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European cooperation activities for Design for All:
An introduction to EDeAN and D4ALLnet

Prof. Constantine Stephanidis (FORTH-ICS)

EDeAN

• The "European Design for All e-Accessibility Network"
  
• Established in 2002 by the European Commission and the member states
  
• In order to raise the profile of Design for All (DfA) and emphasize its importance in achieving greater accessibility in the Information Society for as many people as possible (in accordance with the eEurope 2002 Action Plan)

Purpose

EDeAN aims to:

• Support eEurope objectives
  
• Provide a European forum for DfA issues
  
• Raise awareness for DfA in the public and private sectors
  
• Provide input for European curricula on DfA
  
• Create links with the appropriate educational channels to incorporate DfA in new curricula

Organisation

• EDeAN is composed of National Networks, one in each European member state.
  
• 15 National Contact Centres (NCCs) have been appointed. Each NCC is responsible for liaising with network members in their own country and with the EDeAN secretariat
  
• Currently, 136 European organizations are represented in EDeAN

EDeAN Secretariat

• The Secretariat coordinates the NCCs at the European level.
  
• Secretariat management rotates yearly
  
  • l For the year 2005, the EDeAN Secretariat is run by ICS-FORTH (Greece)

Supporting projects

• EDeAN is supported by two EC funded projects:
  
  • IDCnet (IST-2001-38786) "Inclusive Design Curriculum network"
    (www.idcnet.info)
    
  • D4ALLnet (IST-2001-38833) "Design for All Network of Excellence"
    (www.d4allnet.gr)

D4ALLnet - Objectives

• D4ALLnet: a thematic network supporting the operation of EDeAN
  
  • l Incorporating all EDeAN NCCs
    
  • Building an ICT infrastructure and tools to enable systematic virtual cooperation around an agreed DfA agenda
    
• Current DfA agenda:
  
  • fA policy and legislation
    
  • Standardisation
    
  • benchmarking for assessing and validating DfA experiences
    
  • proactive assessment on DfA
    
  • interdisciplinary programme of study on DfA

D4ALLnet - Expected results

• Provision of a virtual networking infrastructure
  
  • HERMES web portal facilitating and supporting the operation of EDeAN
• Provision of a DfA Resource Centre for EDeAN
  
  • ARIADNE on-line Resource Centre infrastructure and content facilitating knowledge sharing amongst DfA practitioners
• Networking and consolidation activities
  
  • Formation and operation of EDeAN Special Interest Groups
    
  • consolidated SIG's activities results
• Outreach activities
  
  • raising awareness on DfA and facilitating EDeAN objectives

D4ALLnet - Membership

Contractors

• Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Institute of Computer Science (Greece)
  
• Danish Centre for Assistive technology (Denmark)
  
• FTB - Forschungsinstitut Technologie-Behindertenhilfe (Germany)
  
• Institute for Rehabilitation Research (The Nerherlands)
  
• Centre for User Oriented IT Design, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Sweden)
  
• National Research Council (Italy)
  
• National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (Finland)

Members (EDeAN NCCs)

• University of Linz (Austria)
  
• VZW-T(Belgium)
  
• Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (France)
  
• Central Remedial Clinic (Ireland)
  
• The National Secretariat for the Rehabilitation and Integration of People with Disabilities (Portugal)
  
• National Centre for Personal Autonomy & Technical Aids (Spain)
  
• Computer Interaction Design (UK)
  
• Fraunhofer - FIT (together with FTB forming Design für alle - Deutschland) (Germany)
  
• Swedish Handicap Institute (Sweden)
  
• The Norwegian EDeAN NCC (to be appointed)
  
• The UK NCC (to be confirmed)

EDeAN SIGs

• EDeAN has formed Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that operate on-line in order to significantly contribute to advance DfA knowledge on a range of topics
  
  • Benchmarking
    
  • Policy and Legislation
    
  • Standardisation
    
  • Proactive assessment
    
  • DfA curricula
    
  • EDeAN NCC eForum
    The SIGs operate through HERMES, the EDeAN portal, available at: www.edean.org

EDeAN SIGs - SIG 1

• SIG 1: Policy and legislation
  
  • Moderated by Jan Ekberg and Erkki Kemppainen, STAKES
    
• Focuses on how policy measures and legislation can promote equal opportunities through use of Design for All.
• Provides an open forum for discussions on policy measures and legislation at European, national and local levels.

