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The Work of ETSI-HF

Stephen Furner
Chairman ETSI Technical Committee
Human Factors

Solutions and Opportunities

• Technical standardisation is about solutions for:
  • supporting diversity
    
  • creating value
    
  • innovation and change
    
  • helping people
    
  • getting the job done

Telecommunications community

• Familiar with requirements for accessibility.
  • Public service history and ethos
    
  • Single national provider
    
  • Public access terminals
    
  • Emergency services
    
  • Impact of world wars during 20th Century

Disabled and older customers

• 65000 inbound customer calls
  
• 12000 issues
  
• 550 talks and exhibitions
  
• 190 customer visits

Typical features

• Specialist services, equipment modifications, "design for all" features:
  
  • Public call box access
  • Coupling to hearing aids
    
  • Textphones
    
  • Amplification
    
  • Tactile markers
    
  • Speech synthesis
    
  • Relay service
    
  • Braille information/billing
    
  • ...etc

ETSI TC HF

• Technical Committee Human Factors (TC HF)
  
  • Responsible for HF issues in all areas of telecommunications
    
  • Responsibility to ensure ETSI takes account of needs of all users, including older, younger or disabled
    
  • Produces standards, guidelines and reports that set the criteria needed to ensure widest possible accessibility of ICT
    
  • Substantial work programme supported by EC
    
  • For details of HF work programme see: portal.etsi.org/portal_common/home.asp?tbkey1=HF

Standardisation for accessibility solutions

• Technical requirements
  
  • Inductive coupling
    
  • Textphone interworking
    
  • Symbols
    
  • Tactile markers
    
  • ...etc
    
• Guidance - best practice
  
• Technical investigations and reports
  
• Forum for problem resolution
  
• Source of technical expertise

21st Century networks - IP based future

• Changes in work programme in response to changes in technology and marketplace
• In the past was typically centred on terminals issues such as keypad sizes or control layout, network issues such post sending delay or information or information display such as call box pictograms.
• Now much more HCI and applications focused as computing and telecommunications has converged.

Typical issues dealt with in HF work programme

• Children's use of ICT
  
• User profiles
  
• Telecare
  
• Text communication in multimedia environments
  
• Multimodal communication
  
• …etc

Typical methods for progressing these issue

• Stakeholder consultation
  
• Workshops
  
• Surveys
  
• Testing and experimentation
  
• Consumer representation
  
• Academic and industrial research
  
• EU Framework Programme results
  
• Co-ordination and collaboration with other technical committees

Conclusions

• Technical standards products can be specifications, requirements, technical reports, investigations or guidance on best practice.
• Technical standardisation supports innovation, inclusion and creativity in ICT.
• Technical standardisation has an important role to play in the creation of an inclusive digital networked economy for Europe

Address the needs of all users

 

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