Projects

Each day, Canadians conduct millions of transactions with self-service devices such as:

• banking machines
• Interac© point-of-sale terminals
• information kiosks
• ticket and fare-dispensing machines at airports, movie theatres, parking lots, and public transportation terminals

For people with disabilities, these and other public information and communications technologies (PICTs) offer the potential of greater access to banking, shopping, transportation, etc. Unfortunately, the design of these and other PICTs makes them difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to use.

For example, even though some bank machines are positioned low enough for wheelchair users and/or provide audio output for people who have vision impairments, even these devices are not accessible to all people with disabilities:

• people who experience difficulties with reading may benefit from graphic symbols rather than keys labeled with words
• people of short stature and wheelchair users may prefer to adjust the angle of the screen in order to be able to better view the text
• many people with vision problems would like to have the option of increasing the size of the type on the screen

The Dis-IT Retail and Public Services research team has researched ways of making public information and communications technologies (PICTs) more accessible to people with disabilities. We:

• developed and pilot tested a tool to test the accessibility of public information and communication technologies (PICTs)
• conducted focus groups with people who have disabilities regarding wireless access to PICTs
• surveyed companies that manufacture PICTs
• produced background papers on wireless connectivity standards and market trends for wireless PICTs
• developed and conducted simulations of PICTs operated by wirelessly-enabled portable computing devices