New research project on personalized accessibility
Imagine if the system could help you a little, instead of forcing you to make all user settings. With today's technology it should be possible, and it will indeed be tested in a research project led by the University of Linz.
The project called EasyReader can be described as a cognitive screen reader. The goal is to provide user-adapted and situational support for people with cognitive impairments. It is truly user-driven as people with cognitive impairments participate as collaborators and run the innovation process.
The basic idea is simple: the system recognizes your preferences and saves them until next time. The more the system is used, the smarter it becomes, because the system learns through interaction with users.Naturally, the project will consist of a lot on usertesting.
Ever since I saw the first prototype many years ago, I hoped we would contribute to this development, says Susanna Laurin, CEO at Funka. It will be really exciting to test this with users.
The EasyReader project will result in an open source framework, allowing developers to build on the concept and create new smart solutions. When the interface adapts to the user, stigmatizing special needs-solutions are eliminated.
Funding: Horizon 2020
Consortium: University of Linz (project manager), KI-I in Linz, Technical University of Dortmund, In der Gemeinde leben gGmbH in Düsseldorf, Texthelp Ltd, Northern Ireland, /DART Center for AT and AAC in Göteborg, European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM), Athena ICT Ltd and Funka.
Period: January 2018- June 2020
Budget: 2 MEURO