Towards iTV Accessibility: The MPEG-21 case

Traditional information media are often seen as modality specific media. Many different studies, was undertaken throughout 2005 and made possible the introduction of accessibility into a webTV service for all clients (current and future) of France Télécom, taking into account the needs of challenged people (blind people, visually impaired persons, deaf, hard of hearing persons, and people with reduced mobility). This is a design for all oriented approach. The aim is to develop a single application (TV) which contains simultaneously all the presentational forms that will be needed in its deployment: one object, visible through various different filters. The study performed in 2005 addressed specifically the needs and expectations of users for the Ma Ligne TV service, from the point of view of future clients, working on the different modes of interaction available, according to different types of handicaps. In a first pass, a document of recommendations was produced. Another document discussed the specification of HMI (Human Machine Interaction) for the creation of a prototype for "Ma Ligne TV accessible for all" (developed by Urbilog). Afterward, user tests were conducted with various subjects including the blind, the visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing, and with persons of reduced mobility. First, all of user test expressed an appreciation of the service, even asking when the release date would be. A technical analysis was also completed, the conclusion of which was that the project was well within the realms of feasibility.

This paper presents a tool and a framework to develop accessible and adaptable digital TV interfaces for disabled and elderly users. The development methodology involves disabled and elderly users early in the design process and optimizes interfaces using a simulation system. The simulator complements existing user centred design processes and helps designers to understand, visualize and measure effect of impairments on interaction. The adaptive framework supports a wide variety of applications through its easy-to-use APIs. The system is validated through a series of user trials confirming its usefulness for users with different range of abilities.

IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 2007

TV can be regarded as the most far-reaching media in Brazil. Its presence is noticed in 90% of Brazilian homes and it is the main source of information for a major part of the population. The moment of definition and consolidation of the digital TV technology provides us with a unique opportunity for analyzing and discussing this media accessibility. Making

International Journal of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, 2012

This paper addresses methodology and tools applied to the monitoring of accessibility services in digital television at a time when the principles of accessibility and design are being considered in all new audiovisual media communication services. The main objective of this research is to measure the quality and quantity of existing accessibility services offered by digital terrestrial television (DTT). The preliminary results, presented here, offer the development of a prototype for automatic monitoring and a methodology for obtaining quality measurements, along with the conclusions drawn by initial studies carried out in Spain. The recent approval of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities gives special relevance to this research because it provides valuable guidelines to help set the priorities to improve services currently available to users.

Human–Computer Interaction Series, 2013

The accessibility evaluation of Web applications has been gaining momentum in previous years. Several guidelines and systems are now available to assess the accessibility of a Web page. However, these guidelines have been show to be inadequate when assessing dynamic Web applications. Furthermore, when considering adaptive Web applications, another layer of dynamism is introduced, further complication the problem. This chapter presents a framework for accessibility evaluation of adaptive Web applications, expanding on previous work for evaluating dynamic Web applications. The framework will be described in the context of an evaluation of TV based Web applications, and the results will assist in the characterization of the accessibility of this particular field of Web applications. Nádia Fernandes, Daniel Costa, Carlos Duarte, Luís Carriço 30% of connected TVs in Europe are actually online), with major brands such as Apple, Google and Samsung investing in this field.

2012

This paper presents a set of digital television remote control devices designed for the Brazilian Digital Television System. The design guidelines were based on a research conducted with people with disabilities. We have achieved three models to attend distinct disabilities groups.

EuroITV'11 - Proceedings of the 9th European Interactive TV Conference, 2011

The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) switchover may leverage the implementation of a variety of features and services that will allow users to take on an interactive role. However, among the future clients of DTT are a significant number of elderly and visually impaired people who can not entirely benefit from the TV content or possible interactive services. In this way, and considering that interactive television (iTV) services can contribute towards improving life quality of this type of users, it is important to apply accessibility, usability and design-oriented guidelines for the development of accessible iTV systems.

International Journal On Advances in Intelligent Systems, 2012

Abstract: The development of new digital TV systems and the design practices adopted in the development of new TV based applications often isolate elderly and disabled users. By considering them as users with special needs and not taking their problems into account during the design phase of an application, developers are creating new accessibility problems or just keeping bad old habits. In this paper, we describe a novel adaptive accessibility approach on how to develop accessible TV applications, by making use of ...

Current design models for ensuring the accessibility of media such as television and the Web often equate accessibility with the needs of selected groups of persons with disabilities. The solutions that emerge as a consequence of this design approach may therefore overlook the requirements of other key constituents, not only other user groups with their own needs but also stakeholders whose support is crucial to make media accessibility sustainable.

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2011

The ongoing Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) switchover leads to an interesting opportunity for the implementation of advanced television services. Actually, these services can even be interactive, since it is foreseen that the required Set-Top Boxes (STB) could be equipped with an Internet connection. However, among the future clients of DTT there are a large number of elderly and visually impaired people who can not entirely benefit of these services due to their physical limitations. Nevertheless, considering that Interactive Television (iTV) services can contribute to improve life quality of this type of users, it is essential to apply accessibility, usability and designoriented guidelines for their development. In this context, this paper introduces a research related to universal design applied to iTV, being its aim to propose an advanced and accessible audio description service. In order to perceive the visually impaired users' problems and needs, a group of individuals was asked to participate in an interview.