The ÆGIS ('Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards') project has announced the availability to the general public of the project's online user forum where anyone interested to comment on various topics can do so in various categories.

The various categories people can comment on are:

• Developers - Developers involved in software development for desktop, mobile, Internet and rich Internet applications can comment here on accessibility aspects related to assistive technologies.
• End-users - Web applications: What is your view on the accessibility of Internet applications and the Internet overall?
• End-users - Mobile applications: What are your thoughts on the accessibility of mobile applications?
• End-users - Screen Readers: What are your experiences with screen readers?
• End-users - Assistive Technologies: End-users can comment here on their experiences and opinions regarding assistive technologies in general.
• End-users - Desktop applications: This is the area where end-users can comment on their experiences and opinions regarding assistive technologies in the area of desktop applications.

Interested parties only need to register, after which they can share their expertise/experience with others.

The ÆGIS project seeks to determine whether third generation access techniques will provide a more accessible, more exploitable and deeply embeddable approach in mainstream ICT (desktop, rich Internet and mobile applications).

This approach is developed and explored with the Open Accessibility Framework (OAF) through which aspects of the design, development and deployment of accessible mainstream ICT are addressed. The OAF provides embedded and built-in accessibility solutions, as well as toolkits for developers, for 'engraving' accessibility in existing and emerging mass-market ICT-based products, thus making accessibility open, plug and play, personalised and configurable, realistic and applicable in various contexts; ÆGIS is placing users and their needs at the centre of all ICT developments. Based on a holistic User-Centered Design (UCD), ÆGIS identifies user needs and interaction models for several user groups (users with visual, hearing, motion, speech and cognitive impairments as well as application developers) and develops open source-based generalised accessibility support into mainstream ICT devices/applications:

• desktop;
• rich web applications;
• Java-based mobile devices.

All developments will be iteratively tested with a significant number of end-users, developers and experts in three phases and four pilot sites Europe wide (in Belgium, Spain, Sweden and the UK).

The project includes strong industrial and end-user participation (the participating industries are among the market leaders in the corresponding mainstream ICT markets). The project results' uptake is promoted by strong standardisation activities, as well as the fact that much of the technology results will be either new open source applications or will be built into existing and already widely adopted open source ICT.

Further Information:

• ÆGIS project
• User forum access - ÆGIS