e-Accessibility Monitoring in Europe and the state of public digital terminals

Jose Angel Martínez UseroDirector of International Projects

24 Hour Universal Design Challenge and Seminar 2010

e-Accessibility Monitoring in Europe and the state of public digital terminals

Monitoring eAccessibility• Objective• Scope• Approach• Outcomes

Basic research in accessible PDTs• INREDIS research• Prototype on accessible digital panels

Innovation in PDTs• APSIS4all EU pilot• “la Caixa” pilot on accessible and personalised ATMs

eAccessibility monitoring: What is the problem?

• MeAC1 study shows that eAccessibility progress in Europe is still low

• Need of awareness about status of eAccessibility practice and policy

• Benchmarking information for national policy makers on eAccessibility evolution

eAccessibility monitoring: Objectives

• Monitor the status and progress made in eAccessibility.

• Provide useful information tools for policy makers and researchers

• Establish a direct and regular relationship with the relevant actors

• Define, develop and apply a benchmarking framework.

eAccessibility monitoring: Scope

Selection of countries:

12 EU + 3 Non-EU + 2 voluntary basis

EU countries: United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, France, The Netherlands and Czech Republic.

Non-EU countries: United States, Australia and Canada.

Countries participating in a voluntary basis: Norway, Greece

eAccessibility monitoring: Scope

Selection of technologies:

TELEPHONY: Fixed tel.; Mobile tel.; Special telephones

INTERNET: Web; Mobile Web

MEDIA: Digital TV contents, Digital TV receivers

HOMES: Digital homes; Telecare

URBAN ENVIRONMENT: ATMs, vending machines, virtual kiosks and Public announcement systems

EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT: Electronic books; Elearning platforms

WORK ENVIRONMENT: Office technology - hardware and software

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES: Hardware; Software

eAccessibility monitoring: Approach

Analysis of national experts (30 + 6)

18 technology experts (technology questionnaire)18 policy experts (policy questionnaire)

Surveys to main stakeholders

Consultation to user associations

Workshops with experts

Analysis of main results and feedback from decision makers.

eAccessibility monitoring: Main outcomes

Web applications:

• Website• Balance Scorecard Tool • Search applications and download of raw data

Reports:

• Two Annual Reports• Benchmarking report• Expert workshop report • Report on the transposition of eaccessibility articles of Telecom

Directives• Report on the interpretation and implementation of WCAG 2.0

eAccessibility monitoring: website

http://www.eaccessibility-monitoring.eu

Public Digital Terminals: present status

• The number of PDTs has been increasing over the years.

• The term PDT covers a wide variety of terminals, in different

environments and for diverse purposes: Automated Teller Machines

(ATMs), Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs), information kiosks, vending

machines etc.

• Many are not supervised, and may present accessibility barriers,

thus excluding people.

Public Digital Terminals: accessibility status

• MEAC 2010

• Data gathered

June-September

2010

Public Digital Terminals: evolution

Number of ATMs in EU countries (2001-2009)Source: European Central Bank (2009)

Public Digital Terminals: accessibility

• The accessibility barriers mainly affect to people with disabilities and elderly people:

• Blind people and people with low vision

• Deaf people and people with hearing impairment

• People with motor impairments

• People with mild cognitive impairment and/or learning difficulties

• Wheelchair users

• Elderly people

Public Digital Terminals: accessibility

• The affected users can include everyone:

• People dealing with situational constraints (e.g. lighting conditions)

• Tourists or immigrants who do not understand the local language.

• People who are not familiar with ICT.

Basic research in accessible PDTs

INREDIS project

INREDIS prototype

Accessible and interoperable PDT

Mashup:

• Gmaps

• Avatars

• YouTube

• Flickr

• Twitter

• Facebook profiles

INREDIS prototype

Accessibility features:

• Blind: voice navigation

• Deaf: Spanish sign language navigation

• Emotion

• Touchscreen

Interoperable using mobile browser

Available on June 2009

More info: http://cdt.inredis.es/

Innovation in PDTs: APSIS4all approach

APSIS4all pilot in Spain

Spanish pilot: The solution

• Collection of users’ needs and preferences through automatic tools (i.e. website applications)

• Also by face-to-face meetings with experts, ticking boxes on forms or phone calls

• Needs and preferences coded according EN1332-4

• Information stored in:

• Common bank cards (EMV-compliant smartcards) or,

• Contactless smartcards (RFID) or,

• NFC-enabled mobiles (optionally)

• Provision of the most suitable interface mode available form a set of accessible and usable interfaces in 65 ATMs in Barcelona:

is also available

Spanish pilot: new benefits for users

• Users only need to indicate their needs and preferences once

• The activation protocol is common for all users

• The activation protocol does not require any additional action by the user or a minimal gesture (e.g. touching the RF reader)

• Users do not depend on knowing/remembering the activation protocol

• Users will obtain the most suitable interface automatically

See animation

Thanks for your attention

José Angel Martinez UseroDirector of International Projects

jamartinez@technosite.es