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Workshop on "Using the cloud to automatically personalize interfaces and materials for those facing difficulties due to disability, literacy or aging: the future

of social clouds and inclusive infrastructures"

delivered by

Professor Gregg C. Vanderheiden

October 5th, 2010

CONCLUSIONS

produced by

Dr. José Angel Martínez Usero

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INterfaces for the RElationship betweenpeople with DISabilities and the ICT environment

The GPII conceptGlobal Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) is a coalition of academic, industry and non-governmental organizations and individuals coming together to promote the creation of National Public Inclusive Infrastructures (NPIIs) – on the way to building a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII).

The main purposeThe purpose is to ensure that everyone who faces accessibility barriers due to disability, literacy or aging, regardless of economic resources, can access and use the Internet and all its information, communities, and services for education, employment, daily living, civic participation, health and safety.

What GPII isGPII is a paradigm shift. The GPII will, for the first time, introduced automatic personalization of user interfaces and user context adaptation based on user preferences. Essentially the ability to have each computing or communication device instantly change to fit users as they encounter the device rather than requiring users to figure out how to adapt, configure or install access features they need.  It also introduces a system of shared components and services to reduce cost, increase interoperability, and foster innovation.

What GPII is notThe GPII would not create new access technologies or services, but would create the infrastructure for making their development, identification, delivery and use easier, less expensive and more effective.  Like building a road system does not provide transportation but greatly enhances the ability of car companies and others to do so -- and provides an infrastructure that car companies themselves cannot do.

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The unprecedented opportunityWe have an unprecedented opportunity to fundamentally change and advance accessibility -  

1. to create an infrastructure that supports both commercial and public efforts,

2. to build access that will work with the new technologies that are coming (that won't work with many of our current access strategies)

3. and finally, to build something that can be replicated locally in other countries.

GPII is a global matterGPII is an international initiative to create an open floor where everybody interested can participate according to their interests and abilities. A collaborative effort to create a global infrastructure capable of promoting and faciliatating commercial and built-in accessibility features and services that are more affordable and available in all countries for all disabilities.

The opportunity at EU and national levelAt EU level, it is very important to integrate the research efforts of the EU research projects with the other GPII efforts internationally in order to avoid redundancy, and take advantage of the collective resources and talents from diffrerent countries to create an interoperable and more affordable European (and Global) Public Inclusive Infrastructure.

Once the GPII infrastructure technologies and implementation roadmaps are developed, each Member State of the EU can develop its own National Public Inclusive Infrastructure based on the policies and programs in its country, and using the technologies of the GPII to reduce costs and maintain compatibility with the NPIIs of other countries.

In the case of Spain, Technosite is leading the process of creating such a “social cloud” and raising the public and private funds needed to build the Spanish NPII, always in coordination with GPII, and based on existing and forthcoming EU projects, pilots and thematic networks.

Such international coordination is essential to ensure that inclusive cloud technologies from different countries remain compatilble and countries can all draw from and benefit from the developments of others.

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“Defragmentation” of the European AT marketGPII could help reduce the present fragmentation of the European AT market, offering new business opportunities for small AT commpanies to market and deliver their products internationally, and reduce the time and costs to bring new ideas to a broader market. The GPII can provide marketing and market awareness that small actors cannot carry generate themselve and leading to a broader and more open marketplace for all vendors.

The GPII key playersThe obvious key players are mainstream technology producers and AT manufacturers. Nevertheless GPII will foster new market players with new business opportunities (such as, translators, training and support services, resellers, consultancy companies, etc.). In the following graph some new key players have been identified.

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In the context of training and support services for final users different models can coexist, basically the traditional service provider support, the new peer support provided by the community and new actors as intermediary companies providing training and support services for NPIIs.

The components of GPII/NPIIs All of the NPII components and systems will be designed to support both commercial assistive technologies and built-in access features (universal design). The NPII would include a delivery system, personalization profiles, a system to automatically configure devices to meet user needs, and a rich development system with common modules. It will also include the robust awareness program needed to ensure that those who need special adaptations are aware that they exist and how to find them.

The development of the infrastructure The software developed under NPII funding will be infrastructure and tools only. NPII/GPII funds will not be used to create end solutions or compete with industry developing, selling and supporting end user solutions. All infrastructure and tools will be “open source” to foster innovation, but licensed such that they can be built into proprietary products for commercial explotation.

Security issues in GPIIThere are several security issues that must be taken into account when developing the infrastruture. The most sensitive information is that regarding personal preference information. Even though it will be codified as information regarding “personal needs and preferences”, skipping the disability aspects and extending the concept to needs and preferences of each user, it could still be used to infer disability realted information if not done properly. The security of the servers is also of paramount interest.

User needs and preferencesUsers can declare, codify, keep and edit their needs and preferences directly in the cloud or keep them locally only if they do not trust the

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INterfaces for the RElationship betweenpeople with DISabilities and the ICT environment

could. Everybody can have multiple preferences to account for differences within a day as well as to accommodate temporary situations.

Useful resources

More information about NPII/GPII http://npii.org/

More information about Professor Gregg Vanderheidenhttp://www.engr.wisc.edu/ie/faculty/vanderheiden_gregg.html

More information about INREDIS http://www.inredis.es/Default.aspx

Slides of the workshop http://www.slideshare.net/inredis/national-and-global-public-inclusive-infrastructures

Video shown at INREDIS international workshop held by ONCE: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13132127/NPII_with_vid_des_HD_01.zip