Christian Bühler

Architectural Concepts of a Semi-autonomous Wheelchair

A new smart, sensor-assisted wheelchair system for the vocational rehabilitation of people with severe and multiple handicap has been developed in the research project OMNI within the CEC TIDE programme. The project finished in December 1996. The objective of the project was the development of an advanced wheelchair with omnidirectional manoeuvrability and navigational intelligence that is well suited for vocational rehabilitation. It provides an opportunity of intuitive wheelchair control to people with severe physical or multiple (incl. mental) handicap. Cramped offices are made accessible by the small outline, high mobility and navigational support of the chair. The users safety and driving accuracy are guaranteed by a novel sensor system and navigation modules. A wide range of control devices can be used with the adaptable human-machine interface which also controls environmental devices. Within this project, the user focused principle has strongly been followed (this includes the involvement of users from the preparatory work to the evaluation of the results).

European Co-operation Activities Promoting Design for All in Information Society Technologies

Design for All (DfA), sometimes addressed as Universal Design, Barrier Free Design, Inclusive Design is seen as an important complement to Assistive Technology. The basic idea is to produce products and services in a way that as many people as possible can use it directly or with the help of Assistive Technology. This concept is of particular importance in a quickly changing world, in order to keep pace with innovation. A concept to adapt all products and services for those who cannot operate it is costly, time consuming and may lead to discrimination. It is further a more economic strategy to design and produce for as many as possible. Information Society Technologies (IST) are an important and interesting field in Design for All that have the potential to ensure access to products and services for all citizens and can help overcome traditional barriers that a number of population groups in the use of technology in their everyday life.

eEurope - eAccessibility - User Participation: Participation of People with Disabilities and Older People in the Information Society

The Council of Ministers of the European Union has brought forward the vision to develop the Information Society in Europe for all citizens in Europe to a leading status. The CEU supports the goal in the 5th Framework Programme, with research area IST — Information Society Technology. Of course is research a very important aspect and driving force in this development, but also other measures are needed. The development of the infrastructure, realisation of borderless interoperability, and support of implementation are also required. This has been realised by European Union and the individual member states. Therefore, they all have started action on national and European level. A common position has been adopted in the eEurope Initiative, which has led to the eEurope action plan 2002. In this action plan concrete targets and timelines have been set in order to support the development of the Information Society in Europe. One direction is the Information Society for all people, and here specific actions are combined in “eAccessibility”. eAccessibility is guided by a high level expert group of the member states (ESDIS) and coordinated by DG Employment with support of DG INFSO and other DGs. ESDIS has decided to create an eAccessibility expert working group of experts and/ or government representatives from all member states. The eAccessibility started working in January 2001 and is still ongoing. The group has to deal with four targets of the eEurope action plan and has made progress as follows: The adption of the WAI guidelines has been one mayor achievement of eAccsibility so far.

Empowerment by Digital Media of People with Disabilities

The paper differentiates three dimensions of access for eInclusion instruments: Firstly, digital media are understood as environments that offer multiple channels for interaction between persons with disabilities and their environment. This dimension is challenged by barriers that hinder people to use digital media. Peer support could be understood as a second dimension: Social media can empower people to act as social innovators and help people with disabilities. Barriers are identified in the effort that has to be done or in unsuitable ICT-applications. On a third dimension, the advantages of “space” are explored: Public internet access points can be understood as a “space” that offers ICT access, support for individual needs and competences, facilitated by specialized staff. The high costs, missing political backing and need for competences could be understood as main barriers here. The paper suggests to capitalize on social innovation approaches to design new support instruments for eInclusion.

Fundamental Changes in Society

In our times we have witnessed the tremendous change from an industrial age to the age of information and knowledge. Just the differences between the 1990s and the present are impressive. Science and technology were the basis for that development. Smaller and smaller computers with ever higher power are produced at breathtaking speed; wireless connections of various kinds enable us to connect to global networks and make use of services or exchange information and communicate and interact with other users. Not only that, but mobile networks allow us to do all of this on the move. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and other new technologies like nanotechnology and biotechnologies provide new sensors for various applications. All these technological developments have left the laboratories and become part of everybody’s daily life. A symbol for this age and its potential might be the Smartphone. At the same time, many of the technologies, products, applications and networks are now globally available, and products and services flow between the different parts of the world. In Europe, integration progressed rapidly following the breakdown of the iron curtain. The former EuropeanCommunity, which originally consisted of only Western European countries, has expanded to become a real and enlarged European Union, with updated policies. As of January 2007, the population of the 27 European Union countries had

Ambient Intelligence in Working Environments

The concept of ambient intelligence (AmI) has recently been adopted related to living scenarios and denoted as ambient assisted living (AAL). It has received high attention related to the demographic shift and the positive options of care and support for elderly people at home and on the move. However, there exists an equally important field of application related to work. In the context of labour high mobility and flexibility of people is requested. The demand to work up to higher ages complements the situation. People in the workforce develop growing expertise and different abilities over time. They need tailored support systems at work keeping the efficiency and effectiveness and elements of prevention or adjustment to changing abilities. Indeed, environments in industry and at work provide already a high degree of networking and computing infrastructure, much more than in the private sector and can provide a basis for an advanced AmI infrastructure. The idea is discussed within the framework of creating accessible workplaces for people with disabilities. Here, so far a reactive strategy has been followed based on the individual case. Only in case a concrete person with a disability is included in the work force and only in that very moment a workplace adaptation is considered. However, now this reactive strategy is outdated, because today the complete infrastructure needs to be considered to make a workplace accessible. Following an AmI strategy ---ambient assisted working (AAW) provides a flexible approach towards workplace adaptation for all, including people with disabilities and older people in the workforce. In order to use AAW, the process has to start much earlier in a more inclusive way. Without knowing the exact demands of a future worker, the system needs to be designed. The flexible networking character of AmI provides the required flexibility.

Towards Techniques for Easy-to-Read Web Content

Abstract Requirements for Easy-to-Read Web content can be derived from various sources. The requirements cover linguistic properties as well as aspects of presentation and interaction. This paper compares different approaches to check that the Web content is understandable. A major challenge is that many guidelines are language-dependent. We describe a method to extend the coverage of an existing author support tool across multiple languages and show how this can be a first step towards common Techniques for Easy-to-Read Web content.

How to Inform People with Reduced Mobility about Public Transport

The German project BAIM supports the active and indepen dent participation of people with reduced mobility in public transport. It focuses on the provision of accessible and adaptable information services with target group oriented information about suitable travelling options or potential barriers, before and during the journey. The information is provided via internet and via an interactive telephone service with speech-recognition. The system has been implemented and tested in two integrated public transport systems, Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund and Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Branden burg, covering a population of 11 Mio. people, with a strong emphasis on user participation in all project phases. Main parts of the system went public in January 2008.

User feed-back in the development of an information system for public transport

Within the German projects BAIM and BAIM plus, information services for people with reduced mobility have been developed. These accessible and adaptable services provide information on public transport. The challenge was to provide sufficient information so that accessible, barrier free journeys can be planned in advance and undertaken in real life. These services are available on the internet and on telephones (mobile phones) prior to and while travelling. User evaluation of these developed and implemented services lead to notable suggestions for further development activities.

Monitoring Accessibility of Governmental Web Sites in Europe

Web accessibility is an important goal of the European i2010 strategy. Several one-off surveys of eAccessibility have been conducted in the past few years. In this paper, we describe an approach to supplement the results of such surveys with automated assessments, that can easily be repeated at regular intervals. The software basis is provided by the European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO). We analyse how the data collected by EIAO can be compared to other surveys.