I attended a talk,
entitled"Universal Accessibility to Ubiquitous Services: Supporting the Everyday
Life of People with Restrictions." This special accessibility talk was organized
by UUID (Universal Usability & Interaction Design) SIG, Faculty of
Creative Multimedia, Cyberjaya.
It was indeed a privilege to meet
the speaker in person, a renowned accessibility expert, Professor Julio Abascal
from Spain. I invited some of my fellow blind friends and also a couple
of wheelchair-bound members from the MBPJ OKU technical committee. Together with the
university students in the lecture room, all of us listened attentively to what the Professor had to share,
particularly on the accessibility research work done in Europe .
Ubiquitous computing offers
stimulating chances to assist people with disabilities and elderly people in
managing everyday activities at home. Smart environments aim to support
people, providing them with information for their tasks and security warnings
when safety issues may arise.
Professor Julio continued to cite
how computer technology and interfaces developed can provide better secured
protection and monitoring of the elderly and the disabled living, either in
community nursing homes or living independently on their own. Devices and
sensors installed could help monitor the safety and health of the individual,
say, if he or she has a slip and fall, an alert could be triggered to a medical
control center.
Professor Julio further shed some
insights into some of the current and what’s coming next in the world of
accessibility. A mobile device could be linked via interface to the ATM kiosk to
allow a disabled to handle one’s banking transaction and thus, accessible to the
blind, little people and persons in wheelchair. Here, at home, it is a shame
that, the local ATM kiosks are still “out of bound” to the blind as all the ATMs
are not accessible and worse still, the blind are not allowed to own ATM cards
by certain banks.
A universal remote device that
could benefit disabled persons, such as enhancing their independence, indoors or
outdoors, is currently undergoing prototype testing. A person in wheelchair or a
blind person could, for example, use the mobile device to activate the lift’s
control panel buttons remotely when one’s in a lift, switch on/off lights and
other electrical appliances and electronic gadgets.
It is laudable that Professor
Julio is so passionate in his research work and quest to help improve the lives
of the elderly and disabled. He reminded all that Europe has a large aging population and thus, accessibility
issues are a concern to all. Perhaps, we need to take heed of Professor Julio’s
remark as we are fast becoming an aging society too. There are, certainly, much
to catch up locally, in terms of research and development in accessibility. The
present accessible facilities and amenities are still very much lacking.
It is comforting to know that
Multimedia
University is undertaking
research work in the field of accessibility
. This is definitely a positive step forward in making a difference to
the lives of the elderly and the disabled!
More challenging times ahead!
