Newsletter 6 AEGIS project
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Transcript of Newsletter 6 AEGIS project
AEGIS
Open Accessibility Everywhere
Groundwork Infrastructure Standards
M A R C H 2 0 1 1 I S S U E 6
Editorial
At a Glance
Acronym
AEGIS
Full Title
Open Accessibil-
ity Everywhere
Groundwork In-
frastructure
Standards
Contract No
FP7-224348
Start Date
September 2008
End date
February 2012
The Project is co-
funded by the
European
Commission
7th
Framework
Programme
The AEGIS Consortium is pleased to announce the sixth issue of its News-
letter The special focus of this issue is on the findings of our survey on
European Assistive Technologies and their actual (non-)usage As usual
updates are provided about current AEGIS accomplishments and proto-
types
AEGIS is not only about technology but also about people and how their
needs can be met This is why this issue features an interview with one of
our users
Finally the full details of the 2nd international AEGIS Conference and User
Forum are provided together with a wide range of social media that will al-
low those can not participate in person to still follow it via one of the many
platforms available such as Facebook Twitter etc
Please feel free to contact us for any further details comments or just to
share your experiences in the above fields of interest
The AEGIS consortium
AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infrastructure
Standards) is a research project funded by the European Commission
working in the area of accessibility and independent living AEGIS devel-
ops an Open Accessibility Framework (OAF) consisting of open source
accessible interfaces and accessibility toolkits for developers alongside
accessible applications and open source assistive technologies for users
AEGIS will produce this framework through user research and prototype
development with current and next generation ICT This should deeply
embed accessibility into future ICT for the open desktop rich Internet ap-
plications and mobile devices AEGIS results will be referred to standards
organisations where appropriate and made available under open source
licenses to the greatest extent possible
P A G E 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
You saidhellip Interviews with AEGIS user (Lourdes Gonzaacutelez Perea Direc-
tor of Accessible Technologies at Technosite)
What is the profile of your disability
I have visual impairment blindness
What is your experience in the use of computers mobile
phones and the Internet
I consider myself as an advanced user of these technologies For ex-
ample I started to use the computer when I was 13 years old I also
had a mobile phone when almost none of my friends had I guess my
needs of communication made me getting interested in technology al-
though in general we use a lot of technology in my family A few years
ago about 1998 in my house we had 4 computers and a television
when in Spanish households it was just the opposite
Can you explain how important are support technologies in
your day to day
They have a great importance Thanks to them I can use the same
technologies as people who do have the ability to see
What are the main difficulties that you encounter as a user of
assistive technologies
The main difficulty is that they are specific to each device operating
system etc If we had the assistive technologies in the cloud we
would not have to do so much investment in them (I mean not only fi-
nancial investment) taking the time to install configure learn how to
use etc
Which are the main barriers that have been observed in the
current solutions Are all assistive technologies available
Are they affordable
No not all of them are available For example although it takes too
much time talking about the accessibility to DTV we still do not have a
solution The price is also a barrier Maybe in Spain it is not so much
as we have the support of ONCE (National Organization of Spanish
blind people) covering our adaptations when we are training or working
but this situation does not happen in other countries
P A G E 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Luckily some manufacturers are betting on it and we are aware of it For example I have a
mobile phone that brings its assistive technologies integrated I also have a speaking voice
recorder etc These are devices that I havenlsquot had to buy at a specific store for people with
disabilities
In addition I have to say that there is also a lack of awareness among users about what the
existing assistive technologies are and of course this is also a barrier
Can you comment on the qualityreliability of any of the assistive technologies
you know
Yes I usually use Jaws screen reader and VoiceOver on my iPhone Both assistive tech-
nologies are very complete for me They cover perfectly my needs There are also free and
quality assistive solutions as the screen reader NVDA
How do you think AEGIS could have an impact on the availability and afforda-
bility of current assistive technologies
By focusing on the design of solutions that fit standardized technologies and contributing to
the diffusion and dissemination
Illustration Lourdes Gonzaacutelez
P A G E 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Specifically what do you think about the Odt2braille prototype
I consider it is very useful especially for people who can see and are interested in printing a
document for a blind person Currently the prototype has areas for improvement but the
basis is very good
What are the main advantages that you find in the prototype
The main advantage is that it is not necessary to know Braille to print a text in Braille for a
blind person
How do you think this will benefit blind people
It will help to the spread and diffusion of Braille but it is also true that Braille printers are ex-
pensive so the institutions of a certain magnitude will be the only ones to be able to use this
solution
Do you miss something in the prototype What features or functionalities should
be improved
Yes the software is not accessible to blind people I mean OpenOffice does not work well
with the most used screen readers in Spain Jaws and other programs cannot be used by
this group In addition some errors occur when printing the text I mean the printed text is
not totally faithful I found some problems with the number of the pages the titles or the
lines
What do you think of this new approach of integrating Braille in a mainstream
word processor (In contrast with existing Braille editors that are typically stand-
alone applications)
It seems to be a very positive solution
Do you think odt2braille is mature enough to be used for production purposes
Not at the moment I believe it can be used in educational centers and it could be very use-
ful for example if the blind person could learn and adapt to the limitations of the software
Do you think that Odt2braille will be adopted by the community of people with
visual impairments
If the indicated improvements are incorporated yes
P A G E 5
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
AEGIS delivers
The Tecla Access tools read about our latest developments
1 Tekla is now Tecla Access
From now on ―Tekla our project to develop a set of open software and
hardware tools that facilitate access to mobile devices for people with
mobility impairments will be called ―Tecla Access (with a ―c) to avoid
confusion with another product
2 Tecla will soon support voice input and voice commands
The latest version of Tecla Access 045 (alpha) for Android was re-
leased last month This version incorporates a more intuitive way to
configure self-scanning speed thanks to the helpful suggestions by
Mats Lundaumllv But that is just the beginning Work is currently underway
to add the ability to write text and control the device by speaking into
the microphone Yes voice input and voice commands are coming to
Tecla Access In the meanwhile you can download Tecla Access from
the Android Market at httpbitlyTekla4Android
Please install the Tecla App today and feel free to send your feedback
so we can keep improving it
3 Tecla Access amp DAISY Reader at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
Our friend Steve Lee was kind enough to share the results of the eBook
Reader accessibility project at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
(httpbitlykh4Mi8) which took place in Birmingham UK this past
June The project consisted on using the Tecla Access App and Shield
to enable switch access to Julian Hartys open-source DAISY eBook
Reader (httpbitlyjrCebz) The DevCSI team published a great video
of Julians talk including the demo he made at the end of the event
(httpvimeocom25856062)
You can re-live the highlights through Kirsty Pitkins comprehensive
post at the DevCSI site httpbitlyo2Io2v
4 Earlier this month a Tecla Shield prototype was spotted at the
Transfer SummitUK in Keble College Oxford (http
transfersummitcom) Take a look at the picture here httpbitly
nk1Mh2 It is great to see that word on the Tecla Access Project is
quickly spreading around
Illustration Tecla logo
P A G E 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
LWUIT - Mobile Accessibility
Highlighting some of the AEGIS mobile accessibility work Oracle presented ―Mobile Accessi-bility with LWUIT at JavaOne 2011 announcing and demonstrating AEGIS research work that builds accessibility support into LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit) which is used to create mobile applications for Java ME LWUIT has already become a standard for writing Java ME applications and this research work supports using LWUIT for creating accessible mobile applications for the Java ME platform In the context of AEGIS research project following work has been done
Definition of initial accessibility API for Java mobile largely mirroring the Java SE ac-cessibility API defined in javaxaccessibility package
W3CWeb Accessibility Initiatives ARIA specification for metadata tags in this mobile accessibility API (eg using the ARIA state properties for the the states that UI controls can be in)
Accessibility API using a Broker pattern is implemented providing a separate Broker class that is optionally loaded into the Java mobile runtime alongside the LWUIT applica-tion and which implements the accessibility API on behalf of the LWUIT component
An inter-process communication Accessibility Bus MIDlet that handles event tracking and forwards accessibility API calls from assistive technologies to the application (which then get handled by the Broker)
Several test assistive technologies Java mobile versions of the perennial desktop favorites ―Ferret and ―Money (as well as their Java Access Bridge counterparts ―Java Ferret and ―Java Monkey for the JavaSE accessibility API) Specifically
Mobile Ferret can listen for a variety of events and will show event changes expos-ing ARIA property names
Mobile Monkey presents a tree view of all of the UI components on the screen with automatic updates as the screen changes and the ability to provide detailed info on the selected component
A screen reader prototype which uses cloud-based text-to-speech to voice LWUIT ap-plications for blind users
Development of a set of LWUIT themes for users with vision impairments - including Large Print black on white Large Print white on black and Large Print yellow on black (with some white) - all tested with users with vision impairments
AEGIS partners contributing to this work include Oracle CERTH Fundacion Vodafone Spain and the University Polytechnic Madrid
For more information see the JavaOne presentation at httpblogsoraclecomkornresource21761_Leitne_Korn_publishpdf and see a video showing the prototype screen reader working with the stock ―UI Demo LWUIT application at httpblogsoraclecomkornresourceLWUIT_screen_reader-quicktimemov
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
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These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
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These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
You saidhellip Interviews with AEGIS user (Lourdes Gonzaacutelez Perea Direc-
tor of Accessible Technologies at Technosite)
What is the profile of your disability
I have visual impairment blindness
What is your experience in the use of computers mobile
phones and the Internet
I consider myself as an advanced user of these technologies For ex-
ample I started to use the computer when I was 13 years old I also
had a mobile phone when almost none of my friends had I guess my
needs of communication made me getting interested in technology al-
though in general we use a lot of technology in my family A few years
ago about 1998 in my house we had 4 computers and a television
when in Spanish households it was just the opposite
Can you explain how important are support technologies in
your day to day
They have a great importance Thanks to them I can use the same
technologies as people who do have the ability to see
What are the main difficulties that you encounter as a user of
assistive technologies
The main difficulty is that they are specific to each device operating
