A while ago I was invited as an expert to contribute to the EU CARDIAC project which wanted to generate a research agenda roadmap highlighting research priorities in accessible and assistive ICT that will favour eAccessibility. I recently got and update from John Gill (the co-ordinator).

The first conclusion is to support the research actions which exert the most influence on the other research actions. The eight fundamental research actions are:

1. Explore how users interact and cooperate with intelligent systems
2. Promote methodologies that consider not only the interface but the entire interaction dialogue
3. Reduce the complexity of user interaction whilst retaining functionality
4. Methodologies to safely collect and manage the information about the user when using the ICT system
5. Use reasoning techniques for personalisation
6. Involvement of end users throughout the design and development process
7. Methodologies and tools for the development of accessible and assistive ICT
8. Methodologies for collaborative research in the field of assistive ICT and accessible ICT

A second phase of research actions include:

1. Identify impact of cloud platforms
2. Systems to enhance the safety and user trust and confidence of locally and remotely provided services
3. Use of context awareness to adapt user interfaces
4. Further static and adaptive user interaction profiles
5. Innovative interaction devices for accessibility: advanced assistive technologies
6. Interoperability of devices, networks and services to enhance accessibility to ubiquitous computing environments
7. Analyse end-user needs and personal barriers with respect to ICT
8. Research on the use of social media to reduce isolation
9. Research on the ethical and legal requirements and consequences

Finally the report tells us that:

“three research lines to emerge as a priority are ‘Innovative user interfaces’ (top of ranking in terms of joint impact and probability of requiring public funding) ‘Holistic approach to human computer interaction’ (second in ranking in terms of joint impact and probability of requiring public funding top of ranking in terms of impact), and ‘Advanced design and development methodologies and tools’ (third in ranking in terms of joint impact and probability of requiring public funding).”

Further information is at www.cardiac-eu.org