EC Support Assistive Technologies

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The European Commission (EC), in particular the Directorate General for Information Society and Media (DG INFSO), will launch a call for proposals in 2010 in the area of self-service terminals and assistive technologies (AT) platforms. For this reason, the e-Inclusion Unit of the EC organized an information workshop on these two topics, in Brussels on 7 December 2009. The event attracted around 80 participants from all over Europe coming from various sectors and including ATM producers, cards providers, system integrators, banks, AT platforms providers, as well as users’ organizations, universities and standardization bodies.
 
Participants could attend a series of presentations with several discussion rounds. Paul Timmers, head of e-Inclusion unit in the EC, explained the background to the upcoming call for proposals scheduled for 2010. It will be part of the ICT policy of the Competitiveness Innovation Programme and the EC will allocate €5 Million to e-accessibility for public digital terminals (Objective 3.3 of the Work Programme 2010) and €1 Million to assistive technology and accessibility portal (Objective 3.4 idem of the Work Programme 2010). It was stressed that sustainability of the projects will be central for their selection, so that their deployment can be pursued on the long term without further EU funding.
 
The first part of the day was dedicated to the accessibility of public digital terminals, which are increasingly used. They are, however, also becoming more complex and sophisticated, which risks to exclude a significant number of people from using them. As Shaun Leamon (Royal National Institute of Blind People) explained, the European Disability Forum estimates the 65 million disabled people in the EU is a huge potential customer base. Representatives of users and technology providers have formulated the need for innovation, collaboration and interoperability.

 
However, a major obstacle is the lack of interoperability, which in its turn was said to be suffering from the lack of legislation. Currently, stakeholders have different requirements. But a regulatory framework would contribute to consistent user interfaces across different types of terminals and different EU countries. Participants also stressed the importance of security and privacy issues regarding the use of interface adaptations. Julian Jones (representative of ANEC), the European consumer voice in standardisation) as well as other participants mentioned several standardization activities that are essential to ensure the best use possible of self-service terminals like the position of components, layout of keys, display, adaptable keyboard angle, accessible security guards and intuitive selection options. Alternative interfaces should include visual, audio, tactile, assistive devices, mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and biometric sensors.
 
Some of the solutions presented by ATM producers included Braille inlays, optical hints, audio output as well as the possibility of using a hand-held terminal with Bluetooth. La Caixa Spanish Bank presented several projects of this type which are already implemented and illustrated its experience as regards ATM accessibility. Those projects ranged from branch adaptation, to the prototyping and deployment of an accessible ATM, and software adaptation. It highlighted particularly the simplified menus CaixaFacil and the specific solutions, targeted at specific disabilities, such as the audio supported transactions. Furthermore, French participants exposed examples of a special application used in Paris’ underground for blind people and partially sighted users to help them to purchasing tickets and re-loading credit via contactless card.
 
The second part of the day was dedicated to accessibility portals. While AT is a big market concerning many people, it is highly fragmented in Europe. This fragmentation limits efficiency and affordability of solutions available to users. The internet offers new possibilities for improving the situation. The portal of the call for proposals will concentrate on a single entry point for information on accessible devices and solutions. It is important that the proposals will result in providing the relevant information and will involve a wide range of stakeholders which could also gather into a forum. David Banes (from the national charity AbilityNet) described various methods for testing solutions for improving AT devices, and how to move to collaborative feedback.
 
The session was followed by three presentations on existing accessibility portals: Discapnet, EASTIN and Raising the Floor.
 
For more information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/index_en.htm.