system etc If we had the assistive technologies in the cloud we
would not have to do so much investment in them (I mean not only fi-
nancial investment) taking the time to install configure learn how to
use etc
Which are the main barriers that have been observed in the
current solutions Are all assistive technologies available
Are they affordable
No not all of them are available For example although it takes too
much time talking about the accessibility to DTV we still do not have a
solution The price is also a barrier Maybe in Spain it is not so much
as we have the support of ONCE (National Organization of Spanish
blind people) covering our adaptations when we are training or working
but this situation does not happen in other countries
P A G E 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Luckily some manufacturers are betting on it and we are aware of it For example I have a
mobile phone that brings its assistive technologies integrated I also have a speaking voice
recorder etc These are devices that I havenlsquot had to buy at a specific store for people with
disabilities
In addition I have to say that there is also a lack of awareness among users about what the
existing assistive technologies are and of course this is also a barrier
Can you comment on the qualityreliability of any of the assistive technologies
you know
Yes I usually use Jaws screen reader and VoiceOver on my iPhone Both assistive tech-
nologies are very complete for me They cover perfectly my needs There are also free and
quality assistive solutions as the screen reader NVDA
How do you think AEGIS could have an impact on the availability and afforda-
bility of current assistive technologies
By focusing on the design of solutions that fit standardized technologies and contributing to
the diffusion and dissemination
Illustration Lourdes Gonzaacutelez
P A G E 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Specifically what do you think about the Odt2braille prototype
I consider it is very useful especially for people who can see and are interested in printing a
document for a blind person Currently the prototype has areas for improvement but the
basis is very good
What are the main advantages that you find in the prototype
The main advantage is that it is not necessary to know Braille to print a text in Braille for a
blind person
How do you think this will benefit blind people
It will help to the spread and diffusion of Braille but it is also true that Braille printers are ex-
pensive so the institutions of a certain magnitude will be the only ones to be able to use this
solution
Do you miss something in the prototype What features or functionalities should
be improved
Yes the software is not accessible to blind people I mean OpenOffice does not work well
with the most used screen readers in Spain Jaws and other programs cannot be used by
this group In addition some errors occur when printing the text I mean the printed text is
not totally faithful I found some problems with the number of the pages the titles or the
lines
What do you think of this new approach of integrating Braille in a mainstream
word processor (In contrast with existing Braille editors that are typically stand-
alone applications)
It seems to be a very positive solution
Do you think odt2braille is mature enough to be used for production purposes
Not at the moment I believe it can be used in educational centers and it could be very use-
ful for example if the blind person could learn and adapt to the limitations of the software
Do you think that Odt2braille will be adopted by the community of people with
visual impairments
If the indicated improvements are incorporated yes
P A G E 5
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AEGIS delivers
The Tecla Access tools read about our latest developments
1 Tekla is now Tecla Access
From now on ―Tekla our project to develop a set of open software and
hardware tools that facilitate access to mobile devices for people with
mobility impairments will be called ―Tecla Access (with a ―c) to avoid
confusion with another product
2 Tecla will soon support voice input and voice commands
The latest version of Tecla Access 045 (alpha) for Android was re-
leased last month This version incorporates a more intuitive way to
configure self-scanning speed thanks to the helpful suggestions by
Mats Lundaumllv But that is just the beginning Work is currently underway
to add the ability to write text and control the device by speaking into
the microphone Yes voice input and voice commands are coming to
Tecla Access In the meanwhile you can download Tecla Access from
the Android Market at httpbitlyTekla4Android
Please install the Tecla App today and feel free to send your feedback
so we can keep improving it
3 Tecla Access amp DAISY Reader at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
Our friend Steve Lee was kind enough to share the results of the eBook
Reader accessibility project at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
(httpbitlykh4Mi8) which took place in Birmingham UK this past
June The project consisted on using the Tecla Access App and Shield
to enable switch access to Julian Hartys open-source DAISY eBook
Reader (httpbitlyjrCebz) The DevCSI team published a great video
of Julians talk including the demo he made at the end of the event
(httpvimeocom25856062)
You can re-live the highlights through Kirsty Pitkins comprehensive
post at the DevCSI site httpbitlyo2Io2v
4 Earlier this month a Tecla Shield prototype was spotted at the
Transfer SummitUK in Keble College Oxford (http
transfersummitcom) Take a look at the picture here httpbitly
nk1Mh2 It is great to see that word on the Tecla Access Project is
quickly spreading around
Illustration Tecla logo
P A G E 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
LWUIT - Mobile Accessibility
Highlighting some of the AEGIS mobile accessibility work Oracle presented ―Mobile Accessi-bility with LWUIT at JavaOne 2011 announcing and demonstrating AEGIS research work that builds accessibility support into LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit) which is used to create mobile applications for Java ME LWUIT has already become a standard for writing Java ME applications and this research work supports using LWUIT for creating accessible mobile applications for the Java ME platform In the context of AEGIS research project following work has been done
Definition of initial accessibility API for Java mobile largely mirroring the Java SE ac-cessibility API defined in javaxaccessibility package
W3CWeb Accessibility Initiatives ARIA specification for metadata tags in this mobile accessibility API (eg using the ARIA state properties for the the states that UI controls can be in)
Accessibility API using a Broker pattern is implemented providing a separate Broker class that is optionally loaded into the Java mobile runtime alongside the LWUIT applica-tion and which implements the accessibility API on behalf of the LWUIT component
An inter-process communication Accessibility Bus MIDlet that handles event tracking and forwards accessibility API calls from assistive technologies to the application (which then get handled by the Broker)
Several test assistive technologies Java mobile versions of the perennial desktop favorites ―Ferret and ―Money (as well as their Java Access Bridge counterparts ―Java Ferret and ―Java Monkey for the JavaSE accessibility API) Specifically
Mobile Ferret can listen for a variety of events and will show event changes expos-ing ARIA property names
Mobile Monkey presents a tree view of all of the UI components on the screen with automatic updates as the screen changes and the ability to provide detailed info on the selected component
A screen reader prototype which uses cloud-based text-to-speech to voice LWUIT ap-plications for blind users
Development of a set of LWUIT themes for users with vision impairments - including Large Print black on white Large Print white on black and Large Print yellow on black (with some white) - all tested with users with vision impairments
AEGIS partners contributing to this work include Oracle CERTH Fundacion Vodafone Spain and the University Polytechnic Madrid
For more information see the JavaOne presentation at httpblogsoraclecomkornresource21761_Leitne_Korn_publishpdf and see a video showing the prototype screen reader working with the stock ―UI Demo LWUIT application at httpblogsoraclecomkornresourceLWUIT_screen_reader-quicktimemov
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
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JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
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Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
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These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
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These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
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European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Luckily some manufacturers are betting on it and we are aware of it For example I have a
mobile phone that brings its assistive technologies integrated I also have a speaking voice
recorder etc These are devices that I havenlsquot had to buy at a specific store for people with
disabilities
In addition I have to say that there is also a lack of awareness among users about what the
existing assistive technologies are and of course this is also a barrier
Can you comment on the qualityreliability of any of the assistive technologies
you know
Yes I usually use Jaws screen reader and VoiceOver on my iPhone Both assistive tech-
nologies are very complete for me They cover perfectly my needs There are also free and
quality assistive solutions as the screen reader NVDA
How do you think AEGIS could have an impact on the availability and afforda-
bility of current assistive technologies
By focusing on the design of solutions that fit standardized technologies and contributing to
the diffusion and dissemination
Illustration Lourdes Gonzaacutelez
P A G E 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Specifically what do you think about the Odt2braille prototype
I consider it is very useful especially for people who can see and are interested in printing a
document for a blind person Currently the prototype has areas for improvement but the
basis is very good
What are the main advantages that you find in the prototype
The main advantage is that it is not necessary to know Braille to print a text in Braille for a
blind person
How do you think this will benefit blind people
It will help to the spread and diffusion of Braille but it is also true that Braille printers are ex-
pensive so the institutions of a certain magnitude will be the only ones to be able to use this
solution
Do you miss something in the prototype What features or functionalities should
be improved
Yes the software is not accessible to blind people I mean OpenOffice does not work well
with the most used screen readers in Spain Jaws and other programs cannot be used by
this group In addition some errors occur when printing the text I mean the printed text is
not totally faithful I found some problems with the number of the pages the titles or the
lines
What do you think of this new approach of integrating Braille in a mainstream
word processor (In contrast with existing Braille editors that are typically stand-
alone applications)
It seems to be a very positive solution
Do you think odt2braille is mature enough to be used for production purposes
Not at the moment I believe it can be used in educational centers and it could be very use-
ful for example if the blind person could learn and adapt to the limitations of the software
Do you think that Odt2braille will be adopted by the community of people with
visual impairments
If the indicated improvements are incorporated yes
P A G E 5
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
AEGIS delivers
The Tecla Access tools read about our latest developments
1 Tekla is now Tecla Access
From now on ―Tekla our project to develop a set of open software and
hardware tools that facilitate access to mobile devices for people with
mobility impairments will be called ―Tecla Access (with a ―c) to avoid
confusion with another product
2 Tecla will soon support voice input and voice commands
The latest version of Tecla Access 045 (alpha) for Android was re-
leased last month This version incorporates a more intuitive way to
configure self-scanning speed thanks to the helpful suggestions by
Mats Lundaumllv But that is just the beginning Work is currently underway
to add the ability to write text and control the device by speaking into
the microphone Yes voice input and voice commands are coming to
Tecla Access In the meanwhile you can download Tecla Access from
the Android Market at httpbitlyTekla4Android
Please install the Tecla App today and feel free to send your feedback
so we can keep improving it
3 Tecla Access amp DAISY Reader at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
