ERCIM workshop on “User interfaces for all”

The proliferation of computer-based systems and applications in every walk of life and the anticipated widespread use of emerging telematic services has introduced new dimensions to the issue of human-machine interaction, necessitating the design of high quality user interfaces accessible and usable by a diverse user population with different abilities, requirements and preferences. This user population at large, includes people with different cultural, educational, training and employment background, novice and experienced computer users, the very young and the elderly and people with different types of disabilities. Thus, it has become increasingly important to design human-machine interfaces, which not only support more efficient and effective user interaction, but also address the individual end user needs, requirements, skills and expectations, while exhibiting a wide range of Intelligent and Deliberative behaviour. One of the domains of tele-informatics research and development, which has recently emerged, concerns the development of methodologies, tools, applications and services which support the socioeconomic integration and independent living of people with disabilities. In particular, the potential of the emerging telematic network infrastructure, offers new possibilities for the socioeconomic integration of people with disabilities and can be exploited to facilitate direct access to the general purpose telematic terminals, services and applications. Issues related to the human-computer interaction, i.e. rendering the user interface accessible and usable also by users with functional limitations are of considerable importance and relevance. Currently, the plethora of existing methodologies and development tools for producing the user interface of such services and applications do not directly address the broad range of issues related to their accessibility by the various categories of disabled people. Therefore, Alternative solutions for SIGCAPH Page 20