BSCW FOR DISABLED TELEWORKERS - USABILITY EVALUATION AND INTERFACE ADAPTATION OF AN INTERNET-BASED COOPERATION ENVIRONMENT

TEDIS (Teleworking for Disabled People) is a research and development project of the research group on Human Computer Interaction at the Ger man National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD). TEDIS i s an assistive technology contribution to the promotional program ''Te lecooperation - Value Added Services'' of the German Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology (BMBF) and accordingly funded. The general goal of the project is to implement a generic hum an computer interface for accessing Internet, which can be adapted to a variety of different needs of handicapped as well as elderly people. As part of a field-trial, the internet-based telecooperation environm ent BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Work) was installed to manage the teleworking process for two severely physically disabled teleworke rs. At present, BSCW is adjusted to their special needs based upon dat a gained by structured usability-interviews. As a result, complete acc essibility of BSCW by keyboard will soon be available, since operating a mouse causes many problems for motorically-disabled, blind or visua lly impaired end-users. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.