ACM SIGCAPH Computers and the Physically Handicapped

Alm, Norman; Nakamura, Kenryu

doi: 10.1145/569320.569321pmid: N/A

Maguire, Martin

doi: 10.1145/569320.569322pmid: N/A

Information technology is continually developing and in the last few years there has been a rapid growth in electronic telecommunications to provide Internet and other network-based services. Interest in using telecommunications to provide services to the public is growing, with a number of pilot services being set up across the country to explore market potential and/or stimulate demand.Administrations across Europe are now using telecommunications technology to provide citizens with information (Hoare, 1998). The British Government, for instance, has issued a directive that 25% of all civil service communications must be on-line by 2002. This is intended to provide savings in paperwork and a streamlined service.An area of possible government assistance is to provide the public with on-line information about welfare benefit entitlement. This may have benefits for all members of society but could be of particular value for retired and older members of the public, many of whom do not always claim their entitlement. It is estimated in the UK, for example, that one million pensioners could be entitled to Income Support that they are not claiming (Benefits Agency, 1998). To provide information to the public, the Benefits Agency produces a website of over 1,000 pages for customers to browse through which can be viewed at http://www.dss.gov.uk/ba. Yet while many people are now connected to the Internet, and the EU average is 25 computers connected per thousand people, (Lennon, 1999) the number of older or retired people using it is still quite small. An indication of this is given by the results of the worldwide 10th Georgia Tech web survey (GVU, 1999). The survey, conducted in 1998, received 5,022 responses of which only 2.7% were from people who were 66 years of age and over.This raises the key question of whether older people will be able to benefit from the promise of the connected future, with information available electronically on tap, or whether they will get left behind. This also represents a lost opportunity for suppliers as, according to Oftel (the UK telephone watchdog organisation) and disability campaign groups, A growing grey market containing millions of potential customers is being ignored in the telecoms boom, Dawe (1998). This paper, therefore, discusses a number of issues relating to making telecommunication services accessible to the population as a whole.

Velasco, Carlos A.; Verelst, Tony

doi: 10.1145/569320.569323pmid: N/A

We are in the middle of a revolution similar to that of the industrial revolution of the 19 th century, the Information Society. This revolution is affecting the way we work, the way we study, the way we shop, and many other aspects of our daily life. Concepts such as teleworking, e---commerce, co-operative work, tele---cottage or tele---training are becoming part of our regular vocabulary.The birth of this new society has many implications for everybody. It will open new opportunities, but it will close many others. Information is the keyword. Society might be split into two sectors: those who are wired and those who will stay un---wired. Although while you are an active participant in the events, it is difficult to analyze the facts happening in your world with some perspective, we feel that people with disabilities cannot afford to stay out of the loop.The concern of many people on these issues was the seed of ISdAC International Association. It was obvious that we had to inform our constituency about these changes. Conventional channels were no longer effective, and new approaches had to be found. In the middle of the fight, we must be aware of many accessibility issues. We realized that we had a twofold target: not only we had to reach our constituency, but we had to deal with content providers and software developers as well. We knew that we shall play the role of a bridge between the designers and a market sector which influence will not be negligible.This presentation will not focus in a particular technical issue, but will present some snapshots of our experience in relation with the topics of this workshop: Web design and software development.

Lindenberg, J.; Neerincx, M. A.

doi: 10.1145/569320.569324pmid: N/A

The countries of the European Union generally want to enhance self-support for the elderly and disabled and consequently strive for accessibility of 'mainstream' Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for these inhabitants. The 'universal accessibility' approach is advocated as a possibility to include all user groups in the software development process.The European Union supports research in this area, for example by funding the project Assessing the Awareness of the Design for All Approach (AADAA consortium, 1998).However, the 'universal accessibility' approach is not as widely spread in the design community, as it should be. Several reasons have been identified. First, the phenomenon that 'universal accessibility' products are perceived as dull by the designers creates serious problems for the acceptance of the 'universal accessibility' paradigm. This might, however, be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Second, the cost of involving elderly and disabled users in software development can be higher than for involving the rest of the population. On the other hand, a broader perspective comprises also the advantages of the 'universal accessibility' approach: The involvement of elderly in the design process often results in better products for all kind of users so that the overall utility of this approach is high (Gleiss et al., 1995). Furthermore, the number of potential users of the 'universal accessible' product also increases so it might very well be a good investment. Third, the extra constraints on design possibilities are another objection. However, it could be that the constraints force the designers to be creative, bringing about new ideas that enrich the total design space (Newell & Gregor, 1997). In sum, the three problems of dullness, design costs and design constraints can be solved by evoking positive attitudes, widened cost-benefit analyses and creative design solutions. However, to realise 'universal accessibility', the corresponding human factors knowledge should be incorporated into the design practice. Currently, designers take insufficiently account of human-factors knowledge on elderly and disabled (Neerincx, 1998). This paper provides a cognitive engineering approach to solve this problem.