|
08:30 – 09:00 |
Registration |
|
09:00 – 09:15 |
Welcome – Yushi Naito, Chairman, ITU-T Study Group 16 |
|
09:15 – 09:45 |
Session 1: Welcome, Introduction and ITU work
|
|
Bill Pechey, Floris Van Nes: Introduction of relevant ITU-T work from the Rapporteurs |
|
Bill Pechey (UK): Introduction to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities |
Paul Jones (Cisco, USA): Advanced Multimedia System (AMS)
This presentation will present H.325, the latest work from the ITU related to multimedia communication systems.
It discusses the design of the new system at a high level, with some discussion on ways in which the system
is being designed to take accessibility into account numerous areas of their daily lives.
|
|
09:45 – 11:00 |
Session 2: Topics in Relay Services
|
Christopher Jones (Acceque, UK): Our Telephone; Striving towards Functional Equivalency in Relay Services
Functional equivalent use of the telephone is of paramount importance to sign language deaf users,
deaf with speech, deafened and hard of hearing people to enable them to integrate socially in society
and attain employment. Relay services are the most appropriate access to the telephone for deaf people
and some types of relay services are more functional equivalent than others. Examining call operating
procedures is necessary to achieve better functional equivalency for each type of relay service.
Captioned Telephone Relay Service is the most functional equivalent relay service and is appropriate
for hard of hearing, deafened and deaf with speech people. Levels of transcription speed, accuracy,
transparency and control are explored.
Raising concerns of ‘privacy’ issue which may lead to reduced functional equivalency in relay
service is examined. Challenging ITU to develop standards that strive towards more functional
equivalency in all types of relay services. We need to challenge all states to provide deaf
people with a choice of different types of relay services.
|
Karen Peltz Strauss (KPS Consulting, USA): Achieving Functional Equivalency in a Modernized Relay Environment
Over the past decade, evolving technologies have substantially modernized telecommunications relay services, producing
a wide selection of text, video, captioning, and speech interpretation options. Article 4 of the UN Convention directs
countries to promote the use of such new communication technologies, while Article 9 requires equal communications access
for persons with disabilities. This session will explore policy considerations that result from advancing technologies,
focusing primarily on the challenges of ensuring transparent relay conversations in light of laws prohibiting telephone
conversation monitoring. In addition, the following will be briefly addressed:
Does the UN Convention call for enabling relay users of two different types of relay services to be able to converse with
one other? What role should governments play in ensuring the availability of affordable specialized relay equipment and
broadband services for persons with disabilities? What efforts should be taken by relay programs to educate the general
public about relay services to prevent hang-ups? Conversely, what efforts should be made to curb relay fraud? And, to
what extent is there a need for standardization of off-the-shelf video equipment for point-to-point and video relay communications?
|
Judith Viera (TDI, USA)
Maya de Wit (EFSLI The Netherlands)
Relay Communication Assistants and Video Interpreters: Role, Ethics and Confidentiality
All forms of telecommunication relay services and remote interpreting services depend on the intervention of
specially trained third party personnel, such as communication assistants and video interpreters, who relay
telephone conversations back and forth between two or more parties. The UN Convention recognizes the right
of persons with disabilities to autonomy, independence, and the freedom to make their own choices. How does
the dependence on a third party become
independence for the relay consumer?
The U.N. Convention also stipulates that “no person with disabilities shall be subjected to arbitrary or
unlawful interference with his or her privacy…”
This presentation discusses the role of relay communication assistants and video interpreters (third party personnel)
in the U.S. and Europe, and offers best practices of relay services to ensure confidentiality, privacy, and ethical
behaviors including physical setup of the work environment, and procedures for call handling. Taken together, such
practices ensure that conversations are functionally equivalent to telephone use by people who hear and speak, private
and confidential, and callers have full control of their telephone calls and conversations – with
independence the result.
|
|
11:00 – 11:15 |
Coffee break
|
|
11:15 – 12:30 |
Session 3: Accessibility standards and their effect on design and public procurement
|
Mitsuji Matsumoto (University of Waseda, Japan): F.790 and Guide 71
ITU has promoted the accessibility initiatives for many years.
At the last study period, the Telecommunication Accessibility Checklist for standards writers and Telecommunications Accessibility Guidelines (F.790) for older persons and persons with disabilities were developed.
The purpose of this presentation is to indicate the distinction for the Accessibility checklist and Accessibility Guideline on the telecommunication process.
Considering that the specification of the function cannot be changed easily after Standardization, it is important for the Accessibility experts to help the development of the Accessibility Implementer's guide at the beginning of the standardization.
