ÿþThe Freedom to Explore Outcomes from the EUAIN project Abstract The European Accessible Information Network (EUAIN) project was established in 2004 when a core group of organisations involved in accessible content production came together on a European level to seek greater clarity and systematisation for this field. This was made possible through European Commission support under the 6th Framework Programme. During the last 4 years the EUAIN network has brought together the different stakeholders in accessible content processing and sought to find new ways to mainstream the provision of accessible content. As well as providing an overview of the core concepts, this document describes the results of the EUAIN EC project phase and highlights the forthcoming activities of the EUAIN Network. It is becoming clear that a far deeper examination of fundamental accessibility is required if we are to mirror mainstream content provision. Given the general move towards distributed media, there is a need to develop open source frameworks to bridge the gap between original content design heuristics and intuitive multimodal interfaces required for content and communication systems. Such frameworks would provide built-in, profile-based access to information, content and services, which not only combine and extend state-of-the-art technologies for information access, but also conform to standards and guidelines available for accessibility, usability, scalability and adaptability. The EUAIN Network will continue to act as a focal point to pursue these activities and to ensure that all European countries have access to appropriate training and expertise. Contents Introduction Overview Accessibility is a process and not a product Accessibility on demand Accessibility from scratch Adaptive content processing Aims Partners Related projects Outcomes General outcomes: convergence between science, technology and accessibility Specific outcomes Online demonstrator for accessible content processing Training and resource centre Training modules Workshops and conferences CEN Workshop on Document Processing for Accessibility (WS/DPA) Contributions to standards Report on document management sector Recommendations to the EC on article 6.4.1 of the Copyright Directive Access to printed works Access to electronic works Proposed guidelines Practical suggestions Conclusion Introduction Access to information is a fundamental human right. The term  information is used here in its broadest sense encompassing, for example, access to life-long learning, culture and entertainment. One essential channel through which information is made available is the written word. In most circumstances, print-impaired people can only access the written word, whether originally displayed on paper or on computer screen, if the presentation of that material is adapted in some way. Print-Impaired people are entitled to read the same material as their fellow citizens, at the same time and at no additional cost to the individual in order to avoid social exclusion. Naturally, creators and those who add value to creative work have legitimate economic and moral interests which should be respected. However, while there is a commercial market for a limited range of  accessible material, most of these materials have to be created by specialist agencies operating on charitable funds or social subventions. This means that, in practice, only a small proportion of the material published currently becomes available in accessible formats. This problem applies to all those actors in the information provision chain. In circumstances where it might be expected that accessible information provision meets the necessary standards, this is rarely the case. In the learning sector for example, around 90% of documents requested by print-impaired students are in analogue printed formats and many libraries try to offer a digitisation-on-demand facility. A key aspect in this respect is the speed of delivery as agreements are often negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Publishers are often hesitant to provide materials in digital formats as there are few document delivery systems incorporating issues of rights management through secure gateways. For most students, libraries are a key point of access to information but access is limited and problematic, particularly where alternative formats are required. There are few structural agreements between content and service providers. Those providing a service are often unaware of what information is available and how it can be accessed. The provision of accessible information within learning environments is relatively advanced, so it can be seen that the level of provision for the general population lags even further behind. The European Accessible Information Network (EUAIN) project addressed precisely these issues by promoting accessible content processing frameworks that bring together the interests of the different actors in the content creation and publishing industries around a common set of objectives. We have argued that accessibility for print-impaired people can be an increasingly integrated component of the document management and publishing process and should not be treated, as in the Gutenberg age from which we are slowly emerging, as some kind of a specialised, additional service. From a technical perspective, earlier problems relating to the digitisation of materials have been largely overcome and recent formats (such as XML, RDF, METS, MARC21 etc) provide a realistic basis for implementing the different aspects of this work. It is now possible to address the key concerns of content creators and providers and coherently to address issues such as: automation of document structuring, adherence to emerging standards, workflow support, digital rights management and secure distribution platforms. Similarly, emerging international and European standards provide an excellent basis for the creation of accessible information at a more fundamental level than has previously been possible. Whereas many earlier solutions have been at a  workaround level, with an accessibility component added at the end of the content creation process (if at all), it is now possible to provide a framework for multi-channel output formats which can allow content creators significantly to enlarge their markets or reach their target audiences. At a European and national level, there now exists a clear desire on the part of publishers, public service information providers and related associations to collaborate closely with experts in this area in order to provide truly accessible materials. Indeed, in several countries recent legislation and procurement guidelines have added an extra push to these concerns. This convergence at a technical, regulatory and political level means that the pieces of the jigsaw are now in place to make a significant breakthrough in the provision of accessible information. If we are to mainstream access to information, we must provide service infrastructures that can offer accessibility on demand. The primary focus for the EUAIN project was the processing of accessible and inclusive content but this scope can be easily widened and mainstreamed to include content processing for archiving, for re-aggregation and for personalisation in general. By radically advancing the state of the art today and through deliberate dissemination and exploitation plans, the impact of EUAIN should be high in putting Europe forward in the provision of accessible content. We hope that the EUAIN project has created some of the building blocks by establishing a network of stakeholders who have jointly prepared:( Systematic overviews of relevant issues covering standards, protection, production and distribution of accessible content Themed Workshops and seminars Training materials and guidelines CEN/ISSS Workshop on Document Processing for Accessibility Self-supporting foundation (the EUAIN Network) Roadmap for future work including research, tools and concepts Recommendations to the EC on article 6.4.1 of the Copyright Directive This document describes