NordiCHI 2006, Workshop #1

 

Universal Design / Design for All on mobile phones and digital TV

 

October 14, 2006 (Saturday)

 

Introduction

‘Design for All' and ‘Universal Design' are being focussed on by designers, techno­logists and politicians. The Euro­pean Com­mission addresses these questions through dedicated policies and re­search actions. Key issues are eInclusion, eAccessibility, eCitizenship and eGovernment. In many European countries, governmental policies have been launched, and directives regulating Universal Design in the con­text of public procurement have been implemented (cf. the European Union's Directive 2004/18/EC). An important driving force behind this development is the ageing population and the increasing num­ber of disabled people.

Both groups of people are becoming increasingly important users of digital media and digitised (self) services. People in both groups are regular consumers of TV-media, and they are slowly becoming competent users of mobile phones. The penetration of mobile devices is in many European countries rapidly gaining the penetration level of TV. Moreover, the digital takeover introduces new challenges to the content, usability and availability of TV-media for the elderly and the cognitively disabled users.

However, available guidelines for accessibility seem to address either technical imple­men­tations or the design of physical artefacts. Practical guidelines for the interaction design of mobile devices and di­gital TV interface are called for.

Goals of the Workshop

The goal of this workshop is to bring to the table:

• Discussions concerning the state of the art of Design for All / Universal Design in different countries:
  • developments in the context of mobile devices and digital TV
  • roles and responsibilities with respect to the development and management of new knowledge
• Practical experiences and new innovations demonstrating the potential power of Design for All / Universal Design in the context of mobile devices and digital TV.

 This one-day workshop will bring together researchers, designers, developers, practitioners and policy-makers.We want the participants to share their knowledge, opinions and ex­pe­riences in this area, and to explore the opportunities, challenges and potential value that Design for All / Universal Design introduces to the HCI with mobile devices and digital TV.

Call for Participation

The workshop is an open event. Everybody interested in participating and contributing to the goals of the workshop is welcome. However, the physical space is limited to up to 50 participants in plenum, and 5-8 participants in each working group. The conference participation fee and the cost of the workshop will be announced on the conference web-site.

All participants will be asked to come prepared to contribute to the announced workshop topic, and issues put forward in the workshop position papers.

Call for Position Papers

Workshop participants are invited to contribute to the development of Design for All / Uni­versal Design by submitting position papers within in the thematic area of the workshop. The position papers will be reviewed by the workshop programme committee. Up tp 10 position papers will be selected for presentation in the workshop plenum.

The position papers must relate to at least one of the following topics:

• Experiences or case studies that describe the application of the Design for All / Universal Design principles
• Methods and solutions which aim at accommodating users with different types and degrees of disabilities, such as elderly and cognitively disabled users
• Descriptions of innovative examples of technology use that has contributed to the inclusion or autonomy of previously excluded groups. Examples of how users with different impairments may benefit from technology.
• Research and experiences that contribute to understanding political, ethical and economic issues connected to Design for All / Universal Design.
• Studies that document trade-offs of Design for All / Universal Design – if any.

The position papers will be selected based on their relevance and originality. Even if not selected for the workshop plenum presentation, qualified position papers providing valuable insights will be made available on the workshop web-site.

The position papers should be short and concise, and bringing forward one or a few clear ideas, problems, concepts, proposed solutions or preliminary results. The paper should include a description of context, users involved, the attempted solution, the impact of the solution and lessons learned.

The short papers must not exceed 2 pages, formatted according to the SIGCHI Publications format. Submission should be made electronically in MS Word format or PDF, preferrably with accessibility tags.

The papers should be submitted to kristins@nr.no no later than 2. August 2006.

Invitations to give a workshop plenum presentation will be sent to the author(s) on 10. August.

All selected position papers and presentations slides will be published on the public website of the workshop.

Submitting a position paper will be taken to imply acceptance of these terms for publication. Note that all participants, also presenting authors must register for the conference.

