Adaptive Accessibility: Sustaining Autonomy and Contributing to the Digital Economy Matthew Tylee Atkinson, Karen Yunqiu Li, Colin H. C. Machin Department of Computer Science Loughborough University Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK {M.T.Atkinson, K.Y.Li, C.H.C.Machin}@lboro.ac.uk David Sloan School of Computing University of Dundee Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK dsloan@computing.dundee.ac.uk ABSTRACT We propose the employment of small and capability-focussed “adaptations” as a vehicle to bring Assistive Technologies (ATs) to a mainstream audience, thus improving the provi- sion of accessibility and promoting independent use of ICTs, as well as providing greater economic opportunities for AT designers, developers and support. This work is being un- dertaken as part of Sus-IT; a multidisciplinary project that seeks to sustain the autonomy of older ICT users. Whilst this is a predominantly social task, this extended abstract discusses some core technical ideals of the project. The fo- cus is on the benefits that our technical approach may bring to the wider population and digital economy. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.4.2 [Information Systems]: Information Interfaces and Presentation (I.7)—User Interfaces ; H.5.2 [Computing Mi- lieux]: Computers and Society—Social Issues Keywords Adaptivity, Accessibility, Autonomy, Bridge, Sustaining 1. INTRODUCTION Though much of the work in sustaining autonomous ICT use is social in nature, some technical advancements are needed. There is no “average user” [2] and the ageing pro- cess can accentuate this considerably, giving rise to transient minor-to-moderate impairments [8]. Pervasive, mobile, com- puting brings many challenges associated with the use of systems in differing environments (a classic example being the difficulty of viewing screens on smartphones and cam- eras outside)—in fact it has been observed that designing systems for normal people in extreme circumstances has a lot in common with designing systems for disabled people in Digital Futures’10, October 11-12, 2010, Nottingham, UK. normal circumstances [5]. Often, due to such impairments and barriers and the complexity of ICTs, people are unaware of their accessibility needs; that these needs may be met by some existing Assistive Technologies (ATs) and how to make use of any ATs of which they are aware [1]. This lack of awareness can be exacerbated by the fact that people’s capabilities my change very slowly over time (as well as due to the changes in activity and environment over shorter timescales such as the working week)—people may gradually acclimatise to and attempt to find methods to cope with such capability changes, without experiencing the sort of acute incident that may prompt them to seek external support. Sus-IT 1 is a multidisciplinary research project on sustain- ing older people’s autonomous use of ICTs in order to pro- mote independence. This paper discusses two main aspects of one of Sus-IT’s work packages, which focuses on technical measures that can be developed to help address these chal- lenges. Much of the rest of the work of Sus-IT is social and all of the work is participatory in nature. Technical work is being carried out to bridge two gaps in the current provision of ATs, as discussed in the following sections. 2. BRIDGING GAPS A gulf exists between the user and available ATs; current ATs are designed for chronic and severe disabilities, whereas many people face minor-to-moderate, transient, impairments— and may experience multiple such impairments simultane- ously [8]. Our approach involves: (1) building upon both traditional ATs from industry and academia, but encour- aging these to be scaled back, making them more focused and less intrusive and (2) using these smaller ATs devel- oped by both industry and research as individual ”adapta- tions,” which may be employed at the appropriate time and in combination for a given user. We have developed rea- soning processes (described at a high level elsewhere [9]) to detect capability changes (including gradual ones) and learn to select the most appropriate ATs for a person at any time. One goal is, therefore, to open up the market for ATs to a much more mainstream audience and thus improve provi- sion of accessibility for all. Given that a large proportion of people who do not regard themselves as “disabled” may benefit from ATs [3], this is could be a significant step in the provision of accessibility—creating an expectation of better 1 http://sus-it.lboro.ac.uk/