ABSTRACT
For over 20 years, research advances on modalities and multimodality in human-computer interaction have had a major benefi cial eff ect on the implementation of universal access in the coming information society. Increase in the range of available modalities and styles of multimodal interaction makes it possible to compensate for a growing diversity of physical disabilities, and thus to provide a larger community of disabled users with easy computer access and appropriate facilities for browsing and processing digital information. Research on the implementation of emerging concepts subsumed by the coined phrase ambient intelligence and the concomitant development of new contexts of use, such as user mobility, provide new opportunities for further developing the implementation of universal access, and for signifi cantly extending the actual population of physically disabled people who will benefi t from improved access to digital information.