the results of the EUAIN project phase and highlights the forthcoming activities of the EUAIN Network which will continue this work beyond the EC funded phase. A strategic multi-disciplinary research roadmap (the  deep access roadmap ) is also being prepared and this will be launched at the Accessible Content Processing conference (ACP 08) in Amsterdam in November 2008. Our thanks to everyone who has contributed to this work and a warm welcome to others who want to get involved in the future. David Crombie EUAIN Co-ordinatorOverview Overview ( The communication of digital content is predicated upon the assumption that participants in the information chain are generally able to interact with that content in a manner with which they are comfortable and where their specific preferences regarding comprehension, usability and applicability are coherent and sustainable. Naturally these preferences may become requirements over time, for whatever reasons, and the changes in the demands of participants must be reflected in easy to use and easy to re-use information processing technologies. These shifts will be reflected in the marketplace as businesses strive for accessible repositories of processing resources. Without access to such resources, however, the cost of incorporating notions of adaptivity into products, services and research goals will remain prohibitively high and the fundamental connection with accessibility will be lost, just as populations grow older and encounter information consumption difficulties. We must find new ways to help people interact with emerging technologies by engineering frameworks that provide a more creative access to knowledge. And if we are to mainstream access to information, we must provide service infrastructures that can offer accessibility on demand. The EUAIN Network is the result of extensive preparation in the area of accessible content processing alongside the CEN Workshop on Document Processing for Accessibility (WS/DPA) and the PRO-ACCESS project which will also contribute industry-level guidelines for this area. The EUAIN Network benefits greatly from having as a partner the Federation of European Publishers who represent the collective interests of approximately 85% of all European print publishers, and from the involvement of the enterprise content management industry and several key European publishers active in elearning and multichannel publishing. Based on this extensive work over the last 5 years, it has been possible to identify key trends in accessible content processing that are likely to be of some importance in the coming years. The first principle is the clear need for accessibility on demand. There are many different motivations for wanting to create accessible content: be it legislative requirements, good practice, conformity with national guidelines, commercial imperatives etc. In a sense the motivation in itself is a secondary consideration: what is required is a suitably flexible infrastructure to enable on-demand services to thrive. The second requirement is for accessibility to be embedded within mainstream content creation and production processes at the earliest stages; that is, accessibility from scratch. This principle can be captured by considering the move from accessible content processing to adaptive content processing. In order to build extensibility into a system, the architecture should be such that every element used for processing the information is adaptable. This can be achieved by creating a representation layer which builds an object oriented structure from the information and which is free to adapt the meta relationships and hierarchies intrinsic in that data genus. This is defined by identifying the parameters upon which the structure is built, and ensuring they are interconnected in such a way that promotes future adaptability without degrading the system: which is to say, using the right parameters for adaptive content processing. The EUAIN Network includes industrial European players in system integration, content management, large scale content providers, excellent academic partners in structuring and retrieving digital content, semantic indexing, as well as mature networks that bring complementary expertise into the project. Accessibility is a process and not a product Sustaining the provision of useful services and meaningful accessible content can be considered vital to the growth of the Information Society as a whole. When designing, specifying and building applications and infrastructures to store accessible content, several apparently unrelated issues arise. How do we describe the knowledge and capabilities we possess and capture the repository of resources we can use to implement these capabilities? How do we describe the questions and problems of end-users and content providers? How do we marry both within manageable and consistent frameworks? How do we re-apply this knowledge and combine these resources with new insights to solve new problems? How can we accelerate the processes described above and provide solutions to enable accessible information processing? Accessible information is not a special type of information aimed at a specific group of a certain population. Accessible information is information that can be accessed by anyone, with or without a disability, aimed at a general market where anyone interested is a possible customer. Structured information is the first step in the accessible information process. A document whose internal structure can be defined and its elements isolated and classified, without losing sight of the overall structure of the information, is a document that can be navigated. Most adaptive technology allows the user to access a document, and to read it following the "outer" structure of the original. But if the same information also has an "inner" structure that allows the adaptive device to distinguish between a phrase and a measure, between a paragraph and a sentence, highlighting particular annotations, then the level of accessibility (and therefore usability) of the whole document will be greatly enhanced, allowing the user to move through it in the same way as those without impairments do when looking at a printed document, and following the same integral logic. In an ideal world, all documents made available in electronic formats should contain that internal structure that benefits everyone. Highly-structured documents are becoming more and more popular due to reasons that very seldom pertain to making them accessible to people with disabilities. The move to XML related formats and associated standards for metadata have provided an impetus for far greater document structuring than before. Whatever the reasons behind those decisions are, the use of highly-structured information is of great benefit to anybody accessing these documents for any purpose. In recent years, the market for accessibility and assistive technologies has started to gain recognition. It is clear that the integration of accessibility notions into mainstream technologies would provide previously unavailable opportunities in the provision of accessible multimedia information systems. It would open up modern information services and provide them to all types and levels of users, in both the software and the hardware domain. Additionally, new consumption and production devices and environments can be addressed from such platforms and this would provide very useful information provision opportunities indeed, such as information on mobile devices with additional speech assistance. It is equally clear that we remain at the very beginning of the move to incorporate accessibility within mainstream content processing environments. Accessibility on demand Recent years have brought a silent revolution in the informatics community. With the growing influence of open standards advocates and the ever growing demand for interconnected functionality delivered over the Internet, an array of standards, protocols and technical concepts have created a new paradigm for delivering ubiquitous access to information. New frameworks