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AEGIS has been running for just about 4 years now,
and in that time, in addition to developing the Open Accessibility Framework
– the theoretical underpinning of our work –
we have proven that framework in the desktop, web and mobile spaces.
We believe that there are 6 steps to making an accessible world.
The first step is to define what accessible means.
What is the width of the door that allows a wheelchair to get through?
What is the angle of a wheelchair ramp?
What are the proper tones to make in an elevator
to indicate that the elevator is changing floors
or that the elevator has arrived or is heading up or down?
In the ICT world, we have a similar step of defining what accessible means.
What is the keyboard operation and manipulation interface?
What are the high contrast and large print themes for people with vision impairments?
What is the accessibility API that allows assistive technologies
and applications to properly operate?
The second step in creating an accessible world
is having stock building components ready to go.
When I go to grab a door from the hardware store,
that door should already be wide enough to fit a wheelchair.
When I get an elevator from the OTIS Elevator Company,
it should be built already with the tones in it.
When I get the plate with all the numbers for the floors,
it should already have Braille on the plate.
Similarly when we create applications we have stock building components
the menus, the checkboxes, the sliders.
Those should have accessibility built in.
They should implement the definition of accessibility.
The third step, we have a very important emphasis on developers.
The tools that tell builders how to build a building
should include information on how to make it an accessible building,
so that the developer of the building
has all the information that he needs.
Similarly, for the ICT world, for the developers of software applications,
need tools that help them create accessible applications
– and that’s a big emphasis of AEGIS.
Then we see the three use steps. It is great to have an accessible building,
but it is important that this building be located where there’s accessible transportation.
It is important that there is a wheelchair ramp up to the building.
An accessible building with 3 steps to get into the door isn’t very helpful.
So we need to have what we call platform support for accessibility.
We need the applications to be running on a software platform
– an ICT platform – that supports accessibility.
It has perhaps a text-to-speech engine built-in as part of the platform,
or a magnification framework.
It has everything needed to load assistive technologies.
When we think about the mobile environment, security concerns are coming into play.
Can my app store contain an assistive technology
and can this assistive technology get the access to running applications via the security policy of the platform?
We of course need accessible buildings, accessible applications.
That is step 5.
And then step 6, we need to disseminate devices that people use.
A wheelchair accessible building is of no use if nobody has wheelchairs.
We need to disseminate the wheelchairs, the hearing aids,
the canes to people who are blind.
We need to disseminate the assistive technologies,
screen readers, screen magnifiers and on-screen keyboards.
Without those, then the otherwise accessible ICT isn’t helpful to the disabled person.