Designing for All in the Information Society

Constantine Stephanidis, FORTH

In recent years, the radical technological changes in the IT&T industries have contributed towards a more information- and interaction-intensive paradigm for human activities. This trend, which is expected to continue, raises a whole new range of social, economic and technological considerations regarding the structure and content of societal activities in the information age. In this context, Design for All becomes a prominent target to enable equitable and high quality access to the Information Society by a diverse user population with different abilities, skills, requirements and preferences, in a variety of contexts of use, and through a variety of different technologies.

The presentation on "Designing for All in the Information Society", by Professor Constantine Stephanidis (ICS-FORTH), will focus on the current situation concerning the awareness, adoption, practice and experience regarding Universal Access to Information Society Technologies (IST). The associated scientific and technological challenges, mainly in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, will be identified, and a research agenda for interdisciplinary work to support the emerging computer-mediated human activities will be presented. The analysis will build upon recent results of European collaborative R&D project work, the ERCIM Working Group “User Interfaces for All”, international fora such as the International Scientific Forum “Towards an Information Society for all”, as well as recent initiatives by mainstream industry.