will rely heavily on this set of now commonly adopted technologies which are associated with the SOA approach to developing information networks. Although this array of technologies is beautifully mastered by software engineers, helped by an ever increasing set of development tools, users are still left out by the sheer complexity of toolsets. As such, this timeframe looks somewhat similar to the mid-nineties when a communication officer still depended on technicians to publish corporate information on the internet. New frameworks will strive to make the same difference to end-users as for the early adopters of Content Management Systems. End-users will be able to create information functionality by combining and authoring different types of services in  composite functionality , which will reflect a particular workflow or way of sharing information. These composites are combined and interconnected to create a knowledge infrastructure. In this way, we can address one of the most important issues for achieving mainstream accessibility: that such accessibility processes are available when and where they are needed, and by the appropriate person in the information provision chain. For both the public and private sectors, this represents a significant breakthrough and has the potential to overhaul accessibility within mainstream environments. Accessibility from scratch The approach we are describing can be called accessibility from scratch. By building on recognised Design For All methodologies, systems should be built in such a way that the mainstream solution should be easily adaptable and extensible to add functionality for niche markets. As a result of the comprehensive lack of understanding of this concept at the fundamental design level, and strict deadlines to complete software projects, most accessible solutions become appended onto an ill-suited system as an afterthought: the accessible solution is then itself ill-conceived and unlikely to meet the needs of the end-user. Requirements never stay the same over time: requirements change for all users of any service. The end-user s sight or other senses may deteriorate over time, their needs being met with appropriate features in accessible media. The differentiation of user requirements in general might grow, forcing the system to deal with a broader variety of processing possibilities with which it cannot cope. The changing nature of requirements- and with that the potential design of any system- is a fundamental issue in the design of an inclusive world. The various MPEG family members operate at different abstraction levels with some communication between these abstraction levels. The process of contriving a procedure to interface the various processing levels should be based on use. The difficulty lies in achieving a level of description of the user requirements that allows re-description in technological terms. This re-description ideally leads to specifications and ultimately implementations. These implementations  prove the viability of the concept: it is the proof of the hypothesis. The process of standardisation that runs in parallel with this ensures extraction of higher level descriptions and these are aggregated down to the earlier family members. Using this built-in feature to provide  slots for common and specialised accessibility requirements would create what we refer to as accessibility from scratch. So the representation of the interplay between the various user groups should always remain accessible. If all relevant entities in a representation system remain accessible, creating meaningful mappings is a matter of connecting the appropriate entities. For this reason, accessibility from scratch is of fundamental importance for deep access to content. Accessibility can also be viewed from a wider angle. Being able to see content in whatever modality; perceive its context; and attach a useful meaning to it requires that the user be able to access this content, its context and relevant software application in a way that meets that particular user's consumption preferences. These preferences may become requirements over time - we all get older. Being able to attach useful meanings to content is what lies at the very basis of the preservation and education of thought. Attaching useful meanings to content underpins the basis of culture, commerce and civilisation. Being able to access software, content and the potential for understanding it unleashes, requires us to be able to gain access to software and not be hindered by huge costs, complexity, lack of support and additional barriers. Given the differences between the traditional approach to accessibility and the wider view outlined above, we are in something of a transitional phase at this time. From the software producer, business community and the Open Source System community we see a move towards the inclusion of accessibility features into systems, tools and the programming languages themselves as system wide core functionalities (examples being KDE, GNOME, and Java Accessibility). From the accessibility community we see a move towards more advanced and abstract descriptions of the procedures involved in moving from 'common' content towards content that is processed to be granted accessible certification. A good example of such a move is the Web Content Authoring Guidelines 1.0 and 2.0, which provide detailed guidelines on how to (re)structure and enhance content to ensure a sufficient level of accessibility. The EUAIN Network will actively contribute to the implementation of WCAG 2. Adaptive content processing The transitional stage described above involves relatively slow change when compared with general exhilarating technological developments. However, this relatively slow pace also creates an opportunity to take a step back and observe all the individual processes that touch upon the notion of accessibility. This allows us to explicate similarities and possible complementarities, a process of convergent gradualism. The opportunity then arises to synchronise various efforts in the accessibility arena and offer them to end-users and business as a  package . Such a package contains scientific knowledge about accessibility, as well as technological knowledge about how to implement such notions. This package also contains detailed descriptions of the requirements of the end-users, producers and distributors of content, as well as tools aiming towards market segments that rely on these requirements. Such an approach that aims to unify 'common' content, system, service and tool provision and the more 'specialised' content, system, service and tool provision, can be called Adaptive Content Processing (ACP) and this lies at the core of the EUAIN Network. The forthcoming deep access roadmap (October 2008) aims to provide pointers to design, build and validate robust and compliant adaptive content processing frameworks. This framework can then be used within private or public sector organisations to distribute content in suitable formats to end-users whilst maintaining the structural integrity of that content and ensuring all the concerns of content providers and rights holders are met. In this way a central concern can be addressed, namely the real-life mainstreaming of accessible content processing within existing and emerging service provision and value chains. Aims ( The scientific and technical objectives of EUAIN are: To bring together all the players in the information provision and e-publishing chain in order to achieve the critical mass significantly to enhance the provision of accessible information at a European level To create a self-sustaining network which can offer the necessary expertise, shared knowledge, technological tools and distribution platforms to all those involved in the provision of accessible information and in particular to provide a collaborative platform for content creators to find information, tools, advice and solutions To raise awareness and stimulate the adoption at local, regional, national and European levels of the emerging formats and standards for the provision