Workshop Structure

• Workshop keynote.
• Position paper presentations. These will be followed by short comments by other selected participants.
• Group discussions.
• Synthesis: creation of poster on group findings by each group.
• Wrap-up: The concluding activities for the workshop will be the definition of follow-on activities (e.g. publications, seminars or post-workshop e-mail discussions).

Preliminary Schedule for the Workshop

9:00-9:15                     Welcome & agenda by Riitta Hellman , Karde AS/OSIRIS-project

9:15-9:45                     Workshop keynote by Mr. Lasse Udjus, The Norwegian Tax Administration & the OSIRIS-project

9:45-10:45                   Position paper presentations

Coffee break

11:15-12:30                 Position paper presentations

Lunch

14:00-15:15                 Group discussions

Coffee break

15:45-16:30                 Poster presentations

16:30-17:00                 Wrap up & future work by Kristin Fuglerud, The Norwegian                                         Computing Centre

Pre-workshop Activities

We strongly recommend participants to read all the position papers and be prepared to take part in the discussions, by posing questions, share knowledge of related experiences and work and implications of this.

We will use this website for the workshop to facilitate the distribution of the position papers. Participants are welcome to send questions and comments to the position papers before the conference. Such comments may be posted to rh@karde.no.  A small number of commentators will be selected and they will collect, summarise and prepare comments or questions to the position papers.

Dissemination of the Results

From each group, we will create a poster for the NordiCHI2006 conference.

One of our goals is to summarise the workshop in one or more papers related to the central themes of the workshop – preferably together with workshop participants who share the interest for. The exact format for this will be discussed at the end of the workshop, and possibly in post-workshop e-mail discussions. In addition to these publications, we intend to prepare a report for publication.

Organisers

Riitta Hellman, PhD, Senior Advisor in Karde AS. Hellman has been working with ICT-research and research management since 1985. She holds a PhD in User-Centered Systems. Karde AS is a consulting company conducting applied re­search projects in collaboration with Norwegian Computing Center (NR). Main to­­pics for these, international projects are service architectures on mobile phones, HCI and cognitively disabled users. She is currently engaged in the OSIRIS-project (http://www.itea-osiris.org).

Kristin Skeide Fuglerud (MSc) is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Computing Center (NC). Her research include HCI and usability (herein design for all and assistive technology) and e-learning. She has also many years of experience with systems specification and as a systems developer and consultant in the Norwegian industry.

Workshop Programme Committee

• Riitta Hellman
• Kristin Skeide Fuglerud
• Haakon Aspelund, Deltasenteret, Norway

Contact Information

Riitta Hellman

Email:                           rh@karde.no

Postal address: Karde AS, Irisveien 14, N-0870 Oslo, Norway

Mobile phone:              +47 – 982 112 00       

Kristin Skeide Fuglerud

Email:                           kristins@nr.no

Postal address: Norwegian Computing Center

PO  Box 114 Blindern, N-0314 Oslo, Norway

Mobile phone:              +47 – 41 22 09 15

Position Papers

Here, we will publish the selected position papers. The estimated date for the web publication of qualified position papers is 5th September.

References and Relevant Sites

http://www.shdir.no/deltasenteret/english/         

http://www.universell-utforming.miljo.no/kategori_english.shtml?cat_id=8

http://www.stakes.fi/dfa-suomi/english/index.html

http://www.funkanu.se/start.asp?sida=27

http://www.design-for-all.org/

http://www.e-accessibility.org/

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/accessibility/dfa/index_en.htm

EC (2005). i2010 - A European Information Society for growth and employment. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the

European Economic and Social Committee and The Committee of the Regions, COM(2005) 229 final, Commission of the European Communities. 12 s. 01.06.2005. URL:<http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/communications/com_229_i2010_310505_fv_en.pdf >.

EU (2003) eAccessibility - improving the access of people with disabilities to the knowledge based society. Official Journal of the European Union COUNCIL RESOLUTION on 6 February 2003.