Background

The International Scientific Forum "Towards an Information Society for All" was launched in 1997, as an international ad hoc group of experts sharing common visions and objectives, namely the advancement of the principles of Universal Access in the emerging Information Society. The Forum held three workshops to establish interdisciplinary discussion, exchange of knowledge, dissemination, and international co-operation. The 1st workshop took place in San Francisco, USA , August 29, 1997, and was sponsored by IBM . The 2nd took place in Crete, Greece, June 15-16, 1998. The 3rd workshop took place in Munich, Germany, August 22-23, 1999. The latter two events were partially funded by the European Commission. The Forum has produced two White Papers [1,2], while a third one is in preparation. These papers report on an evolving international R&D agenda focusing on the development of an Information Society acceptable to all citizens, based on the principle of designing for all . The proposed agenda addresses technological and user-oriented issues, application domains, and support measures. The Forum has also elaborated on the proposed agenda by identifying challenges in the field of human-computer interaction, and clusters of concrete recommendations for international collaborative R&D activities. Moreover, the Forum has addressed the concept of accessibility beyond the traditional fields of inquiry (e.g., assistive technologies, housing, etc), in the context of selected mainstream Information Society Technologies, and important application domains with significant impact on society as a whole (e.g., Health Telematics).