of accessible information and to find ways of ensuring that technological protection measures do not inadvertently impede legitimate access to information by people with print impairments To stimulate and support the adoption of new distribution channels and appropriate business solutions in order to help achieve faster, prompter and less expensive production and distribution of accessible information EUAIN has sought to provide greater cohesion by addressing the key areas and issues which are of common concern to all the actors in this area. Within the activities of the different workpackages of the EUAIN project, the key issues relating to the provision of accessible information were examined. This includes issues relating to: production techniques conversion tools document formats navigational mechanisms protection techniques workflow models collaborative networks distribution mechanisms( Collaborative working By raising awareness of these issues and by bringing together the key actors at a European level, EUAIN provides a knowledge base that can be accessed by all those involved in content creation and consumption, which is to say both producers and consumers. This is an ambitious goal, but the convergence described above makes this both worthwhile and achievable. One of the main objectives of EUAIN project was the creation of a collaborative working knowledge and expertise environment in both a traditional and new economy sense. The EUAIN Network will marry technological knowledge in the domain of accessibility in the broadest sense with fundamental scientific knowledge in the domain of accessibility. An additional objective is the distillation of an educational framework that will  engrain notions about accessibility (captured in the terms e-Inclusion and e-Accessibility) into modern society. The EUAIN Network aims to explicitly address this task at a fundamental level by addressing the provision of accessible information for all EU citizens in member states. It is our belief that this activity can only be successful when addressed at a European level and when fully integrated with existing initiatives in the accessibility and learning standardisation processes. The Ministerial Declaration from Riga noted that we can promote eInclusion by:  Ensuring that electronic documents are available in such a way that they can be used by people with disabilities in appropriate and, where possible, EU-wide recognised formats. As elsewhere pointed out, people with disabilities comprise some 15% of the EU population1 and;  & having good standards in the field of accessibility is a key enabler, but the real success is with their practical implementation in the products and services available on the market. 2 Indeed, the industry response to the Riga declaration noted that;  ...standards should be forward-looking and facilitate direct access to all technologies. 3 Notions of  accessibility are normally equated with the adaptation and conversion of digital content, where this content can be made available. On a European level, and indeed often on a national level, much of the existing expertise on creating accessible adaptations of digital content is of a highly distributed nature. Within specialist organisations supporting print-impaired people; or within university research laboratories; or indeed within publishing houses, many automated tools have been designed and implemented at least partially to execute the necessary adaptation procedures. However, each automated tool has its own, highly specific, field of application. Furthermore, the knowledge required to build these very specific tools is equally distributed, so that there is currently very little re-use of either tools or knowledge. Indeed, the approach taken by the EUAIN Network was acknowledged in the recent World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) report4: "Built in access for visually impaired people right from the start does, nevertheless, seem to be a highly desirable way forward, but stakeholders need to be aware of the problems due to lack of standards, ever-changing technology, use of DRMs and so on, as well as possible solutions, in order to ensure built in accessibility is not just a theoretical solution. In this respect, the work of EUAIN which, as already mentioned, is described in case study 13 of Chapter 5, brings together a range of stakeholders to explore issues such as these. This is perhaps an example of a way forward more generally and work of this nature should perhaps be promoted more widely by governments and international agencies. It seems to be in everyone s interests that a desire to build in access from the start is both encouraged and facilitated by ensuring that what this requires in practice is widely understood and adopted". Partners The EUAIN consortium brought complementary expertise from technology, system development and European end-users together in order to achieve the project s objectives. The core EUAIN project partners are:( Stichting DEDICON (co-ordinator) I3s3 BrailleNet Organización Nacional de Ciegos Dolphin Audio Publishing Silesian University of Technology Royal National Institute for the Blind Stichting Force University of Bremen Federation of European Publishers DEDICON Netherlands, co-ordinator (Netherlands) DEDICON is the largest library for the blind in the Netherlands. FNB is one of the leading organisations in implementing digital audio and internet services for general literature, study literature, talking magazines, newspapers and music. FNB serves 26,000 clients for general audio materials, and has 15,000 clients for spoken newspapers and 3,500 clients for study materials. The services are demand-based and when a particular book is not to be found in Braille or Spoken format, arrangements are immediately made to add it to the collection. Every year just under 1 million pages are produced in Braille, and some 2.3 million pages are reproduced. The collection of spoken books contains about 67,000 titles, with 3,500 new titles being produced every year. There is a collection of about 4,000 Braille Music scores and 500 Spoken Music scores. Each year just under 10,000 tactile drawings are produced and 50,000 are reproduced. Strategies for enhancing access to information for the print disabled have increasingly focused on web-based information delivery and the DEDICON webportal increasingly provides the main point of access to information. ( Association BRAILLENET (France) The BrailleNet Association was set up in 1997 to develop the potential of the Internet for visually impaired people in three main domains: information, education and culture. It has currently around 50 organisation members, spatial associations, schools and industrial companies (www.braillenet.org). BrailleNet has been campaigning for a better accessible Web for all, writing and disseminating documents such as guidelines targeted toward Web designers. BrailleNet co-operates with the INRIA, one of the leading organisations of the W3C-WAI, and takes an active part in dissemination and outreach actions of WAI in Europe. BrailleNet helps organisations that commit themselves in the improvement of Web sites for their accessibility: for instance, BrailleNet brought its expertise to the newspaper « Le Monde », to the Web services of the Prime Minister, of the Ministry of Equipment, the Ministry of Health, Hachette Multimedia for its encyclopaedia. BrailleNet has created the AccessiWeb quality label (www.accessiweb.org).( i3s3 Integriert Studieren (Integrated Study) (Austria) The institute was established in October 1991 as a model project which tries to support blind and visually handicapped students in their studies. The main part of the support activities is the digital preparation of all studying materials such as books, lecture notes, overhead sheets, exercises, contents of the blackboard and so forth for print disabled students all over Austria. Research and teaching is also mainly directed towards this field. In 2000, an Austrian wide institute was established. Research and teaching is oriented towards ICT for people with disabilities, Assistive Technologies and their application and therefore also toward e-Inclusion.