Standardization Roadmap
Note: Passages in italic font are in draft mode, and currently under revision.
Contents
Preface
This Wiki page provides an overview on GPII's activities related to standardization. International standards are an important foundation for technological progress, interoperability and accessibility. Both projects, Cloud4all and Prosperity4all, have specific work packages on standardization and concertation actions. In order to make the GPII technology available to everyone, we need to pollinate existing and emerging international standards with the seeds of personalized user interfaces based on personal preference sets.
For an overview on relevant existing standards, refer to Standards related to Personalization.
A compilation of standards and APIs (that might be worth standardizing) used by components in the GPII Developer Space is maintained here: Developer Space/Standards (only partially personalization or accessibility specific).
Top-Level Goals
In general, our top-level goals are:
- Reuse existing standards and technologies (in particular by mainstream), wherever possible.
- Develop and validate new standards on GPII technologies, wherever necessary.
- Work towards harmonization, adoption and inclusion of the GPII standards in standardization, industry, research and governments.
Every activity for standardization should aim for one of these top-level goals, at least.
International standardization
International standardization work is divided into government-driven standards organizations (e.g. ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC) and industry-driven standards organizations (also called "consortia", e.g. W3C, UPnP, ETSI). Both are relevant for GPII and its mission.
Standardization committee (link) | Description of committee | Mode of working | Purpose/goals for GPII | Partners & roles | Project |
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ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35 User Interfaces |
SC35 is the official government-driven committee for standardization of user interface related topics in ICT environments. This includes accessibility related standards in this area. Most relevant groups for GPII:
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Prosperity4all |
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 Information technology for learning, education and training | ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36 develops international standards for information technologies (IT) used in Learning, Education and Training (LET). A key goal of SC36 standards is to provide for interoperability among different and distributed IT systems, tools and services used in LET contexts.
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openURC Alliance |
openURC’s mission is to promote the Universal Remote Console (URC) and associated standards and its application. While ISO/IEC 24752 is the conceptual basis for URC, openURC's Technical Committee (TC) develops implementation guidance for specific URC technologies in the form of Technical Reports (e.g. the Universal Control Hub). |
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Prosperity4all |
W3C Accessible Platform Architecture (APA) Working Group
(former PF WG) |
The APA working group looks at Web technologies (protocols, formats, etc.) from an accessibility perspective. The principal output of this working group is feedback to other W3C working groups developing specification, on how to ensure that their work can allow for accessibility. Other topics include:
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Prosperity4all |
W3C Accessibility Guidelines (AG) WG (former WCAG WG) | The mission of the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is to develop guidelines to make Web content accessible for people with disabilities and to develop and maintain implementation support materials for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. |
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W3C ARIA WG | The mission of the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group (ARIA WG) is to develop technologies that enhance accessibility of web content for people with disabilities. This includes continued development of the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) suite of technologies and other technical specifications when needed to bridge known gaps. |
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Goals? | Who is representing GPII? | |
W3C Independent User Interface (IndieUI) WG
(closed April 2015) |
This group is working on two linked specifications, which, when used together, can support adaptation to User Context (accessibility preferences) on mobile devices. The two specifications are: Events 1.0 and User Context 1.0. The Events specification provides an intermediate layer between device- and modality-specific user interaction events, and the basic user interface functionality used by web applications. The User Context specification provides a set of individual preferences designed to work with the Events model supporting the adaptation of interface AND content to the preferences taking account of the device capabilities. Use cases include searching for appropriate content and configuring the device, particularly via providing an abstract way that web technologies can determine what has been requested. |
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The IEEE Actionable Data Book |
This IEEE project is doing prototypical exploration of implementation aspects of the use of eBooks in connected environments using xAPI as a central store for fine granularity learner and other events (such as completion of exercises, assessments etc.) in using learning systems whose central delivery mechanism is the eBook. The R&D project is working with EPUB3 in co-ordination with IDPF and others. Alongside storage and retrieval of learner events the project aims to store, retrieve and adapt content/interface to accessibility preferences in the xAPI database. It offers the possibility to explore discovery of preferences analytically alongside learning analytics. It is expected to lead into standards work in IEEE when more advanced. |
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Explore implementation implications of preferences in the cloud and in ebooks |
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IMS Accessibility Working Group | The IMS Accessibility project Working Group focuses on adaptation or personalization of resources, interfaces and content to meet the needs of individuals. The group believes that the best way to make a system or resource accessible to an individual is by meeting that individual's particular needs at that time in that context. This working group creates IMS specifications and strives to stay harmonized with other groups working on accessibility metadata and preferences.
