The Information Access Division (IAD) co-sponsored a workshop, on “Matching Needs of Users with Disabilities to Emerging Technology Capabilities: Setting an R&D Agenda in Accessible Interface and Information Technologies”, held at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland February 28 - March 1, 2007. This workshop was hosted in collaboration with the Trace Research & Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Founded in 1971, Trace has been a pioneer in the field of technology and disability. The workshop was funded through the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Universal Interface & Information Technology Access at Trace supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability & Rehabilitation Research.
This was an invitation-only workshop that brought together cross-disciplinary experts, including researchers in bioengineering, computer science, human factors, and assistive technology, to discuss the impacts of emerging interfaces, information technology, and network technologies on people with disabilities, and identify the key topics and questions for research and development for the next five, ten, and fifteen years. The objective was to discuss and help map out the potential impact of areas such as ubiquitous computing, anytime-anywhere connectivity, speech recognition, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, direct brain interface, interface sockets and network services. Workshop participants included: American Foundation for the Blind, Carnegie Mellon’s Language Technologies Institute, College Misericordia’s Assistive Technology Research Institute, Free Standards Group, IBM, Lowney Access Research, Marquette University, National Federation of the Blind, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Sungkyunkwan University (Korea), University of Colorado’s Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Toronto’s Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, and various U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Access Board, GSA, and NSF.
The goal was to identify key areas where research is needed and could show impact over 5, 10 and 15 year time spans. The mainstream resources being expended to advance this area are enormous. The funds to study and address the impact on people with disabilities, however, is quite limited. Identifying these issues early allows stakeholders to capitalize on mainstream research and focus research resources carefully.
Analysis from this workshop will be shared at upcoming RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technologies of North America) and HCI (Human Computer Interaction) International conferences. A workshop report will be available by September 2007.
Contact: Sharon Laskowski, ext. 4535