( ONCE: Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (Spain) ONCE (Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles) is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1938 before the end of the Spanish Civil War. This organisation brought together a number of small societies of and for the blind all over Spain becoming the only organisation of blind and visually impaired persons in the whole country. Its aim is to provide its members with the widest range of services possible, from education to employment, from rehabilitation to reading services.( RNIB: Royal National Institute of the Blind (United Kingdom) RNIB is the largest charity in the UK serving the needs of blind and partially sighted people. It meets a wide diversity of interests covering education, employment, daily living, leisure and social rights of people with serious sight problems throughout the UK. RNIB has a number of schools, colleges and residential homes and supports them with a comprehensive technical and customer services portfolio. As part of the drive for technical competence, RNIB has taken part in a wide range of research projects at national, European and international level. ( FEP: Federation of European Publishers (Belgium) The Federation of European Publishers (FEP) is an independent, non-commercial association of book publishers associations in the European Union. It first saw the light of day - under a different name  Groupement des editeurs de Livres de la Communaute- on 19th January 1967. In 1990 FEP-FEE became the umbrella organisation representing European book publishers associations. FEP represents the national associations of book publishers of all Member States of the European Union, of Norway, a member of the European Economic Area, and of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia. The European book publishing industry forms the leading cultural industry of the European Union. FORCE Foundation (Netherlands) The FORCE Foundation was officially established in 1998. FORCE does not receive government grants and is dependent on financial support from a small number of private foundations, supplemented by grants and donations from other organisations, business and industry, and from individuals. The FORCE Foundation aims to provide a focal point for the exchange of ideas on accessibility with developing countries.( Silesian University of Technology (Poland) Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, founded in 1945, is one of the largest technical universities in Poland. Located in Upper Silesia, the industrial heartland of Poland and one of the Europe's largest industrial areas, actively contributes to the growth and development of the region and of the country. The Institute s main objective is education and training of highly competent professionals in various fields of technology. ( TZI University of Bremen (Germany) The Technology Centre for Computer Science (TZI) is an Institute within the Department of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Bremen. It has the following goals: Developing and providing new computer science technologies; compiling existing expertise and putting computer science technologies into practice by co operation with commercial companies; applying computer science technologies to interdisciplinary co operation projects within the university.( Dolphin Audio Publishing (United Kingdom) Dolphin Computer Access Group has a simple goal: to create software products that allow people with a vision impairment to use mainstream information technology. Founded in 1986 in the United Kingdom, the Dolphin Group now includes companies in the UK, USA and Sweden, and its product range encompasses both access and audio publishing technology. Using the same products as sighted people means individuals can retain their independence. At the same time, it allows prudent businesses, schools and colleges to benefit from the knowledge and ideas of people who might otherwise be excluded. Dolphin software is designed to work together with existing computer systems and standards, providing access to a wide range of Windows programs through magnification, speech and Braille. Related projects The EUAIN project did not exist in isolation and a number of other EC projects and initiatives were consulted to provide guidance and support. An indicative list is provided below. Project and description PROACCESS The primary goal of the ProAccess project is to improve accessibility of educational content in the eLearning value chain for visual impaired people. CEN WS/DPA The CENCEN/ISSS Workshop on Document Processing for Accessibility. ORMEE The Observatory on Rights Management for eLearning in Europe (OrmeE) project (concluded in 2005) was aiming at creating an European observatory on copyright on educational content to be used in eLearning and the analysis of the implementation of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Information Society. OLYMPIC Olympics Multimedia Personalised for the Internet Community MALTED Multimedia Authoring for Language Tutors and Educational Development PENG PErsonalised News content programminG WearIT@Work Empowering the mobile worker by wearable computing LEDA Knowledge Management in Design Education MEDIATE A Multisensory Environment Design for an Interface between Autistic and Typical Expressiveness AXMEDIS Automating production for cross-media content for multichannel distribution SUPPORT-EAM To harmonise the methodologies used for evaluating Web Accessibility (single-site or large-scale) and validate it with experts from two other IST projects, namely BentoWeb, EIAO, which constitute the WAB Cluster (Web Accessibility Benchmarking) with Support-EAM. EABILITIES A virtual platform to enhance and organise the co-ordination among centres for accessibility resources and support TeDUB The TeDUB (Technical Drawings Understanding for the Blind) project has developed a system that automatically generates descriptions of certain classes of graphics (electronic circuit diagrams, UML diagrams and architectural plans) and allows blind people to explore them independently. DELOS DELOS is a Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries partially funded by the European Commission in the frame of the Information Society Technologies Programme (IST). The main objectives of DELOS are research, whose results are in the public domain, and technology transfer, through co-operation agreements with interested parties. METAe The METAe FP5 research project produced the METAe engine which is designed as a comprehensive software package for digitising books and journals with a minimum of effort and a maximum of automation and effectiveness. mEDRA mEDRA was born in 2002 as a project within the eContent programme proposed by the European Commission. On 1 July 2003 mEDRA was officially appointed as DOI Registration Agency by the International DOI Foundation (www.doi.org). MIRACLE The MIRACLE project created a database of Braille music materials where members can search and download the Braille score to be later distributed to their users. TESTLAB The TESTLAB (TEsting Systems using Telematics for Library Access for Blind and visually handicapped readers) project established a series of practical trials in public and academic libraries whereby blind and visually handicapped readers could gain access to catalogues and digital documents in adapted formats. VICKIE The main objective of the VICKIE project is to develop a technical solution for a better integration of visually impaired pupils and students into mainstream education. WAI-TIES WAI-TIES is a European Commission IST Accompanying Measure which goal is to increase accessibility of the Web for people with disabilities in European Union member states. BenToWeb BenToWeb  Benchmarking Tools and Methods for the Web aimed to support the European public and private sector to implement the recommendations of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan by providing new software modules and methodologies that satisfy some of the accessibility recommendations of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which are not analysed by existing tools due to their inherent complexity. MICOLE MICOLE - Multimodal collaboration environment for inclusion of visually impaired children. The work in the MICOLE project aims at developing a system that supports collaboration, data exploration, communication and creativity of visually impaired and sighted children. uWEAR uWEAR will examine a user centred design approach for testing the application of wearable computing in outdoor and indoor navigation scenarios for visual impaired users, adapting existing WearIT@Work wearable interfaces and extending those to fit to users with special needs and elderly. EU4ALL The aim of EU4ALL is to improve the efficiency and efficacy of implementing an open e-learning service architecture for ALL. FP6-IST 4-year project. e-ABILITIES eABILITIES aims at developing a framework for current and future actions in research, education and technology transfer in the field of ICT accessibility in the home, vehicle and working environments in Europe. @Science @Science: access to mathematics and science for visually impaired students and researchers. DfA@eInclusion The DfA@eInclusion Coordination Action (CA) aims to contribute towards the advancement of eInclusion in Europe through fostering design for all. PLAY2 PLAY2 is aimed at offering the blind an easy approach to the Information Technology's world, by also offering the opportunity of exchanging information with sighted users. PC tools are meant to solve several problems met by the blind. An easy system to compose music Braille scores, by converting them from most codes used by commercial programmes as Coda Music's Finale is provided. Exchanging scores converted in Braille Music Code (BMC) among blind users is another remarkable opportunity CONTRAPUNCTUS CONTRAPUNCTUS is developing instruments in order to preserve Braille music files, existing in the most important European libraries for the blind and share them over the net LAMBDA Lambda is a transnational research project funded by the European Union - IST Programme with the objective of creating an integrated system for writing and reading mathematical texts for the use of partially sighted and blind students. MULTI READER Multireader (IST-2000-27513, 1/1/2001-31/12/2003) analysed navigational problems of using multimedia documents and developed a software prototype that adapted documents based on user profiles. OMNI PAPER OmniPaper: Smart access to European newspapers (IST-2001-32174) performed research for new ways to drastically enhance access to distributed and multilingual information resources. In addition, EUAIN is cognisant of the results from the following ongoing projects in eInclusion and related areas and the consortium will seek to establish direct links and make use of these results wherever appropriate: WAI-AGE Web accessibility initiative: ageing education and harmonisation COSPA A Consortium for studying, evaluating, and supporting the introduction of Open Source software and open data standards in the Public Administration ENABLED Enhanced Network Accessibility for the Blind and Visually Impaired MHP-KDBThe MHP Knowledge Project OI Open Interface: an open source platform for the rapid development of multi-modal interactive systems as a central tool for an iterative user-centred design process. INTERACT 3D and speech Interfacing technologies ACCESS-EGOV Access to e-Government services employing semantic technologies It is clear that there remains a need to communicate information to designers and innovators to enable them further to think about an inclusive world, with recent initiatives such as EDeAN, EUAIN, EU4ALL, ORMEE pointing the way forward. Naturally, this activity cannot be performed in isolation, as there is a parallel need to educate system users to make their demands more explicit. The EDeAN initiative is an excellent example of awareness raising in the eAccessibility and eInclusion arena. EDeAN was primarily created to provide input for European curricula in Design for All; a forum for Design for All issues; and to promote idea sharing through joint activities such as conferences, symposia and exchanges of students and scholars. Whereas EUAIN aimed to raise awareness for solving the same problematique (Design for All and Inclusive Design) an additional aim of the EUAIN Network is to pro-actively marry industry demands and social needs as well as the other way round. That is, to marry industry needs with social demands. Next to the invocation of fora, idea catalogues and requirement drafting, there will be an active movement towards collecting development resources, development documentation and the requirements drafts from both ends of the communication line. The EUAIN Network aims to identify the needs in the accessible content processing domain; collect associated resources and demands together; and provide this collection of resources and competencies with the means to gain a quick overview of available and usable technology that can be used to construct the EUAIN framework. The findings and resources found in the EDeAN, EUAIN, EU4ALL, ORMEE networks and projects provide a valuable base for content that should be taken into account in the standardisation process. The expertise channels from EDeAN, EUAIN, EU4ALL, ORMEE are very useful in helping the EUAIN Network to locate this alongside the user/industry/publishers demands, and the available technology and content. Outcomes ( The key upper-level milestones for the project included: Month 1: Establishment of Integrated Accessibility Framework Month 1: Project presentation Month 3: Establishment of the CEN Workshop on Accessible Information Processing (WS/DPA) Month 15: First Report on liaison with relevant industry associations regarding accessibility within protection models and procedures Month 15: Accessible Information Networks demonstrators Month 18: Guidelines on incorporation of accessibility in MPEG environments (and establishment of MPEG ad hoc liaison group on accessibility) Month 24: Guidelines and Procedures for Content Providers Month 36: Recommendations to European Commission on Article 6.4.1 Month 36: Completion of Common Workshop Agreement from WS/AIP Month 36: Guidelines on content provision within accessible information networks Month 36: Final evaluation report by Expert User Group By means of a representation framework for scientific and technological knowledge and experience in the form of a collaboration network and technological means of accessing these resources, a collaboration can emerge between the various disciplines that are involved when addressing accessibility. Capturing these results in descriptions of processes that conform existing standardisation systems (CEN, ISO, IEEE, MPEG etc) ensures proper evaluation and dissemination trajectories. More importantly does this conformance to existing and accepted standardisation systems allow transportation of the deliverables of EUAIN into other application domains. General outcomes: convergence between science, technology and accessibility An implicit result of EUAIN is be the transparent integration of consumer and producer models for digital content. This integrated model will enable the inclusion of accessibility from the ground up, a key aspect of e-Accessibility and e-Inclusion. An additional key feature is the conformance of the standardisation process to well-known standardisation processes. Through the provision of a competencies representation framework in the form of a network, designers, producers and consumers can interact. The framework will function as a communication vehicle between different actors and will provide a basis for future work. Moreover, it will enable the involvement of end-users into the design trajectory. Through this, the end-users are likely to develop a sense of commitment to the product development and the partners involved in the product development. This will help to raise the public acceptance of the e-Accessibility venture and in the end raise