Integrated Broadband Communication (IBC) requirements of people with special needs.
In order to make the benefits of the Integrated Broadband Communication (IBC) services available to the largest possible part of the population, special attention should be given to user groups with special needs, such as elderly and handicapped people. For some of these groups the IBC services will facilitate their members socio-economic integration and offer them the opportunity to satisfy some of their everyday needs (e.g. video-telephony for the inter-personal communication of hearing impaired people). For some other categories (e.g. people with motor or sensory impairment), special design considerations are needed at a very early stage of technical development, in order to ensure that they are not prevented from using future sophisticated telecommunication services (e.g. by incorporating appropriate man-machine interaction techniques in general purpose terminals, adapting the user interface of terminals, etc.). This paper gives an overview of the work that is currently taking place within the framework of the Research and development on Advanced Communication in Europe (RACE) programme.
van Noorden
L
L
EEC Directorate General XIII, Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, Belgium.
Ekberg
J
J
D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities / Q000639:trends; D003199:Computer Systems; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation