Jef Raskin (University of Chicago):
"We are all blind: Designing interfaces for Accessibility" (view abstract)

Rich Schwerdtfeger (IBM):
"Platform Accessibility Architecture and Interoperability" (view abstract)

Paul Blenkhorn (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology):
"Using computers to support people with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)" (view abstract)

Thomas Logan (Microsoft):
"Introduction to Microsoft Windows' Next Generation Accessibility Framework" (view abstract)

Immaculada Placencia Porrero (European Commission, DG Information Society, eInclusion unit):
"An Information Society for All - the European Response" (view abstract)

Jef Raskin - "We are all blind: Designing interfaces for Accessibility":
Computer interfaces being designed or modified for the use of the less abled are too often modeled on or built with interface methods and standards that, even though they are familiar and customary, fail even for the fully able. Unless we recognize those failings and address them, we are not doing all we can to improve accessibility. While insight, ingenuity, and testing will always be essential ingredients in designing interfaces, practitioners should be aware of the host of the available but underutilized interface analysis tools that are mathematical and objective. Applying these tools can improve the quality of interface design, eliminate steps in creating an interface, and turn many design decisions from opinion and argument into an engineering calculation.
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Rich Schwerdtfeger - "Platform Accessibility Architecture and Interoperability":
Lack of comprehensive accessibility architectures and strategies, early in the game, have created roadblocks to accessible, interoperable solutions on our key operating system and application platforms. Often our best efforts at enablement have failed to produce a working solution. To address these complex accessibility problems IBM has taken a broader perspective that goes beyond enablement. This keynote will discuss platform accessibility architecture and strategies used to address corporate interoperability.
This presentation will analyze some of our key operating system and application platforms, including Windows, Linux, Pure Java, Eclipse, Flash, and the Web. It will demonstrate how to use mechanisms such as platform gap analysies to find the holes. It will show how IBM uses these mechanisms to lead and participate in collaborative accessibility efforts by establishing comprehensive platform accessibility architecture roadmaps for each platforms. Participants will gain an understanding of why we have interoperability problems today and what industry changes need to occur as we move toward an on-demand era for accessibility.
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Paul Blenkhorn - "Using computers to support people with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)":
Conferences concerned with technology and disabilities, e.g. ICCHP, provide an excellent forum for discussing technology and disability. However, the papers generally focus on sensory impairement (vision and hearing), physical disabilities and augmentative communication. One of the goals of this presentation is to broaden this consideration of technological support for people with disabilities by focusing on the largest group of people with disabilities, i.e. those with Specific Learning Disabilities (SpLD). This group includes dyslexic, dyspraxic, Asperger's Syndrome, etc.. Government figures indicate that this group is at least 10% of the population and probably quite significantly more. This session will identify some of the needs of this group, particularly around reading, writing, organisation of information and social skills. In addition, through consideration of some case studies, it will present some of the ways in which technology can provide support.
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Thomas Logan - "Introduction to Microsoft Windows' Next Generation Accessibility Framework":
Windows "Longhorn" will introduce a first-class user interface (UI) automation framework designed for assistive technologies, automated UI testing, commanding utilities and more. This session covers the goals of this new UI automation framework as well as the major architectural components. A technical overview will be presented to explain how a technology can use our framework to gather and collect information about the UI, track changes in application state, and interact with controls based on their inherent capabilities. The session will also highlight the work that has been done by our developers to allow old applications developed prior to UI Automation to be exposed on "Longhorn". This will enable the task of writing automation code to support new and existing Windows applications to be greatly simplified by presenting a uniform model for fully accessing content. We believe easy access to information will be the driving force in the development of innovations in assistive technologies running on the Windows platform. This presentation seeks to spark the ideas of what is possible when a consistent object model is available for disparate UI frameworks.
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Immaculada Placencia Porrero - "An Information Society for All - the European Response":
This keynote speech gives an introduction to the policy and the activities of the European Commission in relation to the eInclusion activities.
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