Major revision to personal needs and preferences spec, released in fall 2016. |
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Schema.org | Accessibility metadata for Schema.org was developed by the Accessibility Metadata Project, led by Benetech. A version one metadata model was adopted by Schema.org and is documented on the WebSchemas/Accessibility page.
Three new accessibility feature terms in schema.org 3.2: access mode, access mode sufficient, accessibility summary. |
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W3C Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force |
The objective of the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force is to improve Web accessibility for people with cognitive and learning disabilities. This will begin with research and gap analysis. Then the group will develop draft proposed guidance and techniques to make web content, content authoring, and user agent implementation accessible and more useable by people with cognitive and learning disabilities. It will also review existing techniques and consider ways to improve them, and build new techniques where necessary. The Cog a11y TF is a joint Task Force of the Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG). It assists these Working Groups to produce techniques, understanding, and guidance documents, as well as updates to existing related W3C material that addresses the cognitive space. The first publication is Cognitive Accessibility User Research. |
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Prosperity4All |
IDPF (now under W3C) |
EPUB 3.1 with advances in metadata markup. Proposals to schema.org for new metadata properties to better describe accessible eBooks. |
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Madeleine Rothberg |
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ISO/IEC JTC1 WG10 Internet of Things (IoT)
(former SWG5) |
Some work was done in an earlier group - SWG 5. The extent to which WG10 will just inherit and continue the work in SWG 5 is not completely clear.
SWG 5 produced:
SWG 10 has taken over this work and is continuing it to include:
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Andy Heath (liaison for SC35) |
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IEC SyC AAL |
The IEC System Committee on Active Assisted Living shall:
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Gottfried Zimmermann (liaison for ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35) |
Prosperity4all |
CEN/CENELEC/ETSI JWG eAccessibility | European standardization committee (initiated by Mandate 376) responsible for the development of EN 301 549 (technical standard for the European Directive on on making public sector websites and apps more accessible, and possibly for a future [:File:///C:/Users/Gottfried/AppData/Roaming/Zotero/Zotero/Profiles/g74x8kjj.default/zotero/storage/AN4RV8VD/ficheprocedure.html European Accessibility Act]). Currently, this standard is being revised (Mandate 554) with the following goals:
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Gottfried Zimmermann (German delegate) | Prosperity4all |
National standardization
National standardization activities can help to spread interoperable technologies within a country, and often support national legislation. It is also common for national standardization committees to support international standardization by national bodies (delegations).
Standardization committee (link) | Description of committee | Mode of working | Purpose/goals for GPII | Partners & Roles | Project |
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DIN NA 023-00-02 GA Accessibility |
German national standardization committee on accessibility. German mirror committee for the following international committees:
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HDM (Zimmermann is member) | Prosperity4all |
DIN NA 023-00-04 GA Ergonomics for information processing systems |
German national standardization committee on ergonomics. German mirror committee for the following international committees:
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HDM (Zimmermann is observer) | Prosperity4all |
DIN NA 023-00-04-09 AK Ergonomic aspects of AAL and assistive systems | German national standardization committee on accessibility issues in the area of AAL. |
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HDM (Henka is member) | Prosperity4all |
DIN NA 043-01-36 AA Learning Technologies | German national standardization committee on eLearning.
German mirror committee for the following international committee:
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HDM (Zimmermann is member) | Prosperity4all |
Cooperation and concertation activities
Less formal cooperation and concertation activities in networks of projects and stakeholders can also pave the way for standardization or quasi-standardization. These activities should also be reported here.
Committee/network (link) |
Description of committee/network | Mode of working | Purpose/goals for GPII | Partners and roles | Project |
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Eclipse SmartHome | This open-source community develops a middleware framework to be used for smarthome control and automation by private persons and businesses. For example, Deutsche Telekom built its Qivicon platform on Eclipse SmartHome. |
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Implementation of URC concepts (personalization) in ESH | HDM (Lukas Smirek is developer in the ESH community) | Prosperity4all |
Covenant on Demographic Change
(former AFE-INNOVNET) |
The Covenant on Demographic Change has emerged from the former AFE-INNOVNET platform. It aims to gather all local, regional and national authorities, and other stakeholders, that commit to cooperate and implement evidence-based solutions to support active and healthy ageing as a comprehensive answer to Europe’s demographic challenge. |
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Prosperity4all | |
European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) |
Communication and information platform for all actors involved in Active and Healthy Ageing throughout Europe; the place to promote news and events, to meet and exchange ideas with peers and potential partners on innovative projects in this challenging field. EIP-AHA has a number of action groups in which work is conducted, mainly within task forces for "sprints". The most relevant action groups for GPII are:
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Prosperity4all |
MOOC Accessibility Partnership (MOOCAP) (2014-2017) |
This ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership develops a set of MOOC and online courses on accessible design in ICT. The partnership consists of 8 European universities with excellence in accessibility research and teaching.
