aegis: developer tools, assistive technologies under an open source software license
DESCRIPTION
AEGIS: developer tools, assistive technologies under an open source software license. Christophe Strobbe Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium. Introduction. EU demographic shift: 2000: 15.7% over 64 2010: 17.6% over 64 (2007 estimate) 2020: 20.7% over 64 (2007 estimate) - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
AEGIS: developer tools, assistive technologies under
an open source software license
Christophe StrobbeKatholieke Universiteit Leuven
Belgium
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Introduction
• EU demographic shift:– 2000: 15.7% over 64– 2010: 17.6% over 64 (2007 estimate)– 2020: 20.7% over 64 (2007 estimate)
• EU-25 employment rates of older workers– 40% in 2004– 59% in 2025 (2007 estimate)
12 April 2010, Paris, France
i2010
EU policy framework for information society and media
• Aims– to create a Single European Information Space,
which promotes an open and competitive internal market for information society and media services,
– to strengthen investment and innovation in ICT research,
– to support inclusion, better public services and quality of life through the use of ICT
12 April 2010, Paris, France
AEGIS
• ± 20 partners– Coordinator: CERTH-HIT (Greece)– Companies: Sun/Oracle, AOL, RIM,
Vodafone, …– Research: Fraunhofer, Univ Poli Madrid,
Univ of Cambridge, Czech Tech Uni, Univ of Toronto, K.U.Leuven
– Others: ACE (cf. oatsoft),…• September 2008 – February 2012 (42
months)
12 April 2010, Paris, France
AEGIS: Areas
• Desktop• Rich Internet Applications• Mobile applications
• User-centered design
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Third Generation Accessibility
• First generation– 1960s – 1980s– Expensive, bolt-on solutions– Limited and slow– E.g. Optacon, talking calculator, simple
screenreaders
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Second Generation Accessibility
• Second generation– Late 1980s – today– Works with graphical user interfaces– Text to speech, speech recognition– Often relies on
reverse engineering the OS, replacing the video driver, chaining the keyboard driver
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Third Generation Accessibility
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Third Generation Accessibility
• “Engineered accessibility”• All the information needed by AT is
provided through a single programming interface=Accessibility API
• Introduced to desktop Java by Sun• Later: GNOME, Apple Accessibility
APIs, MS UI Automation, IAccessible2
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Open Source
• Most software produced in AEGIS will be open source
• => Eliminate license costs as argument against accessibility
• Contributions to mainstream applications that are available as open source
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Open Accessibility Framework
• Address the whole “accessibility chain”: design, development, deployment
1. Accessibility in basic building blocks of software applications
2. Developers use building blocks with basic accessibility; checking tools in IDEs
3. Application exposes accessibility mechanisms to the native accessibility API on the user’s platform, and thus to AT.
12 April 2010, Paris, France
User-Centred Design
• AEGIS development supported by user-centred design
• Downloads:– Use cases
http://www.aegis-project.eu/ > Results> Deliverables
– 15 Personas (Creative Commons License)http://www.aegis-project.eu/ > Results > Personas
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Desktop Developments
• Screen magnifier for GNOME (ATRC, University of Toronto)
• OpenDocument Text to DAISY (Vincent Spiewak & K.U.Leuven)
• OpenDocument Text to Braille (K.U.Leuven)
• Graphic symbol support in OpenOffice.org for persons with cognitive impairments
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Desktop Developments
• Opengazer: eye-tracking application that works with cheap cameras (webcams) (Univ of Cambridge)In conjunction with Dasher, opengazer allows you to write with your eyes
RIA Developments
• WAI ARIA implementation in one or more JavaScript UI libraries
• Accessibility in JavaFX UI components• WAI ARIA in open-source browser
(overtaken by events)• Open developer tool for creating
accessible RIAs
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Mobile Platform Developments
• Accessible phone dialer and contact manager
• Accessible messengering• Open-source text-to-speech engine for
mobile phones• Alternative text entry for users with motor
impairments – Dasher• Captions and audio descriptions for video
12 April 2010, Paris, France
12 April 2010, Paris, France
Contact
• http://www.aegis-project.eu/ • Newsletter• Conference & User Forum in Sevilla,
October 2010