Our friend Steve Lee was kind enough to share the results of the eBook
Reader accessibility project at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
(httpbitlykh4Mi8) which took place in Birmingham UK this past
June The project consisted on using the Tecla Access App and Shield
to enable switch access to Julian Hartys open-source DAISY eBook
Reader (httpbitlyjrCebz) The DevCSI team published a great video
of Julians talk including the demo he made at the end of the event
(httpvimeocom25856062)
You can re-live the highlights through Kirsty Pitkins comprehensive
post at the DevCSI site httpbitlyo2Io2v
4 Earlier this month a Tecla Shield prototype was spotted at the
Transfer SummitUK in Keble College Oxford (http
transfersummitcom) Take a look at the picture here httpbitly
nk1Mh2 It is great to see that word on the Tecla Access Project is
quickly spreading around
Illustration Tecla logo
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LWUIT - Mobile Accessibility
Highlighting some of the AEGIS mobile accessibility work Oracle presented ―Mobile Accessi-bility with LWUIT at JavaOne 2011 announcing and demonstrating AEGIS research work that builds accessibility support into LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit) which is used to create mobile applications for Java ME LWUIT has already become a standard for writing Java ME applications and this research work supports using LWUIT for creating accessible mobile applications for the Java ME platform In the context of AEGIS research project following work has been done
Definition of initial accessibility API for Java mobile largely mirroring the Java SE ac-cessibility API defined in javaxaccessibility package
W3CWeb Accessibility Initiatives ARIA specification for metadata tags in this mobile accessibility API (eg using the ARIA state properties for the the states that UI controls can be in)
Accessibility API using a Broker pattern is implemented providing a separate Broker class that is optionally loaded into the Java mobile runtime alongside the LWUIT applica-tion and which implements the accessibility API on behalf of the LWUIT component
An inter-process communication Accessibility Bus MIDlet that handles event tracking and forwards accessibility API calls from assistive technologies to the application (which then get handled by the Broker)
Several test assistive technologies Java mobile versions of the perennial desktop favorites ―Ferret and ―Money (as well as their Java Access Bridge counterparts ―Java Ferret and ―Java Monkey for the JavaSE accessibility API) Specifically
Mobile Ferret can listen for a variety of events and will show event changes expos-ing ARIA property names
Mobile Monkey presents a tree view of all of the UI components on the screen with automatic updates as the screen changes and the ability to provide detailed info on the selected component
A screen reader prototype which uses cloud-based text-to-speech to voice LWUIT ap-plications for blind users
Development of a set of LWUIT themes for users with vision impairments - including Large Print black on white Large Print white on black and Large Print yellow on black (with some white) - all tested with users with vision impairments
AEGIS partners contributing to this work include Oracle CERTH Fundacion Vodafone Spain and the University Polytechnic Madrid
For more information see the JavaOne presentation at httpblogsoraclecomkornresource21761_Leitne_Korn_publishpdf and see a video showing the prototype screen reader working with the stock ―UI Demo LWUIT application at httpblogsoraclecomkornresourceLWUIT_screen_reader-quicktimemov
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
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JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
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Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
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European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 4 I S S U E 6
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Specifically what do you think about the Odt2braille prototype
I consider it is very useful especially for people who can see and are interested in printing a
document for a blind person Currently the prototype has areas for improvement but the
basis is very good
What are the main advantages that you find in the prototype
The main advantage is that it is not necessary to know Braille to print a text in Braille for a
blind person
How do you think this will benefit blind people
It will help to the spread and diffusion of Braille but it is also true that Braille printers are ex-
pensive so the institutions of a certain magnitude will be the only ones to be able to use this
solution
Do you miss something in the prototype What features or functionalities should
be improved
Yes the software is not accessible to blind people I mean OpenOffice does not work well
with the most used screen readers in Spain Jaws and other programs cannot be used by
this group In addition some errors occur when printing the text I mean the printed text is
not totally faithful I found some problems with the number of the pages the titles or the
lines
What do you think of this new approach of integrating Braille in a mainstream
word processor (In contrast with existing Braille editors that are typically stand-
alone applications)
It seems to be a very positive solution
Do you think odt2braille is mature enough to be used for production purposes
Not at the moment I believe it can be used in educational centers and it could be very use-
ful for example if the blind person could learn and adapt to the limitations of the software
Do you think that Odt2braille will be adopted by the community of people with
visual impairments
If the indicated improvements are incorporated yes
P A G E 5
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
AEGIS delivers
The Tecla Access tools read about our latest developments
1 Tekla is now Tecla Access
From now on ―Tekla our project to develop a set of open software and
hardware tools that facilitate access to mobile devices for people with
mobility impairments will be called ―Tecla Access (with a ―c) to avoid
confusion with another product
2 Tecla will soon support voice input and voice commands
The latest version of Tecla Access 045 (alpha) for Android was re-
leased last month This version incorporates a more intuitive way to
configure self-scanning speed thanks to the helpful suggestions by
Mats Lundaumllv But that is just the beginning Work is currently underway
to add the ability to write text and control the device by speaking into
the microphone Yes voice input and voice commands are coming to
Tecla Access In the meanwhile you can download Tecla Access from
the Android Market at httpbitlyTekla4Android
Please install the Tecla App today and feel free to send your feedback
so we can keep improving it
3 Tecla Access amp DAISY Reader at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
Our friend Steve Lee was kind enough to share the results of the eBook
Reader accessibility project at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
(httpbitlykh4Mi8) which took place in Birmingham UK this past
June The project consisted on using the Tecla Access App and Shield
to enable switch access to Julian Hartys open-source DAISY eBook
Reader (httpbitlyjrCebz) The DevCSI team published a great video
of Julians talk including the demo he made at the end of the event
(httpvimeocom25856062)
You can re-live the highlights through Kirsty Pitkins comprehensive
post at the DevCSI site httpbitlyo2Io2v
4 Earlier this month a Tecla Shield prototype was spotted at the
Transfer SummitUK in Keble College Oxford (http
transfersummitcom) Take a look at the picture here httpbitly
nk1Mh2 It is great to see that word on the Tecla Access Project is
quickly spreading around
Illustration Tecla logo
P A G E 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
LWUIT - Mobile Accessibility
Highlighting some of the AEGIS mobile accessibility work Oracle presented ―Mobile Accessi-bility with LWUIT at JavaOne 2011 announcing and demonstrating AEGIS research work that builds accessibility support into LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit) which is used to create mobile applications for Java ME LWUIT has already become a standard for writing Java ME applications and this research work supports using LWUIT for creating accessible mobile applications for the Java ME platform In the context of AEGIS research project following work has been done
Definition of initial accessibility API for Java mobile largely mirroring the Java SE ac-cessibility API defined in javaxaccessibility package
W3CWeb Accessibility Initiatives ARIA specification for metadata tags in this mobile accessibility API (eg using the ARIA state properties for the the states that UI controls can be in)
Accessibility API using a Broker pattern is implemented providing a separate Broker class that is optionally loaded into the Java mobile runtime alongside the LWUIT applica-tion and which implements the accessibility API on behalf of the LWUIT component
An inter-process communication Accessibility Bus MIDlet that handles event tracking and forwards accessibility API calls from assistive technologies to the application (which then get handled by the Broker)
Several test assistive technologies Java mobile versions of the perennial desktop favorites ―Ferret and ―Money (as well as their Java Access Bridge counterparts ―Java Ferret and ―Java Monkey for the JavaSE accessibility API) Specifically
Mobile Ferret can listen for a variety of events and will show event changes expos-ing ARIA property names
Mobile Monkey presents a tree view of all of the UI components on the screen with automatic updates as the screen changes and the ability to provide detailed info on the selected component
A screen reader prototype which uses cloud-based text-to-speech to voice LWUIT ap-plications for blind users
Development of a set of LWUIT themes for users with vision impairments - including Large Print black on white Large Print white on black and Large Print yellow on black (with some white) - all tested with users with vision impairments
AEGIS partners contributing to this work include Oracle CERTH Fundacion Vodafone Spain and the University Polytechnic Madrid
For more information see the JavaOne presentation at httpblogsoraclecomkornresource21761_Leitne_Korn_publishpdf and see a video showing the prototype screen reader working with the stock ―UI Demo LWUIT application at httpblogsoraclecomkornresourceLWUIT_screen_reader-quicktimemov
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
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Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
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These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
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These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
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European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 5
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
AEGIS delivers
The Tecla Access tools read about our latest developments
1 Tekla is now Tecla Access
From now on ―Tekla our project to develop a set of open software and
hardware tools that facilitate access to mobile devices for people with
mobility impairments will be called ―Tecla Access (with a ―c) to avoid
confusion with another product
2 Tecla will soon support voice input and voice commands
The latest version of Tecla Access 045 (alpha) for Android was re-
leased last month This version incorporates a more intuitive way to
configure self-scanning speed thanks to the helpful suggestions by
Mats Lundaumllv But that is just the beginning Work is currently underway
to add the ability to write text and control the device by speaking into
the microphone Yes voice input and voice commands are coming to
Tecla Access In the meanwhile you can download Tecla Access from
the Android Market at httpbitlyTekla4Android
Please install the Tecla App today and feel free to send your feedback
so we can keep improving it
3 Tecla Access amp DAISY Reader at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
Our friend Steve Lee was kind enough to share the results of the eBook
Reader accessibility project at the DevCSI Accessibility Hack Day
(httpbitlykh4Mi8) which took place in Birmingham UK this past
June The project consisted on using the Tecla Access App and Shield
to enable switch access to Julian Hartys open-source DAISY eBook
Reader (httpbitlyjrCebz) The DevCSI team published a great video
of Julians talk including the demo he made at the end of the event
(httpvimeocom25856062)
You can re-live the highlights through Kirsty Pitkins comprehensive
post at the DevCSI site httpbitlyo2Io2v
4 Earlier this month a Tecla Shield prototype was spotted at the
Transfer SummitUK in Keble College Oxford (http
transfersummitcom) Take a look at the picture here httpbitly
