Smart meters

A new section on smart meters has been added to the Guidelines for Accessible ICT at http://www.johngilltech.com/guidelines/smart_meters.htm

Guidelines for accessible ICT

Guidelines for the design of accessible information and communication technology systems have been updated and are at http://www.johngilltech.com/guidelines/guidelines_list.htm

If there is anything you think should be added to these guidelines, please let me know.

Priorities for Future Research

A summary of the conference on Accessible ICT: Priorities for Future Research on Accessible Information and Communication Technology Systems and Services is at http://www.cardiac-eu.org/about/conference.htm

The website also has copies of the presentations, biographies of the speakers as well as a link to the videos of the presentations.

Questionnaire of research priorities

The Cardiac project has produced a questionnaire on research priorities for accessible ICT. It is at http://www.cardiac-eu.org/roadmap/QuestionnaireV4C.pdf They would like responses by 22nd February.

The Future of Accessible ICT

“The Future of Accessible ICT” has been published by the IET. This is a background document for the conference on 22nd January on “Accessible ICT: Priorities for Future Research on Accessible Information and Communication Technology Systems and Services”. The agenda is at http://www.cardiac-eu.org/about/conference.htm

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Network-based Location Services

A seminar was held on Priorities for Accessible Location Services Using Network-based Information on 18th October in London. A summary of the seminar is at http://www.cardiac-eu.org/network/seminar.htm If you click on the title of the presentation, you will get a PDF of the PowerPoint.

The next meeting, being organised by Cardiac, is on Accessible ICT on 22nd January 2013 in London. The details are at http://www.cardiac-eu.org/about/conference.htm

Draft standard

An ETSI team has published a draft of EN 301 549 Accessibility Requirements for Public Procurement of ICT Products and Services in Europe (for full text see http://www.mandate376.eu). You need to submit comments on this draft using their comments form by 31st May.

Accessible User Interfaces

The seminar on “Priorities for Standardisation of Accessible User Interfaces” covered a wide variety of emerging trends in user interaction with a view of trying to identify which of these trends will most influence the need for new standards over the whole range of terminals (bank ATMs, supermarket terminals, ticket and vending machines, home appliances, computer terminals, etc).

The trends in user interfaces include the move towards ‘touch’ as a predominant mode of interaction, the potential for increased use of voice communication, the use of gesturing and emotional communication and the possibility of interaction on large surfaces (tables or windows for example). From an infrastructure point of view, the trends are moving towards having less networks but more services. The bandwidth forecasts underline the rising demands and in particular the growth in bandwidth needed for connected devices, dongles and high-end smartphones over the next 5 years to 10 years.

The latest trends in biometrics indicate that a wide variety of technologies being applied with new user interfaces. Whether it be face, finger, iris, vascular, hand geometry or voice recognition, biometrics are going to play an increasing role as a means of identification in a wide area of applications and contexts. The standardisation of the user interface is likely to be a significant factor for many users of these systems.

The priorities for future research include ubiquitous computing beyond human computer interaction, innovative user interfaces, user modelling and adaptive interfaces, design methodologies and tools, interoperability and research on reducing cognitive load. Supporting research that looks at how to reduce the complexity of user interaction whilst retaining functionality will assist the analysis of the cognitive load of various user interfaces whilst also supporting the development and enforcement of standardized and harmonized remote interfaces

The ability to adapt user preferences and personalisation is of importance to a wide variety of users. The coding of user requirements is addressed in the CEN EN1332-4 standard. The SNAPI project is using this standard to deliver accessibility by allowing users to set up their own preferences. The European APSIS4all project is aiming to personalise public digital terminals through the implementation of EN1332-4. It is planned to extend this standard to include XML coding.

Work on this standard was initiated in 1994 but it has taken up to now for a significant number of applications to be implemented. The ability to demonstrate how the system works is crucial ingredient in the successful uptake and deployment since standards don’t deploy themselves.

Further information is at http://www.cardiac-eu.org/user_interfaces/seminar.htm

Update

I have been out of action since having a heart operation, but I am now recovered such that I can answer emails and take telephone calls.

Accessible Self-service Terminals

A new European project has started which will address some of the accessibility problems of self-service terminals such as ATMs and ticket vending machines at railway stations. For further information see http://www.apsis4all.eu/