EHealth Applications for Those in Need: Making Novel Interaction Technologies Accessible

Barrier-free usability is a precondition for eHealth applications for all. While novel and innovative user interface technologies have the potential of increasing the usability of a device, they may also impose barriers for users with physical impairments. These barriers are often removed through later updates and workarounds, but in other cases never. ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, has published an ETSI Guide (EG) [1] that anticipates new interaction technologies [2] in the form of technology roadmaps, pointing out potential barriers individual technologies may create for specific user groups. That document also lists measures that can be taken in order to overcome these barriers so that the technologies can be introduced to the market in barrier-free versions right from their first implementation. In this chapter, ETSI’s approach to identifying relevant technology areas and the resulting technology roadmaps are presented in the form of examples and scenarios.

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