nk1Mh2 It is great to see that word on the Tecla Access Project is
quickly spreading around
Illustration Tecla logo
P A G E 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
LWUIT - Mobile Accessibility
Highlighting some of the AEGIS mobile accessibility work Oracle presented ―Mobile Accessi-bility with LWUIT at JavaOne 2011 announcing and demonstrating AEGIS research work that builds accessibility support into LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit) which is used to create mobile applications for Java ME LWUIT has already become a standard for writing Java ME applications and this research work supports using LWUIT for creating accessible mobile applications for the Java ME platform In the context of AEGIS research project following work has been done
Definition of initial accessibility API for Java mobile largely mirroring the Java SE ac-cessibility API defined in javaxaccessibility package
W3CWeb Accessibility Initiatives ARIA specification for metadata tags in this mobile accessibility API (eg using the ARIA state properties for the the states that UI controls can be in)
Accessibility API using a Broker pattern is implemented providing a separate Broker class that is optionally loaded into the Java mobile runtime alongside the LWUIT applica-tion and which implements the accessibility API on behalf of the LWUIT component
An inter-process communication Accessibility Bus MIDlet that handles event tracking and forwards accessibility API calls from assistive technologies to the application (which then get handled by the Broker)
Several test assistive technologies Java mobile versions of the perennial desktop favorites ―Ferret and ―Money (as well as their Java Access Bridge counterparts ―Java Ferret and ―Java Monkey for the JavaSE accessibility API) Specifically
Mobile Ferret can listen for a variety of events and will show event changes expos-ing ARIA property names
Mobile Monkey presents a tree view of all of the UI components on the screen with automatic updates as the screen changes and the ability to provide detailed info on the selected component
A screen reader prototype which uses cloud-based text-to-speech to voice LWUIT ap-plications for blind users
Development of a set of LWUIT themes for users with vision impairments - including Large Print black on white Large Print white on black and Large Print yellow on black (with some white) - all tested with users with vision impairments
AEGIS partners contributing to this work include Oracle CERTH Fundacion Vodafone Spain and the University Polytechnic Madrid
For more information see the JavaOne presentation at httpblogsoraclecomkornresource21761_Leitne_Korn_publishpdf and see a video showing the prototype screen reader working with the stock ―UI Demo LWUIT application at httpblogsoraclecomkornresourceLWUIT_screen_reader-quicktimemov
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
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Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
LWUIT - Mobile Accessibility
Highlighting some of the AEGIS mobile accessibility work Oracle presented ―Mobile Accessi-bility with LWUIT at JavaOne 2011 announcing and demonstrating AEGIS research work that builds accessibility support into LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit) which is used to create mobile applications for Java ME LWUIT has already become a standard for writing Java ME applications and this research work supports using LWUIT for creating accessible mobile applications for the Java ME platform In the context of AEGIS research project following work has been done
Definition of initial accessibility API for Java mobile largely mirroring the Java SE ac-cessibility API defined in javaxaccessibility package
W3CWeb Accessibility Initiatives ARIA specification for metadata tags in this mobile accessibility API (eg using the ARIA state properties for the the states that UI controls can be in)
Accessibility API using a Broker pattern is implemented providing a separate Broker class that is optionally loaded into the Java mobile runtime alongside the LWUIT applica-tion and which implements the accessibility API on behalf of the LWUIT component
An inter-process communication Accessibility Bus MIDlet that handles event tracking and forwards accessibility API calls from assistive technologies to the application (which then get handled by the Broker)
Several test assistive technologies Java mobile versions of the perennial desktop favorites ―Ferret and ―Money (as well as their Java Access Bridge counterparts ―Java Ferret and ―Java Monkey for the JavaSE accessibility API) Specifically
Mobile Ferret can listen for a variety of events and will show event changes expos-ing ARIA property names
Mobile Monkey presents a tree view of all of the UI components on the screen with automatic updates as the screen changes and the ability to provide detailed info on the selected component
A screen reader prototype which uses cloud-based text-to-speech to voice LWUIT ap-plications for blind users
Development of a set of LWUIT themes for users with vision impairments - including Large Print black on white Large Print white on black and Large Print yellow on black (with some white) - all tested with users with vision impairments
AEGIS partners contributing to this work include Oracle CERTH Fundacion Vodafone Spain and the University Polytechnic Madrid
For more information see the JavaOne presentation at httpblogsoraclecomkornresource21761_Leitne_Korn_publishpdf and see a video showing the prototype screen reader working with the stock ―UI Demo LWUIT application at httpblogsoraclecomkornresourceLWUIT_screen_reader-quicktimemov
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
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Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
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These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
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These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
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European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
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AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
JavaFX 20 released
Part of the AEGIS work to build accessibility into rich Internet applications (RIA) is focused on Oracles JavaFX technology At JavaOne 2011 Oracle released the JavaFX 20 SDK - a major update to the JavaFX platform This release includes initial support for keyboard operation of JavaFX applications and CSS-based theme support This support is largely implemented by the stock JavaFX UI components in the javafxscenecomponent package Additional accessi-bility support is being developed for future release of the JavaFX platform
More information and download httpjavafxcom
Illustration Screenshots highlighting AEGIS mobile accessibility work
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
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Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
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These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 8
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Analysis of European AT market and usage State of the art survey
by Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
People with disabilities in Europe
Before going into detail on the actual status and size of the AT industry in Europe and on the satisfaction of end-users with the provided solutions a good understanding of the actual size of the population having a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) is necessary to grasp the mere extent of the potential end-user market which the AT industry faces
Disability market size
With a total population of 501 million (httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010) an estimated 45 million people in Europe have a LSHPD being 16 of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (data extracted from the 2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions) Because of the various definitions of what disability stands for[1] this percentage varies from around 6 to over 30 between the Member States (see Figure 1)
Important is that 33 of the people with LSHPD reported at the same
time that they are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work However again these figures vary largely (10-50) This difference seems to be directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available Taking the aforementioned into account approximately 10 of all men and women aged 16-64 are restricted in the kind (over 9) or amount (under 9) of work they can do their mobility (around 5) to and from work or some combination of these[2] In terms of employment of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work 28 were in employment while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work this is estimated at 68
Figure 1 Prevalence of long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD) LFS 2002 The different types of LSHPD are shown in Figure 2
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
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Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
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The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Looking at the disabilities that account for this and considering the relevance to the AEGIS project following data from the LFS is important (not all the categories as set forward by the project are addressed by the LFS especially then the people with learning difficulties) A large percentage of the people with disabilities do experience severe barriers in their em-ployment The detailed overview shown in Table 2 outlines the probability in reporting a work restriction linked to a disability provides an idea of the extent of the faced barriers (these can be various and be linked to the need for adjusted alarm systems in the working hall to the need for AT ICT usage in the working environment)
Figure 2 Distribution of LSHPD by type in the EU LFS 2002
Impairment EU average
Arms or Hands 65
Legs or Feet 114
Back or Neck 194
Difficulty seeing 45
Difficulty hearing 21
Speech impediment 04
Table 1 Distribution of people with disabilities (aged 16-64) by type LFS 2002
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
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These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
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European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 4 I S S U E 6
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These barriers to employment must be kept in mind when looking at the proportion of people with disabilities (the sum of those in the labour force -employed and unemployed- and those who are out of the labour force -such as inactive people with disabilities reported by the admin-istrative registers-) in the total population Striking is that in more than half of the countries the share is below 2 while some others are much higher[3] This is linked to different definitions per country of what disability stands for and how it is defined per country
Table 2 Probability in reporting a work restriction by type of health problem or disability LFS 2002
Figure 3 Share of people with disabilities in total working-age population 2005
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
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Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These numbers of people with disabilities are to increase because many assistive technology devices are allocated to the elderly1 These needs will only increase with an ageing European population The 2008-based national population projections EUROPOP20082 projects the share of people aged 65 years or over in the total population to increase from 171 in 2008 to 30by 2060[4] This is equally reflected in the old-age dependency ratio (the projected number of persons aged 65 and over expressed as a percentage of the projected number of persons aged between 15 and 64) which will reach almost 55 in 2060 from a little more than 25 in 2010 (see Figure 4)
A core element in understanding AT would be to have consolidated figures on the usage of AT by each of the identified groups including the aged Unfortunately such in-depth studies do not exist as will be pointed out later in this deliverable at hand However what do exist are partial national studies from within the EU and beyond These will offer a first insight into understand-ing the usage of AT and the satisfaction level at present of end-users using these AT Before addressing the usage of AT by and the satisfaction of end-users with their AT the next sections will look in more detail to the structure of the European AT industry which causes in its very origin already some barriers to end users
Figure 4 Projected old-age dependency ratio httpeppeurostateceuropaeu 1 January 2010
P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
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P A G E 1 2 I S S U E 6
