Dr Daniel M. Dias, who heads IBM's research programmes in India, met us at the launch of the IBM India Human Ability and Accessibility Centre. Here's what he had to say on making IT useful for the greater part of India, including the specially-abled, who need 'accessibility' features.
What will be the special focus of IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in India, and to whom will it cater? How do you define 'accessibility'?
Accessibility is a term used to describe the degree to which a system is usable by as many people as possible, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Accessibility is about giving equal access to everyone. At IBM, we take the definition of accessibility one step further. For us, accessibility is about enabling human capability through innovation, so that everyone can reach their potential, regardless of age or ability. Accessibility solutions can be IT hardware, software or Web driven, or may be a combination of these, but should be usable by a wider population. The world-class IBM India Human Ability and Accessibility Centre, housed at our India Research Laboratory Campus in New Delhi, is more proof of our ongoing commitment to enable all to access information. It's an initiative to develop new innovations and thereby help all people - especially those in India with disabilities due to age, or other causes, like language barriers improve the quality of their lives, and their productivity in the workforce.
Empowerment of the specially-abled is a noble thought. Is there any particular reason behind the timing of the launch of this centre?
According to the World Health Organisation, of the world's more than six billion people, between 750 million and one billion have a disability. In India alone, there are over 60 million people with disabilities. Today, accessibility technology is going mainstream, with unprecedented social and economic benefits. Accessibility-related issues are increasingly gaining importance in India, given the different Acts passed by Parliament from time to time, for persons with disabilities. Even globally, there has been a strong focus on this matter, with the UN Convention adopted by the UN General Assembly and signed by over 100 countries. The government of India has recently ratified this convention on October 3,2007, which in turn is giving a lot of impetus to accessibility initiatives in the country.
I would like to inform you that we hired our first disabled employee in 1914 - about 76 years before the Americans came up with the Disabilities Act. Ever since, our pioneering work in accessible technology has created significant new opportunities for individuals and businesses. Enabling more people to benefit from computing and information resources technology is part of our larger vision of driving innovation that matters to the world. Accessibility features embedded in technology and services benefit customers and employees with temporary or permanent disabilities, including those who are low-visioned or vision-impaired, mobility challenged, hearing-impaired or just adjusting to characteristics associated with aging or limiting environments.
Bridging the digital divide both in and outside India requires technology that makes access affordable, and content that empowers and enables the formation of communities. This is an important role that accessible technologies can and do play. Digital inclusion is a concept about the disparities in the participation of people in the information society. It is about the usefulness of access to both the citizens of India and the global customers you serve. To serve both of these constituencies, India's growing software development industry must not only embrace accessibility, but lead in the creation and development of accessible IT solutions. India is well-positioned to build a national infrastructure based on business models that incorporate the needs of everyone. This will provide significant opportunities for economic growth, human development, and cultural exchange.
So what are the kinds of solutions IBM will provide to help these people gain access to information?
While the list runs long, some of the accessibility innovations from IBM include the following. Hindi speech recognition: This solution transcribes Hindi speech into text in real-time, which can then be used for various purp9ses such as office correspondence, e-mail writing, speech enabling A TMs and kiosks, and so on. It can also be used to build applications that can help persons with disabilities (PwDs) interact with computers through their voice.
Easy Web browser: This Web browser is created for people with low vision or with total vision loss to easily access information on the Internet. It provides a user-friendly Web interface, including character enlargement, reading of text aloud, and optimisation of Web pages by changing font sizes and background colours according to user preferences.
WebAdapt2Me: Many people with cognitive impairments or low vision benefit by WebAdapt2Me's ability to expand the space between lines of text and remove distracting backgrounds and animation. The technology provides choices that help make text, background and links easier to see by using high-contrast colours, and reformatting pages into single columns.
aDesigner: The aDesigner is a disability simulator that helps Web designers ensure that their pages are accessible and usable by the visually impaired.
How close are you to making these solutions available on the market? How well do they work? If they have undergone any pilots or trials, please do share this information with us.
As a research organisation, we remain focused on evolving innovative technologies that add value to IBM, businesses and society. We won't be able to say anything on the marketing of the products right now, as this would be in line with IBM's policy in general. Developing a successful accessibility plan for India will involve cooperation and coordination from multiple stakeholders, governmental bodies, NGOs, industry leaders and citizens. We are just committing our technology innovation and pioneering efforts in accessibility towards building an inclusive and collaborative society in India.
How important is the role of open source in developing such solutions? Doesn't it give you the freedom of not building them from scratch? How have you utilised this freedom so far?
We have a lot to do with open source. IBM recently announced that it is contributing the Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF) to the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community focused on developing a universal platform of frameworks and exemplary tools that make it easy and cost-effective to build and deploy software. The Accessibility Tools Framework is a collection of tools and building blocks developed by us. By using the framework, developers can create accessibility tools and applications easily and cost-effectively, as they no longer need to spend time creating a tool or an application from scratch. Initially, ACTF will support content based on HTML, Open Document Format (ODF), Flash, Java applications and graphical user interfaces such as Java Swing and Eclipse SWT; and accessibility APls such as Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) and IAccessible2 to provide unified accessibility to Web content and applications.
Through the collaborative research and development activities of the open source community, ACTF will swiftly integrate new technologies and accessibility guidelines to help developers quickly respond to the latest technology trends and high-level technical requirements in the Web 2.0 era.
How do you plan to take these solutions to the end user? What kind of partners will you need to do that?
The India Human Ability and Accessibility Centre would cater to the diverse requirements of accessibility stakeholders in India, including government bodies, corporates, academic institutions, researchers and NGOs.
IBM is taking the lead in the following areas: providing solutions, services, and technologies that help our customers realise the benefits of accessibility by making information technology accessible to more people, including those with disabilities; helping define international accessibility standards to help define and provide for interoperability; and inventing technologies that help remove barriers and extend capabilities.
What plans do you have for future development in the labs at this centre?
In addition to providing education, support, leadership and tracking of IBM product compliance, the centre will offer global accessibility services, such as Web mining for accessibility, and assessment, design, and remediation consulting to IBM and customers alike. The accessibility centre aims to shift the definition of accessibility to include access to information virtually anyone, under virtually any circumstances. Our focus in the future will be on products and services, on product compliance, and on portfolio extensions.