the demand for accessible content and associated products. The e-Accessibility representation network and its knowledge base with its knowledge distribution infrastructure will ensure availability of the knowledge and technology harvested through this collaboration. Representing e-inclusive competencies and integrating scientific and technological knowledge and experiences into an accessible content processing framework involves a number of key areas that cover different requirements for each group of participants. The list of participants includes: software designers, end-users (with a variety of personalised requirements and preferences), content providers (such as publishers or resellers) and content processors (such as libraries who not only distribute the content, but also apply accessibility transformations to it). To successfully capture relations between software development decisions, such as design approaches (user-centred, universal or inclusive design) and explicit knowledge on the impact of the choice of such an approach in the design of accessible content production tools and formats, their availability in a representation framework is required. Once these relations are available, they can be addressed explicitly. And passed on to the next level of processing, which includes application in real-world environments, such as e-Business and education. The availability of the monitoring information on the participants involved, the related resources and the practical achievements in terms of products (tools, formats, standards, etc) all add to the awareness at a European level of the benefits (and necessity) of Accessible Content Processing. It is hoped that an additional long-term effect will be the definition of an accessibility discourse. By providing a knowledge base for products, technologies, education and research related to the provision of accessible information, a line of thought will emerge that integrates the notion of accessible content consumption into society. There are many different approaches to the provision of accessible information. By examining and collecting these techniques and associating them with other approaches, new combinations of approach and technique will emerge. Stimulating cross fertilisation of knowledge and experience at a European level is likely to be a key outcome from the project. Indeed, the combination of different design approaches and techniques into products or pilot products will be used to provide accessibility tools that address a broader public and better target the wider disabled and elderly communities. There are many examples of standards, formats and technologies which were initially developed for a highly specialised group of impaired people but which have found far wider adoption. Through the specification of an Accessible Content Processing Framework and its resulting integration of practical technological solutions, theoretical scientific fundamentals, and the demands of the market, the possibility arises to use these specialised technologies and directions in a complementary fashion. Similarities in seemingly different solutions to address accessibility in various contexts might yield a generic accessibility solution methodology. This would offer the possibility of standardisation of the design processes, implementation processes and usage processes of accessibility enabled products and services. An accessibility standard could then emerge. This will open up the horizon of application of seemingly specialised technology and science considerably and with that, stimulate the global acceptance of e-Inclusion. If this acceptance occurs, consumers are helped with directly needed content and tools and producers will be able to address these consumers in a more focused manner. Furthermore, content providers do not then have to work out a way to cross the gap to accessibility by themselves. The coherent and sustainable provision of accessible information cannot be tackled in isolation by individual actors in the information provision chain. While examples of good practice are emerging in the production sphere and in new collaborative distribution models, a European-wide approach offers far greater potential. By examining the key areas at a European level, the emerging knowledge in this area will be more widely applicable and far more likely to stimulate new initiatives and research for producing and distributing good practice in accessible information. As noted above, previous and ongoing work in this area has been sporadic, and there has been little attention paid to the profound need to disseminate clear and practical advice to the different actors in the information provision chain. The EUAIN Network recognises that there is a clear need to fill this vacuum with unambiguous and clear guidelines, recommendations and standards from within the context of an integrated processing framework. This will be done in such a way as to ensure widespread awareness raising and dissemination within the information provision industry and to the general public. Additionally, much of the knowledge gained by the work undertaken will be collated, examined and codified into new standards for accessible content processing. This process involves the creation of open standards, and the process will in itself help to raise awareness of key issues and stimulate discussion.( Specific outcomes The most important activities from the EUAIN project phase are outlined below and cover: Online Demonstrator Training & Resource Centre Training Modules & Curricula EUAIN Events CEN Workshop on Document Processing for Accessibility Online demonstrator for accessible content processing The EUAIN Demonstrator was launched in February 2006 and the initial reactions were very positive. The Demonstrator was set up in order to illustrate the potential of accessible publishing and can be used for producing different output formats on-demand, from the same well-structured input file. It was emphasised however that this demonstrator offered limited functionalities so that it cannot be considered as a tool to be used for a production purpose. This was an important qualification as a number of publishers have expressed interest in using such a system. The XML Digital Talking Book (DTBook) format (NISO Z39.86) was chosen as a pivotal format on which converters are applied on the fly to produce the output documents in different possible formats (HTML, PDF). Moreover, in order to make the process accessible to a wider audience and to demonstrate that well-structured documents can be produced easily with standard word processors, i.e. by non-specialists, input files can also be provided in an Open Document Format (.odt files). The Open Office word processor can be used for that. The use of Open Document Format is also important as this format is being increasingly recognised as pivotal for public sector information provision. By way of illustration, the OpenDocument Format (ODF) is to be the standard format for exchanging documents within the government in Belgium. From September 2008 on, all document exchanges within the services of the Belgian government will have to be in an open, standard format, according to the proposal. ODF is the only accepted standard in the proposal. This work has been recently strengthened by the launch of the Open Doc Society (http://www.opendocsociety.org/) based in the Netherlands and many countries are now working in this direction. The Demonstrator has a full user guide and instructions and provides a a set of sample documents to undergo conversion to accessible formats (see diagram below). In addition, the Demonstrator also provides a document structure checker operating on XML DTBook documents. For a given document, this structure checker generates a report in HTML giving an overview of the structure of the document. If the input document is not an XML DTBook document, this checker uses the converters of the multichannel publishing chain to create a DTBook and analyses it. The generated report shows: the metadata included in the document (title, language, isbn, ...) the