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European AT industry
The AT industry in Europe is complex and is characterised by a large number of products a large number of SMEs different service provider systems (public health systems public social systems private organisations and associations dedicated to the AT sector) that are used to get AT ICT products to the end-users with disabilities and different reimbursement schemes by national and local authorities
Fragmented AT market with a complex buying process
The fragmentation of the AT market is largely explained by the fact that local legislation neces-sitates a customised approach (eg many different national and local reimbursement schemes) and the fact that AT ICT is often developed in a local language thus serves as an important barrier between the different country markets of the EU AT ICT industry AT software products providers are as a result often very small and have both a limited product offering and geographical scope[5] This fragmentation is different per AT application area (see Figure 5) with the greatest degree appearing in the AEGISlsquo core focus namely the AT software area (due to the language cus-tomisation issue that is necessary for each geographical market) and communication devices solutions (due to mainly individual solutions which result in few economies of scale for compa-nies) Braille reader companies often diversify into low-vision products which are used by a wider and larger market and hearing aids are mostly made by big sized companies such as Philips and Siemens Environmental Control Systems (ECS) are using both mainstream solu-tions (consolidated market) and adjust them to the specific needs of end-users (fragmented market) Buying AT is usually a complex decision involving actors from various sectors (see Figure 6) While the person with disability often plays (or should at least play) a core role (demand) many other individuals are frequently involved in the selection and purchase of a product (family members nursing staff therapists physicians case workers funding agencies and companies other rehabilitation engineering personnel and an assortment of other interested care providers) The 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey pinpointed each of these actors with their main role in the EU AT market In italics some of the actorslsquo roles have been commented by us
HEARING
AIDS
CONSOLIDATED MARKET
Fewer larger companies
each with strong stable
market share
FRAGMENTED MARKET
Many small companies
with low market share
ECS
BRAILLE
READERS
AT
SOFTWARE
COMMUNICATION
DEVICES
+ LOW
VISION
Figure 5 AT ICT Product group summary comparison on fragmentation Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
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Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
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Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 3 I S S U E 6
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Governmental and legal organisations their objective is to create policy and legal frame-works for determining what products are considered AT as well as how these products are financed and provided to end-users ndash the applied policies are highly heterogeneous as is shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes directly linked also to the different purchasing models of the end-users which are outlined further on
Information service and training organisations and providers they add knowledge to the value chain in order to make informed decisions as well as to support professional and user development and competences ndash such organisations are not always well organised lack often well trained personnel and few have even undergone an appropriate AT train-ing
Financing organisations they finance AT products and their related services on national regional local government levels ndash this is again very heterogeneous as is again shown in the annexed reimbursement schemes
Technology oriented organisations AT research is largely dependent on the fundamen-tal RampD from other technology sectors while at the same time being led by the specific needs of the disabled and elderly populations
Professional and end-user organisations They represent and are advocates for their end-user members and also at as lobbyists equally involved in the policy making process
AT ICT industry organisations They are mostly composed of SMEs due to smaller na-
tional markets fragmented by language ndash a European umbrella organisation grouping the
entire AT industry is missing although recommendations have been made in this direc-
tion (see the 2009 European assistive technology ICT industry survey)
Figure 6 The variety of actors who participate ndash directly or indirectly ndash in the AT ICT industry Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Supportive legislation
The European AT industry has ndashjust as its counterparts in the USA and Japan- benefited from the fact that in recent years legislation has been put in place supporting the uptake of AT by a large number of public service providers The main EU legislations affecting AT and accessibil-ity in general are
the legislation to directly subsidise or otherwise support the purchases of assistive tech-nology for disabled end-users (see national and local reimbursements schemes)
EU legislation ensuring that all public procurement purchases of goods and services must be accessible (EC Public Procurement Directive 2004 18 EC (the Directivelsquo) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts public supply con-tracts and public service contracts)
2
and anti-discrimination laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities especially in terms of their access to goods and services (the Treaty of Amsterdam amended the EC Treaty by introducing a new anti discrimination provision in Article 13 in the EC Treaty addressing among others to combat discrimination based on disability while the Frame-work directive outlaws discrimination on the grounds of disability[6])
AT databases
Providing an overview of all produced AT software solutions and communication devices would bring us too far However a good reference point is the EASTIN database (httpwwweastininfo) which is a network of resources related to assistive technologies and com-bines the assistive technology resource databases of 7 European countries According to EASTIN almost 40000 assistive products are available in the EU Below is an overview of some European AT databases
3 The Danish German Italian Dutch
Spanish UK and Belgian databases have been consolidated into EASTIN while most of them are also member of the International Alliance of Assistive Technology Information Providers (httpwwwati-alliancenet) Country (participates to
EASTIN)
National databases
Denmark Hjaeliglpemiddelinstituttet httphmidk
Germany Rehadat httpwwwrehadatde
Italy Siva - Servizio Informazione e Valutazi-one Ausili
httpwwwportalesivait
Netherlands HANDY-WIJZER httpwwwhandy-wijzernl
Spain CEAPAT - Centro Estatal de Autonomiacutea Personal y Ayudas Teacutecnicas
httpceapatorg
UK DLF ndash Disabled Living Foundation httpwwwdlforguk
Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen httpwwwkocbe
Austria HANDYNET httphandynet-oesterreichbmaskgvat
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
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AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
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Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
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Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Purchase of AT by end-users
If we are to look at the satisfaction of AT usage a first understanding should be to capture how AT is being purchased by or ―prescribed to people with disabilities The various delivery models can be grouped in 3 groups 1 The medical oriented model starting point is the handicap where the physician initiates nec-
essary procedures and must approve the need for listed and reimbursed AT based on medical arguments 2 The social oriented model This system is based upon national legislation and local and de-
centralised execution The consumer oriented model The end-user has direct contact with a retailer in order to get hisher AT product These procurement models also go together with the different reimbursement schemes (see Annex 1) applied by every country as depicted in Table 4 Where this is strongly regulated of-ten the social oriented model can be observed (eg Belgium) whereas poorly regulated coun-tries often use the consumer oriented model because the end-user has to undertake all the nec-essary actions (eg Greece)
Country (participates to EASTIN)
National databases
France Handicat ndash Handicaps et aides tech-niques
httphandicatcom
Ireland Assist Ireland httpwwwassistirelandie
Portugal Cataacutelogo Nacional de Ajudas Teacutecnicas httpwwwajudastecnicasgovpt
Sweden Soumlk i Webb-HIDA http80802487
Table 3 National databases with AT information Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
Table 4 Procurement models by country for the five AT ICT product groups selected Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
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In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
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43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
These national and even regional legislations regarding the reimbursement of AT (and in some cases also training like in The Netherlands) and resulting different delivery models also are ndashas mentioned before- root cause for the lack of a common EU market resulting also in small companies that sell rather locally instead of EU wide A striking example is the case of Austria[7] with its many regulations which are very different and depend on the purpose of the assis-tive technology (at work education everyday life etc) and on the local authority the allow-ances for assistive technologies are a responsibility of the provinces or local institutions (Fond Soziales Wien) while there are also some federal regulations (Federal Social Office- Bundes-sozialamt) The result is that in an individual case access to AT is supported and regulated by different institutions
Barriers for the AT industry and its end-users To conclude we will summarise a number of barriers linked to AT software that have been identified in 2 recent studies on the European AT ICT industry[8]
About 80 of the software that is available for AT applications is available only in English while a majority is also only available in the local language of the manufacturer However language differences also necessitate that a local presence is necessary for the training or installation phase of AT by the wholesalers dealers importers or retailers
A lack of a coherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products
End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions and this is also identified by the aforementioned European AT ICT industry survey as an important barrier to the develop-ment of the AT business in the EU
While in some countries specialised agencies exists to assist people with disabilities in mak-ing their choice (eg Danish Centre for technical aids for rehabilitation and education MO-DEM for communication devices in Belgium Kenniscentrum Hulpmiddelen in Flanders Bel-gium) in the majority of the EU countries this is lacking or badly organised (experience of the staff of these agencies and the possibilities for trying out AT before purchasing differ greatly)
The different interpretations of national service provider systems at the regional level cause barriers as it further fragments the national market into regional markets and results in dif-ferent price-settings even within a country
Distribution of AT still mainly goes through the traditional rehabilitation centre channel and related care sector as well as specialised AT entities (for example the ONCE Foundation)
There is a lack of dedicated training in Assistive Technology products and their capabilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) In addition there is a need to promote e-learning for training purposes (including the development of learning materials that can be used across borders)
European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is rather poor caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets These prevent a sufficient return on investment for manufacturers or research institutes active in AT develop-ment
Assistive devices are often purchased through tendering These (often hard to obtain) pro-cedures are hard to follow for foreign producers or distributors who have no local distributor
High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment by disability organisations
While most countries have regulations which ensure that costs of workplace adaptations for people with disabilities can be partially and sometimes fully financed in general little use is made of these possibilities The main reasons are ignorance of what is available and the administrative burden
