National Committee for 
Information Technology Standards
Information Technology Access Interfaces
Technical Committee
(NCITS V2) 
ANNUAL REPORT
Annual Report for: NCITS V2

Covering the Period:  October 2000 to November 2001

Title of NCITS Subgroup: Information Technology Access Interfaces

Informal Description of Work: V2 is charged with developing national standards for Information Technology Access Interfaces.

Current practice in providing IT accommodation support for people with disabilities involves tailoring or configuring assistive technology to meet each individual's needs, abilities, and preferences, and integrating the result with existing devices in the users' different environments.  Frequently, assistive technologies need to be developed or adapted to work with each device in the user's environment. The resulting systems are often unique within the environment in which they are installed.  Consequently, those using these systems experience difficulties getting technical help, are frequently ignored or experience inordinate delays when all other systems are upgraded, and are not as mobile as others in accepting new job assignments and promotions, or operating in different environments.  There is a need for standards that simplify or eliminate the customization required when assistive technologies are connected to electronic devices and information technology, and to provide industry with a common means of interacting with a wide variety of assistive technologies.

The first project of the technical committee is to develop standards for an Alternative Interface Access Protocol (AIAP).  This protocol complements and builds on industry activity in home networking, wireless networking, and metadata registries for discovery and interoperation of devices.  The aim is to make it easier to fulfill the alternate interface connection needs of people with disabilities that are called for in recent government regulations, such as Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The Alternative Interface Access Protocol and related standards will enable IT products to be more accommodating of the needs and preferences of the consumer by allowing for alternative user interfaces.  While addressing the special needs of people with disabilities, the option to change interfaces will have a broader market application.

1. Executive Summary

As of this report, NCITS V2 has 17 member organizations of record; has held 5 Plenary meetings and 20 informal working meetings.  The committee has a preliminary draft specification for the Alternative Interface Access Protocol (AIAP). Several organizations are currently developing or are looking at developing reference implementations of the protocol.
2. Projects

a. Project Number and Title:

1464 - D; Alternative Interface Access Protocol (AIAP).

b. Original, previous and current target date for initial public review
(Milestone 4) reflected in month and year.

Original target date: March, 2002
Previous target date: N/A
Current target date: March, 2002

c. Project Description:

The protocol will provide for access to both standalone and networked systems and devices. With suitable intermediaries, AIAP will permit interaction with workstations, with embedded devices (environmental controls, intelligent appliances, and consumer electronics), or with applications via home networking and/or the Internet. The protocol optionally will convey information about user interface functionality, preferences, and capabilities to another system with which the user intends to interact.  Alternative interfaces can then be accommodated or constructed, in real-time if necessary, to provide fundamental access to computing services and information regardless of any limitation of the user.

There are 4 ways that AIAP is currently envisioned to provide a means for users to change the user interface:

d. Publications During Past Year:

"Auxiliary Interface Access Protocols (AIAP) for Assistive Technology: Controlling Next Generation Technologies from Assistive Technologies," June, 2001 Presentation to the Assistive Technologies Industry Association Annual Meeting by Gregg Vanderheiden

e. Statement of Progress and Current Status:

The V2 has decided to divide the AIAP four approaches, each of which will have a detailed specification.  We are currently concentrating on the Remote Console varient (described under bullet 2 from the project description, 2.c., above, AIAP-RC).  We have a working draft of the AIAP-RC specification being used to support the reference implementations.

Two participating organizations have initial reference implementations. Two other organizations have indicated interest in developing such implementations.  These implementations use different technologies and are used to ensure that the specifications are implementable and generic.

3. Committee Activities

a. Previous Year's Meetings:

  1. October 11 - 13, 2000; Washington, DC
  2. December 7 - 8, 2000; Gaithersburg, MD
  3. February 7 - 8, 2001; Gaithersburg, MD
  4. May 7 - 8 & 11, 2001; Washington, DC
  5. July 30 - 31, 2001; Madison, WI

b. Next Year's Planned Meetings:

6. November 27 - 28, 2001; Redmond, WA
7. March 3 - 5, 2002; Nashville, TN
8. June ? - ?; St. Petersburg, FL
9. August ? - ?; Washington, DC

e. Liaison Activities:

f. Administrative Matters of Note:

We would like to thank the Secretariat staff for their outstanding support of our working Web site.

g. Procedural Matters of Note:

none.

h. Recommendations (optional):

i. Market Impact

There is a burgeoning market already for personalization of content and appearance on the World Wide Web, with regard to small handheld devices and for commercial sales purposes.  Companies such as IBM, ATG and Vignette, among many others, have products and services for this explicit purpose.  This market is expected to grow considerably in the next 2 to 3 years.  There is also a movement  in the Web to provide sites of interest to people with disabilities (e.g., HalfthePlanet, WeMedia, CanDo) and the aging population (e.g., SeniorNet), and attempts to bring the W3C WAI recommendations into these.  Alternative interfaces to meet these needs, whether pre-constructed, adapted or constructed on the fly, are a form of personalization.

