Welcome to the DfA@eInclusion Web site
Welcome to the web site of the IST Coordination Action “Design for All for eInclusion - DfA@eInclusion” (0033838). In these pages you can find news and information about the project's activities, objectives, expected results and partners.
Online survey about www.edean.org
The web portal of EDeAN was designed and developed in order to support the online activities of the network members and serve both as a communication tool and as an information gateway.
In the context of the DfA@eInclusion project, the portal has been re-designed and re-developed. The whole infrastructure now operates on a new technological platform, and a number of new features and functionalities have been introduced, offering the possibility of personalization of a variety of interaction and accessibility settings. Obviously, there will always be room for improvement, particularly as the tool is targeted to serve the needs of a continuously evolving community of users.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to assess the current level of user satisfaction with the functionality offered by the site, identify its strengths and weaknesses and thus contribute to its improvement. You will need about 15 minutes to answer all questions, your answers will be kept strictly confidential and will greatly help us evaluate and improve the services offered.
The questionnaire is available online at:
http://www.edean.org/questionnaire
For any questions or clarifications regarding this survey, you may contact Iosif Klironomos, at FORTH-ICS (email: iosif at ics.forth.gr)
Curriculum guidelines for teaching DfA (Masters level programme)
The DfA@eInclusion Coordination Action was set up to contribute towards the advancement of eInclusion in Europe through fostering Design for All. As part of this programme curriculum guidelines have been developed to support training and education at Bachelor and Masters level and to provide professional development.
The aim of these curriculum guidelines in Design for All in ICT is to assist academics defining new courses, students who are looking for courses and employers who are looking to recruit qualified graduates who have a solid grounding in Design for All in ICT. Detailed information is available in the DfA curricula section.
EU ministers: accessible, interactive and customised online public services in Europe by 2015
EU ministers have committed to developing smarter online public services for citizens and businesses by 2015. The Commission has welcomed this step forward in making eGovernment more accessible, interactive and customised. At the fifth Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö (Sweden) on 19 November 2009, EU ministers outlined a joint vision and policy priorities on how this should be delivered. eGovernment is a key step towards boosting Europe's competitiveness, benefiting from time and cost savings for citizens and businesses across Europe.
More information is available through the EUROPA portal. You can read the full ministerial declaration here (pdf format).
Accessibility of European Commission Websites
The study "Accessibility of European Commission Websites - Analysis of current status and recommendations for improvement" checked the compliance of European Commission websites against relevant specifications, notably the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and provided recommendations for improving the tested websites in particular and the Commission websites in general. This was done by testing selected pages and taking into account the different systems and processes used to generate them. The recommendations addressed current web content and the process of generating it, including suggestions for better addressing accessibility issues in the European Commission's Internet Publisher Guidelines.
The results of the web accessibility evaluation for all the websites were generally good in terms of guidelines compliance. Although several common accessibility barriers were detected, none of them considered to be severe. The main issues were: images with incorrect or non-existent text alternative; section headings and lists not marked up or incorrect; links not clearly identifying their purpose or target; inaccessible use of technologies like PDF, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint; inadequate page titles; data tables marked up incorrectly; and new windows opening without informing the user.
On the other hand, the analysis of the information architecture, the user tests and the user experience survey showed that the European Commission websites had many usability problems, most of them related to the website organization and document structure, the language or terms used and other identification issues that caused difficulties for finding the information.
However, although some of these problems are serious, no content was found that can not be made accessible. More information is available at the Information Society Thematic Portal of the EC.
DfA@eInclusion project Press Information Set
The Press Information Set of DfA@eInclusion contains useful information regarding the project, as well as a number of Good Practice Examples in Design for All, basic instructions to implement DfA, the Project fact sheet and EDeAN flyer, etc. You may download it from the link below. It is also available from the special "DFa@eInclusion" material section on the ARIADNE online Resource Centre at http://www.edean.org.
Press Information Set available for download (zipped file)
Recommended resources on Design for All
A list of selected resources on Design for All, recommended by the DfA@eInclusion project has been made available. You may download it from the link below. You may also browse through these resources through the designated section "Recommended resources" of the ARIADNE online Resource Centre at http://www.edean.org.
Recommended resources (pdf format)