New introductory MOOC on Digital Accessibility (5 units) started on Oct. 17, 2016. |
The project is divided up in work packages, with monthly telecons for project-internal communication. | Develop an online course on GPII concepts and technologies so that professionals learn about the GPII framework and its opportunities.
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MOOCAP |
Adaptiva, All-nativa and inclusive learning projects |
Consortia working in learning space to implement AccessForAll. Both Spanish and Portuguese resources. Includes teacher training in creating AccessForAll compliant resources. |
Mailing list and Wiki |
Implementation exemplar of matching personal optimization using Access4All |
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Preferences for Global Access |
The goal of this project is the design and development of web software to assist users with disabilities in creating online user profiles that specify their needs and preferences for how online information and services should be presented to them. This team develops tools and technologies to support users in specifying their individual needs and preferences in several application settings. | |
This project fills the gap in the GPII framework on how users can create and maintain their individual sets of personal preferences. |
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AFE-INNOVNET - Towards an Age-Friendly Europe (cooperation ended by end of 2015 due to transformation into the Covenant on Demographic Change) |
AFE-INNOVNET was a European project/platform aiming at mobilising a EU-wide community of local and regional authorities and other stakeholders to support the scaling-up of innovative solutions for age-friendly environments to support active and healthy ageing across Europe. |
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Prosperity4all |
ReAAL (project finished) | European-funded project for pilot-testing the AAL technology developed by universAAL. | The project works mostly internally as consortium. From time to time it hosts meetings for exchange of knowledge and interoperability planning. |
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Prosperity4all |
Automated Personalization Computer Project (APCP) | $20m project funded by the US Dept of Education to make the GPII a commercial quality implementation. | Core project for GPII | Gregg Vanderheiden is coordinator of APCP. |
Collaboration on governmental regulatory agencies
In this section, report about collaboration activities with organizations/groups dealing with governmental regulatory agencies regarding consistent policies for the promotion of embedded accessibility solutions into mainstream ICT devices/applications and for new ways of financing such solutions.
Committee/network (link) |
Description of committee/network | Mode of working | Purpose/goals for GPII | Partners and roles | Project |
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ANEC Working Group on Design for All |
The ANEC Design for All Working Group unites experts from both the consumer movement and the disability/elderly organisations. Its work is based on the ANEC Policy Statement on Design for All. In addition, ANEC initiated or participated in various activities in the European and international standards bodies on this issue. These include most notably the EC Mandate 473, Standardization Mandate to include Design for All in relevant standardization activities. |
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Prosperity4all |
European Multistakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation |
Based on a European Commission Decision to advise on matters related to the implementation of ICT standardisation policies, it deals with:
The MSP is composed of representatives of national authorities from EU Member States & EFTA countries, by the European and international ICT standardisation bodies, and by stakeholder organisations that represent industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers. It is co-chaired by the European Commission Directorates General Enterprise and Industry, and CONNECT. It meets four times per year. |
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Prosperity4all |
ERPB Working Group on Mobile and Card Based Contactless Proximity Payments |
The Working Group on Mobile and Card Based Contactless Proximity Payments received its mandate from the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) in December 2014. The focus of ERPB WG is on innovative payment solutions which rely on contactless technologies to initiate payments or transfer payment related data in proximity payment situations. The aim is to develop a report to the ERPB which contains a concrete action plan to achieve the essential conditions in the cooperative space for the realisation of a vision for mobile and card based contactless proximity payments by November 2015. |
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Prosperity4all |
Disability rights promotion international |
DRPI offers training in Disability Rights monitoring and is utilizing AccessForAll in the training and information site |
Web site, training portal, global network |
Implementation exemplar of matching personal optimization using Access4All |
IDRC |
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Access for all Ontario |
The Province of Ontario is implementing AccessForAll in the training portal and workstation setup for 65,000 employees. |
Intranet, training portal |
Large scale implementation exemplar of matching personal optimization using Access4All |
Province of Ontario, IDRC |
Prosperity4all |
Outcomes
Main outcomes of all standardization activities are the development and release of public and open standards and guidelines which may later get adopted by legislation.
Note: Items are in chronological order, with the most recent items at the bottom.