full table of contents of the document structured as a tree how many page numbers are tagged in the document and the first and last value found for each image referenced in the document, if it is associated with a caption , a short alternative and one or several production notes for each table of the document, how many columns and rows it contains, if it contains a caption and headers how many footnotes, endnotes, lists, side bars, external and internal links are present Figure 1: Workflow provided for documents in the EUAIN Demonstrator This figure shows that an ODF document can be uploaded and multiple output formats can be chosen. The Demonstrator has been an important facilitator and several organisations and publishers have shown considerable interest. Dolphin audio publishing are planning to launch a similar real-life service from early 2007 and RNIB/NLB have recently been revising their online delivery platforms with a new service being launched early in 2007. DEDICON are also about to launch a new online service collaboration with several major Dutch publishers. The Italian Publishers Association have also requested a real-life service based on this approach, and an additional project proposal (PRO-ACCESS) was submitted for funding to help disseminate these EUAIN results to a wider audience. A further proposal called  RECAST was submitted under the recent eContentplus call to exploit this framework for audio-based content to mainstream markets. Other consortia, such as DAISY and JTC1/SWG-A, have also commented favourably upon this model. Training and resource centre The Training and Resource Centre for EUAIN was launched in May 2006 and this has provided an excellent and collaborative focal-point for gathering together the necessary information. The material in the Training & Resource Centre is divided into several sections in order that different stakeholders who are involved in Accessible Information Processing can find specific and appropriate information. This Training and Resource Centre has the following sections:( Glossary: initial reference point( Processes: creating and producing accessible content For the purposes of these materials, a case study can consist of several processes. A process can consist of several elements. These elements are the building blocks of the EUAIN Training materials. There are three main elements: Actors, Conversions and Formats.( Distribution: protecting and distributing accessible content Once accessible content has been created and produced, it must be delivered to different communities and markets with varying degrees of protection. There are many different ways in which people can distribute and protect their digital content.( Standards: relevant standards Standards are needed for many reasons, but probably the most relevant one is that they tell manufacturers how to make their products accessible in a detailed, coherent way. Legislations promote the existence of standards, and they advocate for "accessible" technology or information. But it is standards that give the technical specifications of how this accessibility can be implemented and tested.( Guidelines: detailed guides for accessible information processing EUAIN is not the first project to tackle the issues of Accessible Information Processing and there are several sets of Guidelines and Best Practice already in existence. However, until now these have not been brought together in a systematic manner. EUAIN aims to collate this information in order to focus stakeholders on specific information based on their specific requirements. Case Studies: real-life examples Case studies provide an insight into real life examples of accessible information publishing. Most of these case studies involve collaboration between content providers and specialist organisations, but some provide examples of integrated publishing processes which incorporate accessibility from scratch. Each case study is made up from the various elements in order to highlight the the use of Guidelines, Processes, Standards and Software. Where appropriate, you will find a link to detailed descriptions. Software: available open source and commercial software For content creators it is important to structure the information, which is created. This leads to a benefit in many ways: Content can be re-used for multiple output media, content can be syndicated and structured content is equal to accessible content, which grants access to the information for elderly people and people with special needs. There are many tools available for the creation of structured or accessible information. Training modules The training and learning framework is primarily intended to provide support for everyone who directly effects digital content creation and decides about document distribution channels. This group requires general oriented courses and training materials as well as domain-specific training materials. The general training materials include information about digital document standards and formats, accessibility guidelines and different kinds of publishers and distribution channels. Also important is knowledge about accessibility and alternative forms of presentation that fulfill special requirements for print impaired people. The curricula are illustrated by good practices of accessible content publishing and good examples of accessible digital documents. In general, there are three themes. The first is related to different types of digital documents and their accessibility issues for print impaired people. The subject of the second theme is to discuss and demonstrate workflows for authoring tools and techniques that allow people to create documents accessible for all. The last theme addresses the processes that must be considered regarding content distribution and digital rights management. In order to achieve the above, the EUAIN network has created a comprehensive set of instructional training materials that provide flexible materials that can be used in different environments. A multimedia DVD containing these materials was created and covers: Objectives Curricula Modules Resources ( In order to target the EUAIN modular training packages at the correct market segments, it is important to understand the various targets of the curricula presented. The most relevant modules can then be presented to these audiences. Following discussion and feedback, the initial curricula chosen were: General introduction to Accessible Information Processing Accessible Information Processing Lecture Workshop on AIP design and markup Context Conference Workshop on AIP technologies In-House Training Day on Accessible Information Processing Accessible Information Processing Overview for Senior Management ( The Modules for the EUAIN training materials have been modeled on the structure of the WAI Resources on Developing Web Accessibility training and presentations. The structure is: Module 1  Why Accessible Information Processing is important. Module 2  Description of Accessible formats with examples of practical use Module 3  Business case and the Market for Accessibility Module 4  Implementing Accessible Information Processing Module 5  Evaluating and incorporating Accessible Information Processing. Module 6  Accessible Content and Accessible Authoring Tools Module 7  Promoting Accessible Information Processing The EUAIN network has also gathered together a significant number of valuable resources for accessible information processing. The resources consist of: Formats Conversion processes Standards Guidelines Case Studies Scenarios ( The materials collected together and structured into training curricula, modules and resources represent the first collection of its kind at a European level. Indeed, these resources can be considered as a flexible basis upon which to build an expanding knowledge base for this area. These materials were also made available in multimedia formats for offline and online presentations to different stakeholder communities. As these materials were evaluated they were amended and extended where necessary so that by the end of the funded project,