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The Automated Personalization Computing Project (APCP), funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the U.S. Dept. of Education, will be the first large-scale deployment of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII). The GPII combines cloud computing, web, and platform services to make computers and online information and services available for people facing barriers to accessibility. The project requires development of robust, reliable, scalable and secure client- and cloud-based GPII software. Once the software is ready, pilot implementations will be done in selected American Job Centers and in a setting with youth transitioning from secondary to postsecondary education to employment.

Project Director Gregg Vanderheiden points out: “There are many people who, because of barriers related to disability, literacy, digital literacy or aging, can’t use the technologies they encounter. As a society we are designing the world out from under these people. This project is a rare opportunity to move solutions we have been developing in labs the next big step from research to reality.”

This project will be carried out by the Trace Center and an international team drawn from the Raising the Floor Consortium. It builds on research and development done by the Trace Center and the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University, and extends the demonstration version of GPII developed by the Cloud4all project in Europe.