EDeAN SIGs - SIG 2

• SIG 2: Standardisation
  
  • Moderated by Jan Engelen (K U Leuven)
• Standardisation is often seen as the domain of specialist groups, committees and commissions
  
  • This creates a very confusing situation for outsiders wishing to get information or to get involved in standardisation
• The EDeAN SIG on Standardisation was set up to permit all actors in the field, as well as other interested persons, to learn about and to discuss standardisation issues on a broad scale

EDeAN SIGs - SIG 3

• SIG 3: Curricula on DfA
  
  • Moderated by Fredrik Winberg, CID-KTH
• this SIG aims to
  • identify the sets of knowledge and skills that should be part of a curriculum for DfA
    
  • integrate the needs of the ICT industry and educational establishments
    
  • influence the direction of education and research policies in Europe for mainstreaming DfA in the education sector

EDeAN SIGs - SIG 4

• SIG 4: Benchmarking
  
  • Moderated by Christian Bühler, FTB
• Benchmarking - an attempt to systematically analyse and compare solutions and practical experiences. It is extremely helpful to exchange information on the current status in the European Member States and to learn from best practice.
• n The EDeAN SIG on benchmarking takes up the concrete issue on WAI adoption as an example. It started discussing benchmarking elements and options with regard to DfA. It aims to increase the exchange of SIG members and to publish results of the discussions.

EDeAN SIGs - SIG 5

• SIG 5: Proactive Assessment
  
  • Moderated by Pier Luigi Emiliani, CNR-IFAC
    
• The Proactive Assessment SIG
  
  • relates to an effort towards providing an account of technological developments likely to take place in the future, with the intention to assess both the impact of these developments on certain user communities, and the validity of DfA as an instrument for proactively accounting for technological accessibility
  • is concerned with future aspects of the emerging information society, and will aim to inform and validate DfA as a proactive philosophy of design

SIG membership

• Potential members subscribe to the SIGs by invitation only.
  
• SIG moderators invite members for their SIG
  
• EDeAN NCCs also invite members to join the SIGs
  
• The EDeAN Secretariat invites members for the EDeAN NCC eForum

EDeAN / COST219ter collaboration

• In the context of SIG 2 (Standardisation)
  
  • Exchange of information and resources on Standardisation
• In the context of SIG 5 (Proactive Assessment)
  • Current discussions on ISTAG scenarios and accessibility

HERMES - The EDeAN web portal

• HERMES is the accessible virtual networking platform of EDeAN developed by the D4ALLnet project
  
  • to provide the necessary Internet-based communication tools to carry out the various activities of EDeAN
    
  • to enable systematic cooperation amongst EDeAN network members
    
  • to facilitate the longer-term and policy objectives of EDeAN
    
  • Has been widely accepted and used
    
  • More than WAI AAA Accessible interface
    
  • Continuously updated and enhanced
    
  • Available at www.edean.org

HERMES - screenshots

ARIADNE - The EDeAN DfA Resource Centre

• A European-wide resource database, accessible through the EDeAN web portal to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on DfA
  
• Providing resources on:
  
  • Best practices
    
  • Design guidelines
    
  • Standards
    
  • Case studies
    
  • DfA literature
    
• Developed by the D4ALLnet project, is available to registered users of HERMES since June 2004

ARIADNE - screenshots

Summary

• The D4ALLnet project is understood as building the infrastructure and supporting the operation of EDeAN.
  
• HERMES has officially become the EDeAN portal and virtual networking platform, supporting the operation of the EDeAN SIGs and the EDeAN NCC e-Forum.
  
• ARIADNE is the on-line Resource Centre infrastructure of EDeAN, available through HERMES

Additional Information

EDeAN: www.edean.org
EDeAN Secretariat for 2005: FORTH-ICS
Secretariat Manager: Iosif Klironomos
E-mail: iosif@ics.forth.gr

D4ALLnet: www.d4allnet.gr
Prof. Constantine Stephanidis (FORTH-ICS)
E-mail: cs@ics.forth.gr

 

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