authors: J. Gonçalves, J. Millan, G. Pirelli

The access to the Information Society should be done irrespectively of factors, such as, gender, age or previous computer literacy. In particular, the Infor mation Society should count on the participation of all citizens and benefit an important sector of the population such as the elderly and disabled (more than 25% of the population in 2020). This requires a major design effort to have efficient interfaces, which are intuitive, easy-to-learn and requiring no technical background whatsoever.
In recent years, ISIS funded a few exploratory research projects aiming at developing alternative human-computer interfaces for the improved access of the elderly and disabled to the Information Society. These internal activities led recently to two European projects: VOICE and Adaptive Brain Interfaces (ABI).
The first project addresses the communication problems of deaf people and proposes the use of Voice to Text Conversion technologies in applications such as automated subtitling or telephone for the deaf.
The second project explores the use of EEG signals as a way to interface a computer. Two applications are in mind: a communicating media for quadriplegic people and a way of assessing the degree of conscious awareness for humans involved in the operation of safety critical systems.

• Giving a VOICE to the deaf
  by developing awareness on voice to-text