Accessibility 2010 start this week

2010 is going to be another big year for accessibility. Firstly because, in 2006, European ministers agreed that all public websites in Europe should be accessible by 2010: not all of them are yet so there will be a lot of activity in this area to meet the requirement.

Also, I am aware of major initiatives by the British Computer Society, the British Standards Institute, ISO, and the OneVoice Accessible ICT Coalition; all of which will deliver during the year.

Microsoft’s recent announcements of the NATAL Project and the concept of a Natural User Interface (NUI) indicate possible major changes to assistive technology in the next 12 months.

I will be writing about these in more detailed over the coming weeks.

As a starter I would recommend going to see the BETT Exhibition at Olympia this week. It is the major education exhibition of the year in the UK but has a very strong section for a Special Educational Needs (SEN) which enables you to see a wide variety of assisted technologies, both hardware and software.

Next door to BETT will be the Special Needs Fringe. On Wednesday afternoon as part of the fringe the new British Computer Society Assistive Technology group will have its first official meeting, Wednesday at 4:30 PM.

I am looking forward to another exciting year for accessibility and usability.