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Studies on AT usage and satisfaction A global standard for statistics on the use of AT products is lacking Instead we need to resort to information from a number of countries to gain an understanding of the usage of AT in Europe To establish this we contacted a wide range of stakeholders with following 2 questions were they aware of any surveys or data that captured the usage of AT by end-users as well as were they aware of any survey or data availability on the actual satisfaction of end-users with these AT Among many others following organisations and their members were contacted AT sector
AAATE - Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe ATIA - Assistive Technology Industry Association FAST - Foundation For Assistive Technology EASTIN - European Assistive Technology Information Network
Service providers
EASPD ndash European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
Design for all
EDeAN - European Design for all eAccessibility Network EIDD - Design for All Europe ECA - European Concept for Accessibility
End-user organisations
EDF ndash European Disability Forum European Blind Union WFD - World Federation of the Deaf WBU - World Blind Union
In addition independent AT researchers and experts were contacted (face to face meetings) with the same request eg in Belgium (Mr Jean-Marie Vanhove from Kenniscentrum Hulpmid-delen VAPH Mr Harry Geyskens from the Belgian Confederation for Blind and People with Low Vision Mr Luk Zelderloo from EASPD) UK (Mr David Banes from AbilityNet Prof David Brown from Nottingham Trent University Mr Steve Barnard from HFT) Greece (Mr Nikos Voulgaropoulos from Disability Now) and the USA (Mr Gregg Vanderheiden from RtF and Mrs Marcia J Scherer President Institute for Matching Person amp Technology (USA) Professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation University of Rochester Medical Center) The feedback and results that were collected indicated that actual research is in fact very limited to non-existent and in most cases only consist of snapshots provided by small scale local sur-veys Most European countries also do not even have actual numbers on how many people are using AT In the case of Belgium for example a rough indication can only be given for Flanders of 3778 successful applications
4 that were made in 2007 for receiving financial support in pur-
chasing supportive communication means However this number as such only collects those that went through one specific organisation while others might purchase it via other channels or are being provide with this by service providers These numbers also do not indicate what spe-cific AT was applied for
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
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In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
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Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 8 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In Greece according to research by the National Observatory of Information Society (2007 latest figures) only 4 in 10 people with disabilities seem to be aware of AT solutions that meet their accessibility needs in using ICT 11 of non-users of ICT with disability believe that their disability prohibits them from using AT and 9 that there is no suitable AT for their needs Non-use of ICT is further attributed to lack of digital skills for 23 of non-users with disability while 45 of all participants with disability believe that using ICT and AT requires a high level of digital skills Figures also show that the levels of use of ICT among regular users with and without disability are very similar while disabled people acquire access to ICT at a more in-creasing rate than the general population
5
In a number of cases tests had been conducted using the Quebec User Evaluation of Satis-faction with assistive Technology (QUEST)
6 methodology in Canada the USA and The Neth-
erlands However these were often limited to proving the concept that QUEST is a usable tool and not really to already extract actual data reflecting actual satisfaction with AT Despite the limited data that was found what was collected sheds a light on some of the most poignant issues that AT users face These will be highlighted in following overviews of col-lected survey data in Malta Spain The Netherlands the UK and the USA Malta
Between 2003 and 2005 the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) started conducting a study on ICT and disability[9] The questionnaire was compiled by four hundred and forty five (445) individuals with a broad range of impairments including persons with multiple disabilities The survey covered six types of impairments that could impact com-puter use intellectual mobility hearing visual mental health hiddenother Independently from the type of impairment the survey contained the following types of questions computer know-how computer use and computer accessibility The types of impairment were the following Mobility 37 (163) Visual 9 (41) Hearing 6 (28) Mental Health 3 (14) Intellectual 21 (94) Multiple 18 (79) Other 6 (26) The study was the first large scale attempt (and so far only one in Malta) at studying the use of technology by people with disabilities Some findings 94 of the individuals used a computer the majority (62) being male 76 indicated they had a computer at home the majority again being male (72) Only 24 used the computer also at work (males accounted for 67) 49 indicated they had followed a computer course in the past 5 years of which 69
indicated it consisted of a basic computer course (so not adjusted really to the usage combined with AT)
55 mainly used MS Office applications 35 using spreadsheets like MS Excel and 66 using MS Word Males accounted for the majority of the users
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 1 9 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
43 users also used the computer from graphics design males again taking the majority 65 users did use educational software 60 did also carry out research on the internet 75 did play games on their computer 63 being male 64 did listen to MP3 (listening to music and audio books) of which 64 males 47 used the computer less than 2 hours per day 44 2-8 hours per day and 8 over 8
hours per day 26 indicated they needed assistive technology to be able to use a computer (of which
70 males) Asked about the price 38 indicated the computer was quite expensive to them Assistance for the computer is in 39 of the cases provided by the computer supplier While these results are only coming from one country and are rather old (2003-2005) they do match to a large degree the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the findings of the field studies
Spain
A 2007 study[10] with a total sample of more than 1500 ICT users yielded following results (see Table 5)
Usage of assistive technologies Yes No
Users with visual impairments 67 28
Screen readers with PC 76 (mainly JAWS) 24
Screen readers with mobile device 63 (Talk as the most used and closely followed by Codefac-torys Mobile Speak)
Screen magnifier with PC 13 (Zoomtext followed by Magic 8 and Windows Zoom)
87
Screen magnifier with mobile 645 (Mobile Magnifier and Zooms)
Magnifying glasses enlarged fonts and special glasses
1452
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
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Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
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Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
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The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
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The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
The degree in usage of AT per disability group is quite different and again is also reflected by the data collected in the AEGIS partner countries as will be highlighted in the next chap-ters In terms of the userslsquo satisfaction with the offered AT following results were gathered
All groups indicate in most cases with a majority that there is not enough (satisfying) AT of-fered for them The following table (Table 7) also looks at the percentage of usage for ICT based AT for some disability groups The percentages are in fact quite low and contradict at first sight with the previous table where all groups indicated there was not enough (satisfying) AT being offered However this could indicate that the AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities hence their refusal to use them This reasoning seems to be justified by another study[11] that revealed that 58 of the consulted professionals consider that the persons they support are not provided with the required ATs and the other professionals consider that the ATs used are not sufficient for them This issue will equally come back in the USA data further on
Visual impairment Hearing impairment Cognitive impairment Physical impairment
AT offer Enough 455 Enough 52 Enough 21 Enough 32
Not enough
515 Not enough
48 Not enough
79 Not enough
68
P A G E 2 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Users with hearing impairments 49 50
Webcam 55
FM devices and magnetic loops 1722
Mobile devices (with video calls and text messaging) and subtitling
372
Users with motor impairments 30 68
Hands-free wired-device 53
Hands-free Bluetooth device 20
Awls trackballs and writing sticks 27
Users with cognitive impairments 37 52
Screen readers 4
Augmentative Alternative Communication 4
Table 6 AT offer satisfaction in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 5 Usage of assistive technologies in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
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Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 1 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Another poignant issue regarding AT satisfaction is the following In 2001 a total of 1824 en-quiries were received at the AT information area in the CEAPAT-IMSERSO 6447 of them were related to ATs for information and communication services (access devices for computers ndash 3342 specific computer applications ndash 2066 aids for manual writing and reading ndash 318 telephony communication (including telecare) ndash 096 aids for face to face communication ndash 2153) the proportion in which these enquiries of specific products become real acquisitions cannot be evaluated However the most frequent causes that are put forward by users there for not acquiring the AT are the high price of the products and in second place the previous train-ing needed to use some of the technologies that are not easy and require a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices The fact that most of the products are imported also increases the final price in Spain The Netherlands
A study[12] was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology
7 provided by health care insurers using a sample of feedback from 2001 and one
from 2003 The total number of respondents was 2272 Some aspects of the survey are of inter-est to our project namely the (non)-usage of auditive aids optical aids and aids for communica-tion information and signalling Following data was collected
Type of impairment Type of AT used Percentage of persons that use them
Hearing and speech impairment ATs for communication 89
Visual impairment ATs for reading 50
Cognitive impairment ATs for communication 50
Category of assistive device number
who use the assistive device regularly
who
ever used
the assis-
tive de-
vice8
Actual use of the assistive device compared to expected use
more (about) as much
less
auditive aids 219 94 100 25 68 8
optical aids 135 92 73 32 56 12
aids for communication information and signalling
81 83 58 41 54 6
Table 7 Usage of AT in Spain (Deusto Foundation study)
Table 8 Use of assistive technology per category (The Netherlands)
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 2 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The survey concluded that the level of abandonment varied between the various categories of assistive devices A big majority (more than 90) still used the assistive device regularly Only a very small proportion of the respondents had never used the assistive device This is most frequent for aids for communication information and signalling It is however exactly on these last 3 groups of aids that AEGIS project is focussing The survey also indicated that overall AT that are easiest to obtain are the ones most abandoned Furthermore the study revealed that non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-time users of AT Possibly the expectations of first time users with regard to the effect of the device are higher UK
A 2005 survey[13] that took place in the UK identified the types and mix of technology (hardware and software) provided to 455 post-secondary students with dyslexia under the UKlsquos Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) and determined the studentslsquo satisfaction with and use of the equipment provided and to examine their experiences with training
