ÆGIS organises FOSS-AMA satellite event at ETAPS 2010 (March 27‐28, 2010) in Paphos, Cyprus

ÆGIS is organising the FOSS-AMA satellite event at ETAPS 2010 (European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software). This satellite event is entitled FOSS‐AMA (Free and Open Source Software ‐ for Accessible Mainstream Applications), and aims to bring together the most recent achievements and renowned experts in Open Source Community and Accessibility. 3rd generation access techniques and their potential for more accessible mainstream ICT for end‐users and relevant toolkits for developers will be explored. Interactive demos will embellish the presentations sessions.

The event is spread over 2 days, and will have the following outline (pdf).

Registration details are available on http://www.etaps10.cs.ucy.ac.cy/

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OpenOffice.org can now speak in 27 languages

The ÆGIS Consortium is pleased to announce that Vincent Spiewak launched a software add-on that makes it easier to create digital talking books with free and open-source software. dt2DAISY, designed for OpenOffice.org(TM) 3.0 or higher, enables the export of documents into digital talking books in the DAISY format. DAISY is the standard for Digital Talking Books, developed and maintained by the DAISY Consortium and was adopted by NISO as a ANSI/NISO standard (Z39.86). Digital talking books are used by persons with a visual impairment, dyslexia or other impairments that hamper access to printed text.
The odt2daisy project is supported with the financial contribution of the European Commission in the context of the ÆGIS project. ÆGIS partners involved in ODF-related work in AEGIS include Sun Microsystems , Inc. and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Link to full article

Download the press release (pdf)

ÆGIS 2nd newsletter available

The ÆGIS Consortium is pleased to announce the second issue of the ÆGIS Newsletter. The special focus of this second issue is on ÆGIS’s activities for user requirements collection and user involvement in the project developments through the dedicated local User Forums, as well as the 1st pan-European User Forum and Workshop. The articles in this issue present the work, experiences, accomplishments, and lessons learned by the ÆGIS partners. References to similar activities of relevant projects are also provided.

Download the 2nd newsletter.

About ÆGIS

The ÆGIS project seeks to determine whether 3rd 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 & play, personalised & configurable, realistic & applicable in various contexts; ÆGIS is placing users and their needs at the centre of all ICT developments. Based on a holistic 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, and
• Java-based mobile devices.

All developments will be iteratively tested with a significant number of end users, developers and experts in 3 phases and 4 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.