Joachim Klaus

Computers Helping People with Special Needs

The Special Thematic Session of ICCHP 2014 entitled Accessible Media promises to yield exciting research and development from around the world in the areas of access to television and audio-video content, eBooks, and social media. The scholarly works in this session report on and discuss a wide range of activities under the umbrella of this important theme, which are all working towards the United Nations specified goal of providing more equal access to the cultural environment for person with disabilities.

Living, Teaching and Learning at Any Time and at Any Place. e-Learning – Opportunities and Barriers for Visually Impaired Students

e-Learning as a new integrative and ubiquitous environment in academic teaching and learning opens new opportunities for students with disabilities. At the same time there are new barriers just overcome in electronic communication and interaction. The Notebook University – a model project at the Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH) experiences the different parts of a comprehensive wireless teaching and learning surrounding. The Study Center for Blind and Partially Sighted Students – as a micro project in between – focuses on the special opportunities and barriers for visually impaired students. Personal experiences, case studies and tests of assistive technology result in documentations, final recommendations and an open cooperative homepage.

Accessibility: Education for Web Design and E-Learning Introduction to the Special Thematic Session

There is a clear role for accessibility assessment tools, standards and guidelines to help web designers, application developers and those who use and support web-based services. However, some aspects of web accessibility cannot be objectively tested by automated tools or by simple adherence to standards and guidelines. The application of expert judgment is required and thus accessibility needs to be addressed through more formal education and training. Programmes exist which advocate, and raise the profile of accessibility but most of these are only offered locally, with widely differing scope and complexity. There is a lack of a common European or even international curriculum in the vital area of education and training for web accessibility and design. Therefore, this Special Thematic Session will bring together stakeholders such as educators, e-Learning providers, and researchers to share their knowledge and expertise.

Towards an Open Source Screen Reader: Screenreader Usability Extensions (SUE)

More and more educational institutions, authorities, and companies adopt open source software, especially Linux. Unfortunately, at the moment, no Linux based screen reader provides adequate and sufficient functionality as the ones of Windows. This means that visually impaired people are disadvantaged in the labour market. The focus of the project is the development of a screen reader for the graphical interface using Linux. The screen reader will allow the visually impaired to work with Linux for typical office tasks and the desktop (GNOME) itself. A special training course will instruct teachers and pupils at institutions for the blind and the partially sighted in using the screen reader. The content of the programme is based on the 7 modules of the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence).

Study center for visually impaired persons supportive system for blind and partially sighted students at the Univ. of Karlsruhe/Germany

In 1987 a pilot project was started at the University of Karlsruhe dedicated to involve new communication technologies for visually impaired students and the sighted world. This supporting system for blind student led after five years of model development to a Study Center for Visually Impaired Students, which offers equal chances to these handicapped students in steps towards university, in living, learning and examinations inside the university system as well as in steps towards labour market.

Standardization and sustainability of open source products: barriers and conflicts demonstrated with the linux screenreader SUE

SUE is an open source screenreader developed for the graphical interface using Linux. The screenreader allows the visually impaired to work with Linux for typical office tasks and the desktop (GNOME) itself. A special training course will instruct teachers and pupils at institutions for the blind and the partially sighted in using the screenreader. This presentation will focus on SUE and screenreader solutions for Linux. In addition it will discuss the problems of sustainability and standardization in an open community.

An IT training programme for blind computer users – presentation and discussion of didactic and teletutorial implications

The current discussion about the inclusion of people with disabilities into an open labour market is characterised by dominant economic aspects. The unemployment situation of people with disabilities-irrespective of their intellectual level - varies in the different partner countries. The transnational EU LdV Programme IDOL (Inclusion of Disabled in Open Labour Market) aims to open sensibilities and understanding concerning the situation of people with disabilities especially with visual impairment. Its focus is to develop and to implement an IT and psychological training programme for this target group in the different partner countries and in future in all EU countries.

Studying and Academic Mobility — IT Support for Students with Disabilities

Globalisation and internationality, competition and knowledge, mobility and transnational experience - these are some of the keywords dominating our new millennium. Human resources, personal qualification and life long learning is our platform concerning these worldwide challenges. Our society pretends to be open, based on an social, humanistic and democratic structure, enabling to every individual to develop his/her personal and intellectual capacities and to present an adequate surrounding. Reality is far away: our daily experience around us and the news transported from everywhere of our globe — not only the difference between the northern and southern hemisphere, countries in west and east, but as well the exclusion of special groups like elder people, un- or semi-skilled people, women and handicapped characterise our actual situation. The scissors of those having access and those being segregated as fringe groups diverge and seem to be accepted as fatalistic.