based
assistive products (January 2012)
AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, Brussels
9. Examples of Resources from Initial
List
Software source oodes
Software applications
Product records
Name of the provider Brief description of the resources
TOPIC
Case Studies
(in English) provided
Regulations
Language
Projects
Forums
Articles
Ideas
News
FAQs
AT general X X X X X X X Public searchable databases of products, companies, centres, ideas,
SIVA Portal on case studies, fact sheets; online advice; forum
IT EN
assistive technologies
AAC products X X Public searchable databases of AAC products EN
SpeechBubble
X X X X EN
Open Source Assistive AT software
repository;
online repository of open source AT software; platform for open
source AT developers
Technology Software resources for
development
(OATS)
X X X X X Repository of open source AT and resources for development; EN
AEGIS Open AT software
repository; information on accessibility standards; blog aggregator
Accessibility resources for
development
Everywhere Group
(OAEG)
Online-database accessible ICT AT and related X X Product and supplier database DE
equipment EN
communication
AAC applications X A listing of iOS apps in the area of AAC – with short descriptions, and links to more EN
AppsForAAC detailed information, reviews and ratings. Supports comments from site visitors etc.
AAC applications X Comprehensive list of apps with concise information and links to further information, EN
maintained in three categories: Apps with Symbols/Pictures only, Apps with Symbols
iPhone/iPad Apps for AAC and Text-to-Speech, Text based apps only. Comments and ratings based on a defined
list of criteria.
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12. Search results - comparisons
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13. OATS – www.oatsoft.org
OATSoft is dedicated to improving Assistive Technology and computer
accessibility through the power of Open Source development
techniques. OATSoft makes the best Open Source Assistive
Technology Software (OATS) easy to find. Users and developers
meet at OATSoft to create better software.
Users, find useful free software and discuss and work with developers
to get the features that you want.
Developers, work with users and other projects to develop new
features and shared re-usable components.
Open Source Software is free and the 'source code' that makes the
software is freely available. It is developed by international
communities operating on-line.
Assistive Technology Software allows people with disabilities to
overcome some of the disabling effects of society and technology,
including computer and web accessibility.
AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, Brussels
14. Open Accessibility Everywhere
Group
OAEG Mission Statement:
The Open Accessibility Everywhere Group
(OAEG) is a co-ordinated effort of the
AEGIS consortium, which brings together
all open source accessibility communities,
as well as the techniques and approaches
they use
Thus, the OAEG anticipates to be “the
community of the communities” in the
open accessibility world
AEGIS Workshop and International Conference, Brussels
15. Summary
Aim to establish European Web Portal to provide
information on ICT-based assistive products, e-
accessibility solutions, related organisations and
services. So far, the project has considered:
• the information needs of all the stakeholders;
• a classification of resources;
• the definition of a linking strategy;
• the definition of inclusion and exclusion criteria of providers and resources;
• the identification of elements that may contribute to the definition of quality
indicators for the resources;
• an initial list of providers containing resources that are considered relevant
for the Thematic Network portal.
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