Communications of the ACM
Breaking Down the Web Barriers Bit by Bit
Credit: Workforce Investment Board of Kanawha County
Technology can open doors, but only if you have the capacity to use it. A system to remove barriers to the Internet faced by people with disabilities is gaining ground.
Written information or using a mouse can act as barriers to those with limited motor skills or those who find it difficult to maintain attention on a topic for long periods. The NavigAbile project is designed for a wide spectrum of children and adults. It is not just one solution. It is based on profiling at the entry point so that the user is offered the most customized solution possible.
"We normally think of people with disabilities as if they were one homogeneous group," says Leopoldo Ferrè of Exeo Consulting, project manager of NavigAbile. "We imagine they will face similar situations and have similar needs. That is not true. They are all individuals with different characters, needs and motivations. NavigAbile developers need to investigate case by case."
To serve such a diverse audience, NavigAbile profiles each user by asking them a series of questions about the way they like to receive and view information, and how they like to communicate.
The profiling can define the size of the font, the level of screen contrast and the way the interface looks. Users with motor difficulties can choose to have documents scroll slowly by so they can read without having to constantly change the page. Or a computer voice can read the text out. For those with limited reading ability, NavigAbile supports picture languages like DCS or Bliss—or text can be limited to simple vocabularies.
More Than a Million
"Profiling is the core—we look to start from the most customized solution possible," says Ferrè. "Through profiling, NavigAbile adapts to the needs of each user. Normally it is the other way around—users have to adapt to the needs of the system. We have not solved all the problems facing people with disabilities who want to use computers, but we can offer more than one million options at this stage.
"The most successful parts of NavigAbile are the sentence writer and the simplified mailing system," he says. "What many users really value is to be able to communicate with others—to publish a sentence or picture with their comments and to enter discussions. They are most interested in being part of a social network."
The number of people using NavigAbile regularly has grown quickly. The software developed in the EU-funded project is also offered more than 30 centers for people with disabilities in Italy.
Most NavigAbile users are not fully autonomous in navigating the Internet. They need some help. There are now several hundred trained NaviTutors and teachers who can support system users. An online training course for these user supporters has been developed and the NavigAbile team maintains a central help desk to answer users' questions.
Supporters are not only crucial in helping NavigAbile users overcome physical limitations, they can also play an important motivational role, Ferrè says.
"At times, NavigAbile cannot offer users some of the more attractive parts of the Internet. The program must present information in a simple way. For example, Flash or video might simply cause confusion for someone with a severe mental impairment. For some users, communicating can be very hard work. The supporter can help them gain the benefits of that hard work and encourage them to continue.
"We experimented with NavigAbile in Italy for three years before looking internationally," the project manager says. "The opportunity to have a multi-language system was a logical step forward. Why not include the needs of people from all around Europe?”
NavigAbile presents opportunities to learn from different cultures the processes used by people with disabilities in other countries, Ferrè says.
"We also wanted to increase awareness of the opportunities that NavigAbile offers. We are sure that there are many supporters and teachers who would take up the training we offer if they knew about it. The training is not that long. We offer e-learning training and we maintain networks where they can exchange knowledge and experience."
Continuous Effort
NavigAbile is something that can never finish because people with disabilities in the future will also have new and different needs. It will require continuous effort. "Each time we add a new feature we include a new group of people—but often each specialist feature increases the total population by a very limited number," Ferrè says.
Part of that development challenge is to exploit the rapidly expanding range of Web technologies.
"We are researching how to turn NavigAbile into a Web 2.0 platform, making it easier for the users' families, supporters and teachers to have more opportunities to communicate with each other," Ferré says. "We want to create communities of people who work with users where they can exchange their success stories."
NavigAbile was funded under the eTen market validation scheme. It has the backing and continued support of a number of influential Italian and global companies. It is an initiative of Fondazione Italiana Accenture, in partnership with Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus, Fondazione Francesca Rava—NPH Italia Onlus, Ministero della Solidarietà Sociale, HP, Microsoft, Nuance, Studio Delta, Dart, Univeristat de Valencia, e-Isotis.
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