Date / Timespan | Description of outcome (w/ milestones) | Relevance for GPII | Contributing committees/networks | Contributing partners |
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2014-01 | Schema.org accessibilityFeature (Accessibility terms 1.0) |
The schema.org AccessibilityFeature introduced 4 new accessibility-related properties (accessibilityFeature, accessibilityHazard, accessibilityControl, and accessibilityAPI) for the description of object of type CreativeWork. These properties support search engines in finding resources (such as accessible media, alternatives and supported enhancements for accessibility) that match the accessibility requirements of a search engine user. If the user has an existing GPII-compatible preference set, the accessibility requirements could be automatically conveyed to the search engine. |
schema.org |
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2014-12 |
Revision of ISO/IEC 24752 (2nd edition), Universal Remote Console (URC): |
The ISO/IEC 24752 standards specify the basic concepts and document formats for the Universal Remote Console ecosystem. In its second edition, the URC technology has been revised based on lessons learned to be simpler to implement and based on current technologies. The URC technology is part of the GPII concepts. Through its separation of frontend and backend, it allows for pluggable user interfaces that may be provided by the manufacturer of a device or by third parties. In the AAL context, URC is a basic technological concept for auto-personalization by preferences. |
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2014-12 |
This new part 6 of ISO/IEC 24752 defines a way for devices/services to expose themselves as SOAP-based Web services in a URC-compliant way. The URC technology is part of the GPII concepts. Through its separation of frontend and backend, it allows for pluggable user interfaces that may be provided by the manufacturer of a device or by third parties. In the AAL context, URC is a basic technological concept for auto-personalization by preferences. |
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2016-08 | EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines | Accessibility conformance criteria, based on WCAG 2.0. |
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2016-09 | Personalisation tools by | The following prototypes are available for demonstration:
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Madeleine Rothberg, NCAM-WGBH |
2016-2017 | Device templates for URC-compliant targets |
Device templates are strongly needed for interoperability of pluggable user interfaces across device models. Device manufacturers can use the appropriate templates as a basis for their products. With the new inheritance feature (see ISO/IEC 24752-2:2014) user interface sockets can be easily extended for product-specific additions. However, the pluggable user interfaces for the device template can still be used for the extended product (albeit hiding the additional features). The following device templates were published:
Note: In the course of Prosperity4all, it became clear that the URC platform will not become widely used. So, we need to integrate the URC concepts (adaptability, personalization) into existing platforms that are prevalent on the market (e.g. Eclipse Smart Home). |
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2017-01-05 | Publication of EPUB 3.1 and EPUB Accessibility 1.0 | EPUB 3.1 recommends accessibility features for e-books, as specified in EPUB Accessibility 1.0 | IDPF |
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2017-03-23 | Schema.org accessibilityFeature (Accessibility terms 2.0) |
Version 2.0 of schema.org AccessibilityFeature introduced 3 new accessibility-related properties (accessMode, accessModeSufficient, and accessibilitySummary) |
schema.org |
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2018 | Recommendations on how to overcome barriers |
AGE contributes to the group's vision, in consultation with the members and BEUC. In November 2017, the first physical meeting with the 14 members of the ERPB WG on Accessibility of retail payments was this occasion to coordinate feedback to prepare a draft report for the ERPB. A paper on barriers preventing older persons and persons with disabilities to access retail payments and examples of good practices developed by the Euro Retail Payments Board working subgroup led by AGE is expected to be published in 2018. |
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2018-01 | Rolling Plan on ICT Standardisation 2018 |
The European Multistakeholder Platform (MSP) update every summer the Rolling Plan on ICT Standardisation; it is published every new year. The Rolling Plan is a lively document. In 2017, the editing and commenting work on the text was done through a wiki. The consultation of the MSP ICT members to update the Rolling Plan for 2019 will last from July to September; inputs will be consolidated over October and November. The Multistakeholder Platform is also defining the domains and priority areas for standardisation (KPS) critical to the Digital Single Market. |
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2018-02 | Personal User Experience (PUX) Recommendations and Lessons Learned |
The Personal User Experience (PUX) working group of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIPonAHA) and its Action Group C2 on interoperable independent living solutions has charged itself to “contribute to the development of knowledge for Personal User Experience, building on the results available” (see C2 Action Plan). As a result, the PUX working group has produced this document as guidance for the development of AAL solutions that support what we call a “Personal User Experience”. |
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2018-04 (publication date) |
This standard defines a RESTful protocol and data formats in XML and JSON for the provision and delivery of resources that are related to user interface adaptation based on context of use. It addresses requirements and recommendations for the following services:
Note: Applications using the GPII framework need a way to load user interface resources at runtime that match to a user's personal needs and preferences. Web and other clients will be able to do so via communication with a resource server through this new RESTful protocol. |
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2018-10 | European Mandate 473 |
Extension of M473 for report to be submitted by 30 June 2019. A suitable draft was submitted to the National Committees for CEN-CENELEC public enquiry, a procedure, which lasts 5 months. During this national consultation period, National Committees liaised with their stakeholders (industry, federations, consumer associations, certification bodies, etc.) to constitute a national viewpoint on the draft. These national viewpoints or comments were forwarded to the technical body working on the draft for further consideration and possible incorporation in the draft prior to a formal vote which was planned for October 2018. |
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expected publication in 2019 |
Revision of ISO/IEC 24751-1: AccessForAll Framework For Individualized Accessibility |
Part 1 is currently being revised within ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 on Information technology for learning, education and training. The revision is needed to make the standard conforming to the concepts of the GPII framework, including:
Status information:
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expected publication in 2018 |
This revision of the User Needs Summary standard will be compatible with GPII. Includes potential mappings from User Needs to GPII preferences (not one to one), satisfying personal needs in particular ICT contexts. Individualization is a category of user needs. This standard is currently in DIS state. |
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expected publication in 2018 |
Derived from BSI 8878. Harmonization with GPII and user needs summary (ISO/IEC 29138-1).
