AEGIS: developer tools, assistive technologies under an open source software license

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)


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


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)


AEGIS: Areas

• Desktop• Rich Internet Applications• Mobile applications

• User-centered design


Third Generation Accessibility

• First generation– 1960s – 1980s– Expensive, bolt-on solutions– Limited and slow– E.g. Optacon, talking calculator, simple

screenreaders


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





• “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


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


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.


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


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


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


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



Contact

• http://www.aegis-project.eu/ • Newsletter• Conference & User Forum in Sevilla,

October 2010

Documents

AEGIS: developer tools, assistive technologies under an open source software license