Established during the academic year 1988-1989, the Laboratory initially had as its primary objective to carry out research and development work in the assistive technologies field, aiming to address the needs of various disability groups by adopting a user-centered design process which entailed the active participation of representative users. The start-up of the Laboratory's activities was characterized by the undertaking and execution of a series of competitive R&D projects funded by the European Commission, which produced significant and impactful results that received international recognition.
This research activity evolved overtime to address the principles of Design for All and Universal Access, which the Head of the Laboratory introduced in the international literature in the early 1990s, ultimately aiming towards advancements for an inclusive information society.
Research activities of the Laboratory in this direction have thus gradually evolved to include: (a) the creation of innovative frameworks, methodologies, techniques and tools that support the development cycle of interactive applications and services through intelligent adaptive interfaces that take into account the needs, requirements and preferences of different user groups, in varying contexts of use, and using diverse technological platforms (e.g. personal computers, mobile, wearable and smart devices, devices embedded in the environment), (b) the design and development of interaction techniques and assistive technologies for specific user groups with disabilities, (c) the development of universally accessible applications and services in various areas of daily life, (d) the development of universally accessible Ambient Intelligence and Extended Reality environments, and (e) accessibility evaluations and audits by experts, as well as accessibility and usability studies with end users.
The usability and accessibility evaluation activities progressed to become a horizontal Laboratory activity, catering not only for the internal needs of technologies developed in-house, but also for the requests of outside third parties for consultancy services. In this context, international (ISO) standards and best practices for usability evaluation and user experience evaluation are followed, along with the guidelines and (de facto) standards of the World Wide Web Consortium - Web Accessibility Initiative for accessibility evaluation (in accordance with the requirements of the Greek and the European legislation, as well as of the United Nations Convention.