Bridging the Digital Divide with Universal Usability

Abstract

How do you explain a trashcan to a culture that doesn't have one? How do you describe a "stop loss limit order" to retirees managing their funds? Can you design a text-only interface that conveys the contents and experience of an animated Flash presentation?

These puzzles emerged during the first ACM Conference on Universal Usability (http://www.acm.org/sigchi/cuu/), held on November 15-17, 2000 near Washington, DC. The international group of organizers, presenters, and attendees of this conference shared an unusual commitment and passion for making information and communications services accessible, usable, and useful. They want to see effective healthcare services and appealing distance education. They want to create successful e-commerce and accessible government services for all. Realizing these possibilities requires more than low-cost hardware or broadband networks. These mass-market services are often too complex, unusable, or irrelevant for too many users [1]; usability and design become the keys to success. (UMIACS-TR-2001-83) (HCIL-TR-2001-01)