This standard is currently in DIS state. |
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expected publication in 2018 | ISO/IEC TS 24751-4: AccessForAll Framework For Individualized Accessibility - Part 4: Registry server API | A concept registry needs to be globally accessible through a well-defined API, and clear format rules must exist for the exchange of concept records. This document specifies a RESTful API for a registry (a.k.a. registry
server), and a JSON format for concept records to be exchanged through the registry API. The following use cases illustrate the need for a standardized API and concept record format. This list of use cases is not intended to restrict further uses of this document in any way. – A human registry client (e.g. developer of an assistive technology solution) registers a term on a registry server. This can be facilitated by either a Web interface of the registry, or by a third-party development application (e.g. an Integrated Development Environment) running on the person's computer. The third-party development application has some advantages over the Web interface since it allows for a tighter integration of development platform and registry server. However, it requires the definition of a registry API and of a concept record format. – An infrastructure component (e.g. preference management tool, match-maker) looks up a concept term on a registry server. Thus, the definition of a concept term can be presented to the user, or the value space of a concept term can be taken into account for match-making. – A syntax checker (e.g. special lint tool) or a preference server verify the contents of a new need and preference set by validating against the concept records on a registry server. By this procedure, invalid values for concept terms can be detected. In case of an invalid need and preference set, the syntax checker or preference server can notify the user about the error, or make automatic corrections. – Two preference servers synchronize their need and preference sets. This could be a full synchronization over all contained need and preference sets, or it could affect only a part of the sets. To avoid the distribution of invalid content, incoming sets can be verified against the concept records of a registry server (e.g. to detect invalid values), and erroneous sets can be skipped or automatically corrected. – Two registry servers synchronize their registry entries. This could be a full synchronization over all contained concept records, or it could affect only a part of the entries. NOTE 1 While ISO/IEC 24751-1 leaves open whether there is a single or multiple registry servers, it is possible to run multiple registry servers globally. Some organizations have built, for security and privacy reasons, self-contained digital infrastructures (such as Intranets) with only very few and well-defined gateways to the external Internet. Such organizations would possibly prefer to have their own registry server running in their infrastructure, and have it synchronize with some global registry server in a secured way from time to time. Also, organizations that develop adaptive user interfaces or assistive technology solutions would likely want to have their own registry server for experimentation purposes. |
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expected release in June 2018 | WCAG 2.1 | A slate of additional success criteria have been added to WCAG 2.0, including two related to personalization: | W3C AG WG | Shadi, Judy |
expected release in 2019 | Active Assisted Living (AAL) use cases (IEC TS 63134 ED1) | Scope: The primary objective of this Draft Technical Specification is the identification of AAL scenarios and use cases based on real-world applications and requirements. The use cases provide a practical context for considerations of interoperability and standards based on user experience. They make it clear where existing standards can be used and highlight where further standardization work is needed. In addition, user requirements have been identified. A further objective of this DTS is to highlight potential areas for standardization in the AAL environment to ensure ease of operation, performance and interoperability. Lastly, this document is a contribution to the IEC use case management repository the purpose of which is to collect, administer, maintain, and analyse use cases.
This document is relevant for GPII on the following aspects:
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IEC SyC AAL |
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expected publication in 2019 | ISO/IEC 24751-5: Information technology -- Information technology for learning, education and training -- AccessForAll Framework For Individualized Accessibility -- Part 5: Personal Privacy Preferences | Part 5 builds upon the AccessForAll framework (ISO/IEC 24751-1). It adds specifies how to express personalized preferences for privacy settings. |
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