Cloud4all is a FP7 project that will develop relevant parts of the GPII, an infrastructure that will allow the automatic personalization of the accessibility features of different interactive systems based on the user's needs and preferences. Javier Hernández from Emergya (Spain) and Christophe Strobbe from HDM (Germany) presented an overview of the architecture and some demonstrations of the auto-configuration capabilities of PCs and android smartphones in the 14th Libre Software Meeting, in Brussels.

1. The General Public Inclusive
Infrastructure (GPII) for
Auto-Personalisation of
Accessibility
Christophe Strobbe (HdM)
Javier Hernández (Emergya)

2. GPII Goals (1)
Enable accessibility by:
●
adapting software to fit the user's needs
– operating system settings: Windows, Linux
GNOME, Android
– assistive technology (AT) settings: Orca, on-
screen keyboard, …
– browsers and web applications: Firefox, …
– third-party apps, e.g. Mobile Accessibility for
Android (Code Factory)

3. GPII Goals (2)
●
Delivering AT that fits the user's needs
●
Finding alternative versions of content
– e.g. captioned versions of video
●
Adapting embedded systems
– ticketing machines, TV

4. GPII = Infrastructure
"Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure"
●
We don't build new AT
●
AT and other software
●
gets adapted to connect to GPII
●
can then adapt to the user's settings
●
We build the framework to enable this

5. Contributing Projects
●
Led by Raising the Floor International
●
Started by Prof. Gregg Vanderheiden
●
Cloud4all:
●
EU-funded project, Nov 2011 – Oct 2015
●
24 partners, including Trace Center (Wisconsin,
US) & IDRC (Toronto, Ca)
●
Fluid & FLOE (Canada)
●
Research to Reality (US)
●
Preferences for Global Access (US DoE)

6. Major Components of GPII
Will something
help me?
What?
Getting access
automatically,
anywhere, on
any device
Tools to make it
easier, lower-cost
to create & market
new solutions
6
User
Awareness
Needs & Prefs
Discovery Aid
GPII
Unified Listing
& Marketplace
Prefs & Perm
Server
Real Time
Matching
Developers’
Space
Users find out
something exists
for them.
Users can find out
which types of
things help them
Find all solutions, AT
& Mainstream
device / feature / service
User needs & prefs
stored securely and
available anywhere
Prefs and context
used to determine
best fit; here, now.
User can call up
any assistance
anywhere
Free & commercial
parts to speed dev,
and lower costs
Consumers
& Experts
Connection
Experts, consumers,
testers etc to help
new developers
Delivery/Launch
Management
Built-in + AT are
auto-adjusted and
launched, anywhere
Shopping
Aid
Users can use their
profile to find just
what helps them
Micro-Finance
Micro-Payment
Infrastructure
Mechanism for
Financing R&D
and Service Del
GPII
Unified Listing
& Marketplace
Developers can
quickly, efficiently
market worldwide
Service
Creation Tools
To make it easy to
Create AOD, Media,
& Material service
Needs & Prefs
Storage
Users can store
needs & preferences
info for later use
Assistance on
Demand (AOD)
Media &
Materials
Auto- augmentation
transformation
and/or replacement
Cloud4all
US Dept of
Ed

7. Demo: Transfer Adaptations
●
A set of preferences is created on Linux
●
User moves to Windows
●
Preferences are used to adapt Windows
●
Sammy (magnification & inverted colours):
●
http://localhost:8081/user/sammy/login
●
http://localhost:8081/user/sammy/logout
●
Mikel Vargas (on-screen keyboard)
●
http://localhost:8081/user/MikelVargas/login
●
http://localhost:8081/user/MikelVargas/logout

8. Demo: Android
●
Using Anode: Android port of Node.js
●
Customising settings is harder
●
Requires rooted phone!
●
Currently only:
●
Settings system API, e.g. font size
●
Launch applications, Talkback screenreader
●
Good NFC support for “logging” in & out
●
Sensors for context-based adaptation

9. Architecture

10. User Listeners
●
user presents a "key"
– using a USB drive
– using an NFC tag
– typing a special string on the keyboard
– ...
●
User Listener detects the key and sends it
to the Flow Manager

11. Preferences
●
Flow Manager fetches preferences from
Preference Server
●
Format = JSON
{
"http://registry.gpii.net/common/language": [ { "value": "fr-ca" } ],
"http://registry.gpii.net/common/speechRate": [ { "value": 100 } ],
"http://registry.gpii.net/common/repeatKeysRepeatRate": [ { "value": 0.5 } ],
"http://registry.gpii.net/comon/repeatKeysAutomaticDelay": [ { "value": true } ]
}

12. Device & Context Information
●
The device tells the Flow Manager
– what operating system it is running
– what assistive technologies are available
– "context information" (ambient light, ambient
noise)
●
-> automatically adapt contrast depending on light
●
-> automatically increase sound or switch on
captions depending on noise
●
early work on Android

13. Matchmaker & Solutions Registry
●
Flow Manager sends preferences
and device info to the Matchmaker
●
Matchmaker infers settings for
"new" OS or software
●
Matchmaker consults Solutions
Registry for info on assistive
technologies etc.

14. Launching and Stopping Solutions
●
Flow Manager sends settings to
Lifecycle Manager
●
Snapshot of current settings
●
Set each application's settings
●
Launch application(s)
●
When user "logs out", restore
original settings

15. More Info?
●
Project: www.cloud4all.info
●
GPII & contributing projects: www.gpii.net

16. See Our Work?
Wiki: http://wiki.gpii.net/

17. Want to Contribute?
Fork our code: http://github.com/GPII