The majority of the students received a recording device text-to-speech software and concept mapping tools in addition to a standard computer system 90 of the participants were satis-fied or very satisfied with the hardware and the software that they received 486 received training with 863 of those expressing satisfaction with the training they received Of those that were offered training but elected not to receive it the majority did so because they felt confident about their IT skills
A 2002 study [14] among 186 people with disabilities by AbilityNet highlighted a number of is-sues with respect to the usage of AT by end-users in the UK Following findings are of interest to AEGIS Around two-thirds of the respondents who used the Internet said that they needed AT to
access it Their interest was quite broad as Table 9 demonstrates 45 of those who needed AT to access the internet specified that they needed voice rec-
ognition while 28 indicated the need for keyboard adaptations and 24 mouse adap-tations Around 20 needed speech output systems mainly screen readers Other adap-tations needed were magnification or special colours and software for dyslexia
78 of the respondents who considered that they needed assistive devices did have aids equipment or adaptations available but 43 of them experienced problems using them while some others did not have available what they thought that they needed or were awaiting an assessment or looking round for what they needed
A whole range of problems were identified regarding the usage of voice recognition sys-tems and screen readers where compatibility issues were raised
A lack of (local and accessible) training after delivery was raised in almost every area with users often depending on charity organisations to help them out
Table 9 Internet activities of respondents (AbilityNet survey 2002)
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 3 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The cost of AT also came back as a core barrier AT has not benefited from the economies of scale (and competition) which have greatly lowered computer costs elsewhere In fact cost is also likely to be a greater disincentive for disabled than non-disabled people as they generally have lower incomes and may also have to purchase assistive devices on top of a computer This was also confirmed in the 2006 Network 1000 report[15] that pointed out that the prohibi-tive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people did create a barrier
USA
A USA study on the usage of AT by people with sensory and mobility impairment[16] drew data from a study of 24 subjects (12 with visual impairments 3 with musculoskeletal impairments 7 with nervous impairments (including cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis and postpolio syndrome and 2 with other syndromes including learning disability) who had been administered the Que-bec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST) as well as the Psycho-logical Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) These outcome measurement instruments were designed to measure satisfaction with assistive technology devices in a structured and standardised way Following outcomes were detected There is a need for increased awareness training and resources to procure AT Espe-
cially training was considered a major issue to ensure optimal and consistent use of AT and change the occurrence of AT abandonment
Blind or visually impaired users were much more adaptable towards AT Finally it was also highlighted that ATlsquos are often unknown to end-users In October 2009 WebAIM conducted a survey[17] of preferences of screen reader users based on 665 end user inputs Some of the findings are striking and presented below The reason why a certain screen reader is selected (JAWS Window Eyes VoiceOver
System Access or System Access To Go NVDA ZoomText Hal Supernova) was mostly because of existing comfort and expertise in using it (429) while support (71) and cost (59) were of less importance
Only 242 took a training course with 729 being self taught
Only 347 purchased their own their screen reader the rest being offered by various supporting programs (government school employer) and only a minority of 39 using a pirated version This can also explain why many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader In the case of for example the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece (Φάρος Τσφλών της Ελλάδος) they train their studentsmembers mostly with the more affordable HAL screen reader which also has a 30 days free trial period As a result HAL also has a large user group in Greece while this screen reader is less used in other countries
In terms of usage of browsers with the screen reader a diversified number of browser ap-
plications and versions is used with 749 stating that JavaScript was not disabled in
their web browser
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 4 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Those without disabilities were much more likely to use Firefox than those with disabilities and this is largely caused by compatibility issues between different kinds of screen readers and the respective browsers Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) were seen as a viable al-
ternative to commercial screen readers by 478 while 197 disagreed 50 used a screen reader on a mobile phone or mobile handheld device Only 294 did use Braille output with their screen reader 421 was unaware of ARIA
9lsquos landmark functionality
Screen reader users did identify following problems (most difficultconfusing first)
CAPTCHA - images presenting text used to verify that you are a human user (28)
The presence of inaccessible Flash content (22)
Links or buttons that do not make sense
Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)
Complex or difficult forms
Lack of keyboard accessibility (10)
Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly
Missing or improper headings
Too many links or navigation items
Complex data tables
Lack of skip to main content or skip navigation links
Inaccessible or missing search functionality
Browser of respondents
IE8 32
IE7 262
Firefox 3+ 188
IE6 127
Safari 83
Opera 03
Other 17
Table 10 Screen reader usage by visually impaired in USA WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 5 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
In terms of social media that is used following results were collected
Conclusion regarding AT usage and uptake
AT has definitely broadened the world for many people with disabilities especially then through the usage of the internet However a number of problems have been identified and are enlisted below that cause a slower uptake of AT AT industry issues Local language versions of AT software are missing (often English) Compatibility problems arise with AT (voice recognition and screen reader software) and
hardware European research and innovation on Assistive Technology is characterised as poor
caused mainly by the insufficient size and the fragmented nature of the national markets Policy issues Incoherent social policy for subsidisingreimbursing assistive technology products Lack of specialised agencies and staff to assist people with disabilities in making their
choice End-user issues Awareness End-users are largely unaware of the available AT solutions (albeit that people with vision
impairments seem to be very well informed about available AT)
There is a lack of (local and accessible) dedicated training in AT products and their capa-
bilities (eg for technical experts but also for end- users) resulting in end users having AT
they cannot use to a full extent or in some cases not at all
Previous training that is needed to use AT and that requires a professional to train the user to manage and use these devices is often lacking
AT that are easiest to obtain are also the ones most abandoned Non-use arises less frequently among people with repeated provision compared with first-
time users of AT
Social Media Tool of Respondents
YouTube 513
Blogs 477
Facebook 42
Twitter 382
LinkedIn 134
MySpace 9
Table 11 Social media usage by screen readers WebAIM survey 2009
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 6 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Price High purchasing costs for end users are reported as a major barrier for wider deployment
by disability organisations Prohibitive cost of specialist equipment for visually impaired people does create a barrier Mismatch between needs end user and offered AT End users are not provided with the required AT resulting in a high percentage (up to
30 in the USA[1819]) of obtained ATs being discarded within a year AT that is being offered does not satisfy the actual needs of the people with disabilities
hence their refusal to use them According to some survey almost half of the end-users experience problems using AT This mismatch between the needs of the end users and the actual AT they are being offered can be directly linked to the poor assessment of consumer needs and preferences The Match-ing Person and Technology (MPT)[20] model and accompanying assessment instruments first presented in 1989 are one way to counter this gap between the user needs and what is being provided to them MPT was successfully applied also in research studies in the USA[2122] Canada and Europe[23] The MPT Model incorporates the assessment of three primary areas[24] determination of the milieu environment factors influencing use identification of the consumers personal and psychosocial characteristics needs and
preferences and description of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate tech-
nology On the other hand end-users (especially people with vision impairments) also appreciate AT Blind or visually impaired users are much more adaptable towards AT Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Social media is used by people with vision impairments (in the USA that is) AT has enabled people with vision impairments to explore the internet by using a wide
variety of browsers with their screen readers with most having JavaScript enabled Free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are seen as a viable alter-
native to commercial screen readers Screen readers are also increasingly used mobile phones or mobile handheld devices While there are problems with accessing the internet due to accessibility issues (eg use
of CAPTCHAS) high numbers of people with vision impairments do access the internet Many users are from the very beginning trained to use a specific screen reader
(influenced equally by what organism is providing for the funding) and this has to be con-sidered when looking at data as this will reflect also why certain screen readers have high user percentages and some not Quality and price of the screen readers should be considered only as a 2
nd reason
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 7 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Endnotes
1 Around 70 of assistive devices prescribed in Sweden go to people aged over 65 (Source Provision of As-sistive Technology in the Nordic Countries Second Edition NUH - Nordic Centre for Rehabilitation Technol-ogy May 2007)
2 Important in this ongoing work is also ETSIlsquos Specialist Task Force 333 European Accessibility Require-ments for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain (EC Standardization Mandate M 376 Phase 1) httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333STF333asp The outcome of this is the ETSI Technical Report 102 612 (downloadable via httpportaletsiorgSTFsSTF_HomePagesSTF333tr_102612v010101pdoc) that sets out the results of the ETSI part of Phase I of the M 376 work and charac-terises the public procurement of ICT products and services provides a listing of existing functional accessi-bility requirements identifies gaps where no accessibility requirements exist provides a list of relevant exist-ing national European and international standards and technical specifications and gives proposals for standardisation work for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardised
3 In the USA similar databases have been established such as ABLEDATAs database of over 33000 assis-tive products from over 4000 companies
4 Source VAPH Jean-Marie Vanhove 5 Source Disability Now Nikos Voulgaropoulos Anna Evangelinou Eleni Strati 6 QUEST has been used with older people adults adolescents and also children (as documented by Sonya
Murchland and Helen Dawkins in ―Development and utility of the QUEST 21 Childrenlsquos Version 2007) 7 It must be mentioned though that the study did not outline what it understood under AT These may as well
be hardware or software or combined solutions 8 Calculated on the group who did not use the assistive device regularly at the time of the survey 9 Accessible Rich Internet Applications
References