For Japanese activities in the Accessibility standardization, the direction of Activities by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) in Japan is introduced. In particular, it describes the standardization activities, implementation of the accessibility guidelines, and the example of the telecommunication products which support the aim of the guideline. Finally, the necessary activities in the standardization process was indicated.
|
Ken Sagawa (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology (AIST), Japan): Ergonomics-oriented design using ISO/IEC Guide 71 and TR 22411
ISO/TC159 “Ergonomics” has been working on the implementation of ISO/IEC Guide 71 to products, services,
and environments for older people and people with disabilities. The most critical point for this, we believe,
is to provide designers the data on how the human abilities are affected by aging and disabilities as well
as necessary design considerations based on the data. ISO/R22411 was developed for this purpose by collecting
a number of human data related to human sensory, physical and cognitive abilities, which should be usefully
used for implementing accessible design in industry. In this talk, the contents of ISO/TR22411 will be
presented from a view point of ergonomic design.
|
Loïc Martínez-Normand and Clas Thoren (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain): Conformity Assessment in the Public Procurement of Accessible ICT
Public procurement is an important instrument for improving the accessibility of the information society.
One issue is conformity assessment of ICT products and services meeting accessibility requirements, in the form of standards.
This contribution presents an overview of a report produced as a response to the mandate M/376, issued by the European
Commission and concerning the harmonization and facilitation of the public procurement of accessible ICT products and services.
The report, together with an inventory of accessibility requirements, will provide a basis for the next phase of the mandated
work: production of a European standard specifying accessibility requirements, and a set of guidance and support material
intended for public ICT procurers.
|
|
12:30 – 14:00 |
Lunch break |
|
14:00 – 16:00 |
Session 4: Other Applications of telecommunications technology to improve accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
|
Jeff McWhinney (SignVideo, UK)
Jacques Sangla (WebSourd, France)
Didier Chabanol and Emmanuel Buu (IVèS, France)
Sign Language and technology - access, applications and interoperability
This paper focuses on the implications of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities and the current, and potential, benefits available to deaf people who
use sign language. This paper will look at the video relay services in the UK, touch
briefly on the campaign for alternative relay services in the UK, the developments on
web broadcasting and usage of avatars in sign language to convey sign language through
the internet in France and conclude with the technological aspects building on ITU’s
work on protocol and technology with the objective of normalising and interconnecting
the IMS system.
|
Fanny Corderoy du Tiers (Viable, France): Videophone: high-technology visual telecommunication device for VRS
As a French-American deaf person, I have years of experience with VRS on both continents,
and I am very familiar with the political/financial/interpreting issues regarding
telecommunication access. An innovative videophone has been developed by and for the deaf,
giving deaf users the same communication access as their hearing peers. It was conceived
and developed by a team of deaf engineers/technicians who know the needs and expectations
of deaf and hard-of-hearing users. This new technology encompasses a range of features
that address the socio-cognitive needs of the deaf; therefore, it will have a positive
impact in numerous areas of their daily lives.
|
Tabitha Allum (Stagetext, UK): Access to the arts for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people
This talk will outline the work of STAGETEXT in increasing access to the arts for deaf,
deafened and hard of hearing people through the delivery and promotion of text generation
systems in the UK. It will also consider how new technologies – such as speech recognition,
handheld devices, and remote delivery over the internet - could be usefully employed to
give the audience even greater access to an even wider range of cultural events.
|
Gunnar Hellström (Omnitor, Sweden): Total Conversation - Meeting UN Convention and European Commission requirements for everyday communications and emergency services in the REACH112 project
Total Conversation is video telephony complemented with real-time text in a
standardised and interoperable fashion once defined by ITU-T. By offering
three media in a call, it provides good opportunities to meet policy goals
from the UN Convention and by the European Commission. Further extended to
be used with relay services and for emergency service access, it provides
even more opportunities for people with disabilities. This has been understood
by the e-Inclusion unit in the European Commission, who now provides partial
funding for a deployment project of Total Conversation and of accessible
emergency services. The project is called REACH112, and has the goal to
run Total Conversation pilot services in 5 countries, using different, but
interoperable implementations of the Total Conversation and Real-Time Text
standards from ITU-T, IETF and ETSI.
|
|
16:00 – 16:15 |
Coffee break
|
|
16:15 – 17:30 |
Session 5: Further questions and general discussion
- General discussions for topics of the day
- Suggested follow-up and future standardisation work for Question 4/2 and Question 26/16
|
|
17:30 |
Close of Workshop |
|
|
