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ITU-T Study Group 16 (Study Period 2005-2008) |
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Question 26/16 - Accessibility to Multimedia Systems and Services |
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(Continuation of Question H/16)
- Motivation
The capability to handle different information media and control actions varies within wide boundaries
among users of telecommunications and multimedia services. The variation may have a cause in age-related
functional limitations, in disabilities, and in other natural causes. With the ageing populations in large
parts of the world, many telecom users will have sensory and motor limitations. It is important to meet
this wide variety in capabilities in the original design of telecommunication services so that an
increasing number of users can make benefit of the mainstream services. Legislation in many countries
is also beginning to follow the trend of requiring design for all in all forms of communications services
and communications devices.
Multimedia systems and services have great opportunities to provide valuable and accessible information
in a way that the individual user can control, if care is taken from the beginning in inclusive design
of these services, making them accessible to as many users as possible.
The accessibility activities in SG 16 and its predecessors have created Recommendation V.18 for text
telephony, T.140 as the general presentation protocol for text conversation, T.134 for text conversation
in the T.120 data conferencing environment, H.323 Annex G for text conversation in H.323 packet multimedia
environment. Complemented by a number of additions to other Recommendations, the Total Conversation concept
was founded for conversation in Video, Text and Voice as an accessible superset of video telephony, text
telephony and voice telephony. The definitions of the accessible conversational services are captured in
Recommendation F.703; multimedia conversation service description.
It is the task of the Accessibility Question to engage in standardization activities leading to services
and systems designed for all. Consideration should be given to services in new generation networks with
fixed as well as mobile features.
The group also has a task to promote and enhance accessibility as a normal part of ITU work.
- Study Items
Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:
- Sections on accessibility issues in relevant Recommendations, declaring how inclusive design is achieved, as requested by the WSIS’ World Summit on the Information Society 2003.
- Support for wide performance limits in production, perception and control of each medium in communication services to allow for maximum usability in accordance with the principles of inclusive design. Specifically, study profiling of the latest video coding standards to fulfil sign language and lip reading needs at very low bit rates and in error prone environments.
- Specification of interfaces on communication equipment to allow various forms of user interface equipment to be attached in order to enable session and device control and media handling by people with varying capabilities and preferences. Examples of what the interfaces should support include talking menus, keyboards, pointing devices, listening and viewing devices, Braille and voice call control, text conversation input and output, etc.
- Multimedia Services including mechanisms for transformation between different media forms of the same content in order to adapt to the capabilities of end users. Such mechanisms may be automatic, for example text-to-speech, or performed by people, for example sign language interpretation.
- Mechanisms for user selectable media, including its production, storage, transport, presentation and logical linking.
- Specification of accessible services using wireless telecommunication technologies, and using wireless short range technologies for provision of convenient accessible features on communications equipment.
- Mechanisms for inter-working with mono-media services in an accessible way (e.g. text telephony and voice telephony).
- Maintenance of the Total Conversation concept, and its inclusion in any new multimedia conversation protocol.
- Study the requirements on multimedia metadata from an accessibility point of view to encourage inclusive design in this field.
- Study emergency service access for people who need to communicate in other media than voice, e.g. text, sign language, lip reading supported speech, etc.
- Tasks
Tasks include, but are not limited to:
- Coordination with other ITU-T study groups for fulfilment of Accessibility requirements in their Recommendations (ongoing).
- Coordination with other SDOs for fulfilment of Accessibility requirements in their specifications (ongoing).
- Promotion of Total Conversation defined in F.703 as a mainstream service (ongoing).
- Document and define accessibility requirements and solutions for interfaces between communication devices and user interface devices (2006).
- Analysis of further needs for enhancement of Total Conversation, and a plan for its completion (2005).
- Contribute to the accessibility sections of H.323 (beyond Annex G Text Conversation) (2006).
- Contribute to the continued harmonization and maintenance of the text telephone service, for example when new technologies are specified for PSTN transmission (ongoing).
- Create guidelines for the design of IP phones and IP communication systems for the inclusion of accessibility features including text conversation, video and alerting and maintain interoperability with legacy text telephones.
An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the
SG 16 Work Programme.
- Relationships
Recommendations:
- F.700, F.703, G.769/Y.1242, G.799.1/Y.1451.1, H.300 series, H.248, H.264, V.150.x, V.18, T.140
Questions:
- All Questions of Study Group 16.
Study Groups:
- ITU-T SG 2 (User considerations), SG 12 (media quality), SG 13 (NGN considerations), and SG 15 (Transmission equipment), for inclusive design in communication services.
- ITU-D SG 2 for information.
Other bodies:
- IETF in general, and specifically the SIPPING, MMUSIC, MEGACO, and AVT groups;
- 3GPP for mobile accessibility inclusion and co-ordination of text telephony and total conversation related issues.
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