Another rapidly emerging segment of technology is that of pervasive computing, whereby intelligent devices of all sorts are distributed into the living environments of home, shopping, and other activities involving mobile systems. Of particular note are the numerous offerings in:

This follows the burgeoning of wireless technology from companies such as Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola, to mention but a few, as well as activities such as the Wireless Application Protocol Forum (WAPForum) and the Salutation Consortium in promoting applications for wireless devices.  Handheld devices such as the 3Com Palm and the Pocket PC are targeted at the mobile computing environment.  Another important factor in the wireless environment is the Bluetooth RF infrastructure for which a very substantial number of manufacturers are building compatible devices.

Whereas these services look towards increasing access for user's critical information, they rely on end-users to configure, change, or maintain configurations for their access.    In addition, the burden of incorporating multiples of these offerings into a daily regimen is taxing on the user, and certainly highly error-prone.  The key shortfall, however, rests in the personalization of the user's interaction with each of these separate systems, and the changes and dynamics that individual users' will need to effectively coordinate and use these services effectively.  This can be made especially difficult for a user with a disability or who is aging.

To make these systems truly usable, service providers must bridge the user's networks (office, mobile, home); the user's devices (phone, web-pad, computer); and the user's information spaces (email, documents, news/information).

Key to interaction across devices and information spaces is the ability toprovide the solution in a ubiquitous form factor.  Two related initiatives are needed:

The AIAP is seen as the integrating factor for these initiatives.  Moreover, the AIAP will be a major factor in providing preference and capability transfer in non-networked, non-mobile uses as well.  The Composite Capabilities and Preferences Profiles (CC/PP) effort in W3C is aimed at standard representation of  the capabilities and preferences for users and devices.  The WAPForum has been using the CC/PP to describe the features and capabilities of some wireless devices such as smartphones.

There are at least two organizations, Trace R & D Center and Microsoft, Inc., that are already building systems based around the draft documents that the NCITS ITA SG and V2 have produced so far. They expect to have public demonstration of their implementations in the summer of 2002.

Moreover, there is an abundant market for third-party developers to build products that will carry out interface transformations for content, appearance and user controls and to build applications that lend themselves to interface selection or transformation.  Many of these already exist.  Netscape has released its Versions 6 browser which permits widespread modification of both its operating interface and the content appearing on it, through a language called XUL (extensible User interface Language).  There is also another language called User Interface Markup Language that uses Sun Microsystemsâ Java Swing for modifying rendering of interface elements.  Both of these languages are compatible with and expressible by the W3C language XML.  Sun is also pushing its Jini connection technology as a means of mediating access to alternative interfaces (the AIAP would run over Jini).  Other venues for the AIAP include the Salutation Consortiumâs Salutation architecture, HomeAPI/Universal Plug and Play, and HomeRF.

The AIAP is also being seen as part of the solution for meeting the Access Board procurement standards for electronic and information technology, pursuant to the provisions of Section 508 of the 1998 amendments to the1973 Rehabilitation Act.  Thus, some equipment procured by the Government could have the AIAP specified as meeting some of the requirements of the 508 procurement standards.

Numbers from analysts range up to 1 billion wireless devices shipped by 2004; 10 million digital homes by 2004; and 41 million telecommuting/ SOHO workers by 2003.  The total addressable market of an enabling technology such as interaction personalization can be estimated at 100 million people in North America & Europe within 3 years.  Related investments in wireless data, personalization, and unified services are in the multi-billion dollar area.  There are 70 million adults aged 50+; this is expected to grow to 115 million in the next 25 years.  Of the present 70 million, 13 million have Internet access (SeniorNet and Charles Schwab), or 16.5% of total online population, and they spend 30 hours per month online, 47% higher than the national average.  A significant portion of these users has difficulty in using a mouse and navigating the Web, and operating other applications.  About 8% of the total U. S. population has a disability that limits their ability to use a computer or to have effective access to the Internet.  People with disabilities are under-represented in the work force and make up a considerable portion of the population that is at low-income levels.

4. Anticipated Projects

  • Metadata - This project will establish the data elements needed to support data registries for Assistive Technology Services and for User Needs and Preferences Specification.  We intend to make use of ISO/IEC 11179, the data registries standard maintained and being developed by NCITS L8.
  • AT / E & IT Application Program Interface - The Accessibility Forum is in the preliminary stages of developing requirements for AT / IT Interoperability.  If their requirements include an API, they may seek NCITS V2 assistance in its development.

    • 5. Future Trends Section in this Technical Area

    See 3.i. above.

    Attachment 1 Committee Projects: NCITS/SD-4 Data

    V2 - Information Technology Access Interfaces

    (Revised 10/05/01 )

  • NCITS Project: 1464 - D

    • Standard Designation: :   []
     

     Title:       Alternative Interface Access Protocol (AIAP)

    Attachment 2 Internal Procedures

    None at this time.

    Attachment 3 Financial Statement

    None at this time.