[1] For a full explanation please see Definition of Disability in Europe A Comparative Analysis A study prepared by Brunel University September 2002
[2] Men and women with disabilities in the EU statistical analysis of the LFS ad hoc module and the EU-SILC AP-PLICA amp CESEP amp ALPHAMETRICS Final report DG Employment social affairs and equal opportunities April 2007
[3] Study of compilation of disability statistical data from the administrative registers of the member states Study financed by DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Contract no vc20060229 ndash EUR 36326842 Applica amp Cesep amp European Centre Final Report November 2007
[4] httpeppeurostateceuropaeu (Population Projections) EUROPOP2008 convergence scenario national level (04 November 2008)
[5] Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathiassen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten
[6] EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW General Editor F G Jacobs Advocate General The Court of Justice of the European Communities 2005
[7] Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe (MeAC) as mentioned in Report on policy and DfA DfAeInclusion deliverable D22b 2008
[8] Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union A study prepared by Deloitte amp Touche EC Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs Unit E 4 June 2003 Analysing and federating the European assistive technology ICT industry Final Report March 2009 Jennifer Stack Leire Zarate Carmen Pastor Niels-Erik Mathi-assen Ricard Barberagrave Harry Knops Hugo Kornsten MeAC - Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe As-sessment of the Status of eAccessibility in Europe Main Report Bonn October 2007
[9] L-Informatika l-Komunikazzjoni w d-Diƒabilitagrave Information Communications Technology and Disability Study Report Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) 2005
[10] Aurtenetxe Jon Leonardo Ibaacutentildeez Moacutenica Lezaun Zurintildee ―Usage of mobile devices within the Population
with Disabilities Deusto Foundation 2007
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
References
[11] Abril Dolores Aparisi J Enrique et all ―White Paper RampD at service of the persons with disabilities and the elderly CERMI (Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities) 2003
[12] Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands A non-issue B P J DIJCKS L P DE WITTE G J GELDERBLOM R D WESSELS amp M SOEDE iRv Institute for Rehabilitation Research Hoensbroek The Netherlands Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology January-June 2006 1(1-2) 97 ndash 102
[13] Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education E A DRAFFAN D G EVANS amp P BLENKHORN School of Informatics University of Manchester Manchester UK Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology March 2007 2(2) 105 ndash 116
[14] Disabled people and the Internet Experiences barriers and opportunities Doria Pilling Paul Barrett and Mike Floyd CS Foundation 2004
[15] Opinions and circumstances of visually impaired people in Great Britain report based on over 1000 in-terviews August 2006 Graeme Douglas Christine Corcoran Sue Pavey Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) University of Birmingham
[16] Computer-Related Assistive Technology Satisfaction and Experiences Among Users With Disabilities Mary Burton MS Els R Nieuwenhuijsen PhD MPH OTR and Marcy J Epstein PhD Asst Technol 20082099-106 2008 RESNA
[17] Screen Reader User Survey Results httpwebaimorgprojectsscreenreadersurvey2 WebAIM as accessed on 28 December 2009
[18] Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life Scherer MJ 1996 Disability and Rehabilita-tion 18(9) 439-448
[19] Predictors of assistive technology abandonment Phillips B amp Zhao H 1993 Assistive Technology 5 36-45
[20] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[21] The Matching Person amp Technology (MPT) Model Manual third edition Scherer MJ 1998 Webster NY The Institute for Matching Person amp Technology Inc
[22] Measuring subjective quality of life following spinal cord injury A validation study of the Assistive Tech-nology Device Predisposition Assessment Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2001 Disability amp Rehabilitation 23(9) 387-393
[23] Predicting satisfaction with assistive technology for a sample of adults with new spinal cord injuries Scherer MJ amp Cushman LA 2000 Psychological Reports 87 981-987
[24] Predictors of Assistive Technology Use The Importance of personal and psychosocial factors Marcia J
Scherer PhD Caren Sax EdD CRC Alan Vanbeirvliet PhD Laura A Cushman PhD John V
Scherer MSEE 2005 Disability amp Rehabilitation 27(21) 1321-1331
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
P A G E 2 8 I S S U E 6
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 2 9
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere
AEGIS Final Workshop and International Conference
Brussels Belgium 28-30 November 2011
The AEGIS project organises its final Workshop and 2nd
Interna-
tional Conference entitled ―Accessibility Reaching Everywhere on
28-30 November De-
cember 2011 in Brus-
sels bringing together
b o t h e n d - u s e r s
(people with disabili-
ties) as well as plat-
form and application
accessibility develop-
ers representative or-
ganisations the Assis-
tive Technology indus-
try and policy makers
Since 2008 the AEGIS
consortium (comprising companies such as Vodafone Foundation
Research in Motion Oracle and research groups from Cambridge
University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven etc) has been de-
veloping an Open Accessibility Framework ndash comprising open ac-
cessibility interfaces user interface components developer tools
end-user applications and prototype accessibility solutions for
desktops rich Internet applications and mobile devices
These events comes ahead of the European Day of People with
Disabilities that is marked by the European Commission via a pol-
icy conference on 1-2 December in close cooperation with the
European Disability Forum (EDF)
The workshop on 28 November will focus on the realisations of
the AEGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere Groundwork Infra-
structure Standards) project and provide attendees the opportu-
nity to try out all outcomes of the project The demonstrated prod-
ucts offer barrier-free access to desktop mobile and web applica-
tions are open source based and will be freely available
See you there
Illustration Entrance to Diamant building
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 3 0 I S S U E 6
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
900-930 Registration EPR
930-945 Welcome Jan Spooren - EPR
945-1000 AEGIS concept amp realisations Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez - UPM
1000-1030 List of demos Peter Korn - Oracle
1030-1100 Coffee break
1100-1200 Round-table discussion
users (FONCE EPR)
experts (TECHNOSITE NTU)
key developers (UCAM CVUT SU-DART KUL)
industry (RIM FVE)
Chair Peter Korn - ORACLE
1200-1300 Rich internet applications (demos) with discussion
chair Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI
Haptic RIA maps (Dionysia Kontotasiou CERTH-ITI)
MooTools UI components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessible jQueryUI Components (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
WAIARIA implementation on UI toolkits (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
CMS demonstrator (CERTH-ITI FhG AOL)
Accessibility Advisor (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
NetBeans Plugin (Jan Vystrcil CVUT)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1515 Mobile applications (demos) with discus-sion
chair VFE (Jon Azpiroz)
Dasher for Android (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Dasher for iPhone (Patrick Welche UCAM)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Java version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible Contact Manager and Phone Dialer Android version (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM Jon Azpiroz VFE)
Accessible RTT for mobile (Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez UPM VFE)
Tekla Onscreen Keyboard (and optionally Tekla Bluetooth Shield) (Jan Richards OCAD)
CCF for Android (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 3 1
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
The workshop language will be English
The conference on 29-30 November will gather a wide array of
experts and users in the area of Assistive Technology to discuss
scientific and policy developments in accessible technology
showcase relevant projects and initiatives in the area of assistive
technology
1515-1545 Coffee break
1545-1700 Desktop applications (demos) with discussion
chair KUL (Prof Jan Engelen)
GnomeShell Magnifier (Jan Richards OCAD)
Concept Coding Framework for LibreOffice (Mats Lundaumllv SU-DART)
Odt2braille (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Odt2daisy (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
Accessibility Checker for LibreOffice (Bert Frees Christophe Strobbe KULeuven)
eSpeak TTS Engine (Language Enhance-ment) (Jerry Dimitriou SILO)
OpenGazer (Patrick Welche UCAM)
1700-1715 End of workshop
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
0830-0930 Registration
0930-0945 Welcome EPR
0945-1015 AEGIS concept and realisations UPM ORACLE
1015 ndash 1100 Personalities address
Mr Paul Timmers EC
Mr Jo Vandeurzen Flemish Minister of Welfare (TBC)
Ms Helga Stevens Belgian MP
1100-1200 Opening exhibition by Minister + coffee
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 3 2
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 1
1200-1300
Round-table with stakeholders
Karel Van Isacker (Chair)
Peter Korn ndash ORACLE (Technical) Gregory Smiley ndash NOKIA (Industry) Greg Fields ndash RIM (Industry) Wim Moeyaert ndash Werkgroep Vorming en Aktie (end-users) Clayton H Lewis ndash Coleman Institute for Cognitive Dis-abilities (Research) Gregg Vanderheiden ndash NPIICloud4ALL (Research) Press representative (tbc)
1300-1400
Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1400-1600
Parallel sessions 1 amp 2
Mobile applications Jon Aspiroz - FVE (Chair)
ACCESSIBLE Workshop Kostas Votis - CERTH-ITI (Chair)
1600-1630
Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
Parallel sessions 3 amp 4 1630-1830
International Research and ini-tiatives
Jutta Treviranus ndash IDRC (Chair) Gregg Vanderheiden - NPII
ARIA and Developer needs and wants
Jan Vystricil ndash CVUT (Chair)
1830-1930
Cocktail (+Exhibition)
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services
P A G E 3 3 I S S U E 6
Time Topic Presenter(s)
Day 2
0830-0900 Registration
0900-0945 Key-note speech Jan Albers (former EPR president and CEO of Foun-dation Rehabilitation Lim-burg NL)
0945-1015 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1015-1215 Parallel sessions 5 amp 6
A OSS and standardisation Prof Jan Engelen ndash KULeuven (chair)
B Accessible content
Desktop applications Patrick Welche ndash UCAM (chair)
1215-1330 Lunch (+ Exhibition)
1330-1530 Parallel sessions 7 amp 8
User needs and wants Karel Van Isacker ndash EPR (Chair)
Accessibility overall Maria Gemou ndash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1530-1600 Coffee break (+ Exhibition)
1600-1730 Concertation event with FP7 or related pro-jects on accessibility AsTeRICS GUIDE HaptiMap MyUI VICON eAccess+ ETNA ATIS4all ACCESSIBLE CARDIAC and VERITAS
Jose Angel Martinez Usero - FONCE (chair) Maria Gemou mdash CERTH-HIT (chair)
1730-1800 Wrap-up of conference Peter Korn mdash ORACLE
Towards the future Maria Fernanda Cabrera - UPM
Award ceremony for Best presentation Best paper and Best poster in the spirit of AEGIS
1800 End of conference
P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
Subscribe to our newsletter
Requests to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this Newsletter should be
directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
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P A G E 3 4
Contact us
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dr Maria Fernanda Cabrera Umpierrez ETSI Telecomunicacion Universidad Politecnica de Ma-drid Cuidad Universitaria sn 28040mdashMadrid Spain Tel +34 (610) 349820580 Fax +34 (6498) 20580
E-mail chiquilsttfoupmes
TECHNICAL MANAGER
Peter Korn Accessibility Principal amp AEGIS Technical Manager
Oracle 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood City CA 94065 USA Tel +1-650-506-9522
E-mail peterkornoraclecom httpblogssuncomkorn
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directed to infoAEGIS-projecteu with the subject ―subscribe newslet-
ter or ―unsubscribe newsletter
All issues of the Newsletter may also be downloaded at the project web-
site wwwAEGIS-projecteu
Conference website - httpaegis-conferenceeu
Twitter - httptwittercomaegisproj
TweetWall - httpaegisconftweetwallycom (use aegisconf to
post your tweets)
Facebook - httptinyccaegis
SlideShare - httpwwwslidesharenetaegisproject
AEGIS video - httptinyccaegisvideo
AEGIS - FP7-224348 find more info at httpwwwAEGIS-projecteu
Subscribe to our Social Media services