AEGIS

Open Accessibility EverywhereGroundwork, Infrastructure, Standards

David Colven

ACE Centre, Oxford

AEGIS – What is it?Mainstreaming accessibility through open source

• A European Commission FP7 ICT Project

• 20 partners from 10 countries• User and Commercial Organisations, Academic Institutions

• Sept 2009 – Feb 2012

• Open Source - 3rd generation accessibility

• Commercial Partners

– Oracle (Sun Microsystems)

– RIM (Blackberry

– AOL

AEGIS – What does it hope to

achieve?

3rd Generation embedded accessibility in

mainstream ICT Development

Environments

Devices and applications that have

built-in accessibility

Which specific areas of ICT?• Rich Internet Applications

• Desktop

• Mobile Devices

Developing and Running Software

Applications

Target User Groups

• Blind and low-vision users

• Motor Impaired users

• Cognitively and Language impaired users

• Hearing impaired users

• Speech Impaired users

Working Together to achieve UCD

End Users Programmers

‘Open Source’ – i.e. Openly available tools and

applications that can be exploited beyond the project

`Experts`

User & Stakeholder Involvement• Pilot sites in:

– Sweden (SU-DART); UK (ACE, RNIB); Belgium (EPR); Spain (UPM, FONCE)

– End Users, Experts, Developers

• Already accomplished– User Requirement Specifications

– 1:1 interviews; Workshops (National & International)

– WoZ Trials and mock-ups

– International Conference

– Phase 1 Prototypes evaluated

• Future Programme– AEGIS Prototype evaluations (Early 2011)

– Final Prototype evaluations (Autumn 2011)

– Demonstrators (Mid 2011 – Early 2012)

Prototype:

Concept Coding in OpenOffice.org

• Dynamically annotate text with symbols

– In any language

– For any Symbol set

• Extension to Mainstream Application

Prototype:

odt2Daisy (espeak) – odt2Braille

• Extensions to Mainstream Application

– OpenOffice.org

• Guides you

through the

process

– Style guides

– Tutorials

• Output

– Open Daisy format

– supports BRF

and PEF

Prototype:

Mobile Contact Manager

Prototype:

Open Gazer – dasher …..

• Continuation of OpenGazer:

– gaze tracking with

webcam (Cambridge

Univ)

• Dasher in mobile

environments

•www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/opengazer/

Other Prototypes:

• Gnome desktop magnifier

• Haptic maps

• Instant messaging for mobiles

• Screen reader for mobiles

• e-speak Improvements

– English, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Greek

• Support for WAI – ARIA

– Cross platform

Prototypes:

Training

Other Initiatives

• User forum

• OAEG Site

– Blog aggregator (Blog of blogs)

– A11y Repository

• with links to OATSoft.org

– Professional mobility scheme

• A11y Ontology wiki in development

• Training resources

Technological Objectives - 1

• Developers Tools– Improve speed, accuracy, ease and expense of creating

accessible applications

• Eye-tracking– Develop highly affordable access to desktop and mobile devices

• Desktop – Mobile communication– Explore real-time-text transfer

• Concept Coding– Explore and develop ontology based symbol support in standard

office software

Technological Objectives -2

• Mobile Applications– Develop a Text to Speech Engine (based on espeak)

– Develop alternative text entry (based on Dasher)

– Develop AAC prototype (using CCF)

• Window management– Develop symbol, magnification & text-to speech techniques to

assist locating applications

• User Interfaces– Develop methods for exposing API-based accessibility

information from free-form ‘Web 2.0’and other user interfaces

• Accessibility Testing– Develop framework for rapid detection of accessibility problems

Social & Economic Objectives

• Empowerment

– Access to Internet services

– Access to mainstream ICT

– Accessible Desktop and Mobile devices at

negligible extra cost

Affordability for all

Contacts

Project website http://www.aegis-project.eu/

David Colven colven@ace-centre.org.uk

ACE Centre

92 Windmill Road

Headington

Oxford

OX3 7DR www.ace-centre.org.uk