| Accessibility II: Communication by all means: Accessibility for all in
telecommunications enabled by multimedia standards |
Where: Telecom 2003 Forum / Palexpo, Geneva (a plenary session within
the Telecom 2003
Forum)
When: Whole Event, 13-17 October 2003
Accessibility
Session, October 17, 2003, 14h00-17h00
(17h00-19h00 hands-on)
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have the potential to
give disabled persons a chance to communicate with the world on the same
basis as the community at large. And while work on improving access to
these technologies is not new, the latest advancements are opening a world
of opportunities for communication.
ITU has pioneered work on standardization that will further open up ICT
access for the deaf and is progressing its work to promote an
all-inclusive approach to telecommunications.
The workshop ‘Accessibility II: Communication by all means’ briefed
the attendance on the current status of standardization for accessibility
enabled by multimedia communication as well as on societal support and on
practical results from the implementation of all-inclusive communications
facilities. Speakers included representatives from the standards-making
bodies as well as authorities and the user community.
Objectives:
- Review the current status of standardization in support of
accessibility.
- Learn about actions from society to promote accessibility in ICT.
- Create awareness on how the Total Conversation concept for
communication in video, text and voice can open for efficient
telecommunication between people with different languages and
capabilities.
- Create awareness about accessibility standards in the stored
multimedia area.
- Inform and discuss the current work at ITU with Text over IP and
interoperability issues.
- Encourage the implementation of these standards in all
technologies applicable so that newer emerging technologies will already
take into account the needs of deaf communication.
- Encourage people with disabilities to support and contribute to
the work in ITU-T.
Opening:
Presentations:
- 14:10 "Policy support for accessible personal communication"
Gunnar Fagerberg, European Commission, Information
Society,
Directorate-General, Elderly and persons with disabilities [Presentation]
Summary:
The European Commission has a specific unit for developments in IT
of interest for the elderly and persons with disabilities. Activities
encompass support for research projects, contribution to policy
initiatives, and participation in the development of directives and
regulations. The presentation will give an insight in some of these
activities, with specific emphasis on telecommunication.
Additional material: About the EC-Information Society Directorate-General
- 14:30 "Accessible Multimedia Design for All: Users Role in DAISY
Way"
Hiroshi Kawamura, Manager, Department for Welfare of Persons with
Disabilities, Japan [Presentation]
Summary:
Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) is an emerging
international standard for synchronized audio, text and graphics. Open,
inter-operable and non-proprietary contents/user interface standards
that serve to the general public including people with disabilities
based on XML, SMIL and Timed Text will be discussed.
- 14:50 "Total Conversation through ITU-T Standards"
Paul Jones, Cisco, Rapporteur ITU-T Q.2/16 [Presentation]
Summary:
This presentation will focus on the ever-changing world of
communications and how the ITU-T has worked to bridge the gaps faced
by the elderly, blind, and deaf users. It will highlight some of the
more recent and on-going work on the transport of text signalling over
IP networks and what equipment manufacturers are doing to address the
needs of the deaf and hard of hearing.
- 15:10 “Communications by all means”
Gunnar
Hellström, Omnitor, Rapporteur ITU-T Q.H/16 [Presentation]
Summary:
Total Conversation is a simple extension to video telephony, which
opens a multitude of opportunities for improved communication. It is
the accessible counterpart to voice telephony. The presentation
reports on case studies where various communication situations has
been successfully solved by these open standards for accessible
communication, and gives further visions about an accessible future
for telecommunications.
- 15:45 "Providing Access to Services for New and Legacy Textphones"
Mick Day, BT [Presentation
| Script]
Summary:
The future for textphone communications is real-time full duplex text and
voice but how do people who need to use textphones gain access to
existing and future services using both the current legacy textphones
and the future IP based terminals? Will service providers have to enable all the protocols and
technologies that textphone users want to use or do gateways provide a
better solution? The presentation will show how gateways can provide access to
voice based services for deaf and speech impaired textphone users, how
a PC based textphone can enhance the conversation, and the
provisioning by BT TextDirect of gateway functions in the UK.
- 16:05 "Accessible communication on the move"
Michael Quinlan, British Deaf Association [Presentation]
Summary:
The WISDOM (“Wireless Information Services for Deaf People On the
Move”) project takes deaf telecommunications to the street and puts
the interpreter in the pocket of deaf people.
Additional material: Summary of the WISDOM Project
-
16:25 “A new communication platform for deaf and hard of hearing users”
Beat Kleeb and Urs
Linder, Procomm, Switzerland [Presentation]
Summary:
An introduction to a demonstration in the hands on session, presenting a
new communication platform, based on the SIP standard.
Additional material : Summary
of the TeleSIP application
Panel discussion (16:40):
- "Can mainstream telecommunications be accessible for all?"
All speakers
Hands-on:
17h00 - 19h00
Final Report
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