European Union Funded 7.8M Euro Project

Start Date: 1^st September 2008 onwards

Researchers:  Dr S Ferguson & Dr K Rafferty

Partners:

• Lunds University Sweden
• Queen's University Belfast UK
• University of Glasgow UK
• Fundacion ROBOTIKER Spain
• OFFIS e.V Germany
• Commissariat a l’energie atomique France
• Siemens AG SIS C-LAB Germany
• Finnish Geodetic Institute Finland
• BMT Group Ltd UK
• Lunds kommun Sweden
• Organizacion Nacional de Ciegos Spain
• Kreis Soest Germany
• NAVTEQ B.V The Netherlands

 

Summary

The HAPTIMAP project will deeply embed accessibility into digital mainstream maps and mobile location based services.  Our strategy is twofold, firstly to develop tools that make it easier for developers to add adaptable multimodal components (designed to improve accessibility) into their applications and, secondly, to raise the awareness of these issues via new guidelines and to suggest extensions to existing design practices so that accessibility issues are considered throughout the design process.   

The concrete outcomes of the project will be a developer toolkit together with a set of design guidelines that help developers of mainstream applications make maps in general more accessible and easier to use (not only for disabled users but for everyone).  We will raise the industrial awareness of accessibility issues by arranging workshops and also by providing an educational module targeted at engineering and design students.  Furthermore we will develop design methods and tools that support existing development practices so that it becomes easier to embed ‘accessibility’ into the design process, making it an integral part of the work instead of being added afterwards as is currently the case.

Finally, example applications that illustrate the use of the toolkit and guidelines will be developed and will be evaluated and demonstrated in multiple real life scenarios.