APSIS4all: Personalisation as a Strategy to Ensure Accessibility and Enhance User Experience of Public Digital Terminals
R. Ignacio Madrid, Christopher Bailey · 2014 · Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference (W4A) · doi:10.1145/2596695.2596727
Summary
This paper presents the APSIS4all project, a European Commission-funded initiative that uses personalisation to make Public Digital Terminals (PDTs) — specifically ATMs and Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) — accessible to people with disabilities, older adults, and those less familiar with technology. The project addresses a persistent gap in public infrastructure: while standards and guidelines for accessible terminals exist, implementation has been inconsistent, and there is no uniform way for users to activate accessibility features across different service providers and terminal types. APSIS4all tackles this by allowing users to create personalised interface profiles through an online wizard. Users select from nine pre-defined user groups (e.g., blind, low-vision) and answer questions about their specific needs and preferences, such as text size, colour schemes, audio output, sign language content, and common transaction shortcuts. These preferences are stored using the EN 1332-4 standard for interoperability across different providers. The system was piloted at scale with over 800 ATMs operated by la Caixa bank in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, and 24 TVMs in Paderborn, Germany. The research involved 300 users in the design phase and 250 users in initial trials, with plans for broader evaluation involving 3,000 users.
Key findings
Initial trials with 250 users demonstrated that personalised terminals significantly improved user experience across all disability groups when compared to traditional terminals. The most dramatic improvements were seen among users with the poorest experience on traditional terminals — particularly those who are blind or have low vision and those with motor disabilities. Crucially, the personalised interfaces also improved UX for users without disabilities, supporting the argument that accessibility-driven personalisation benefits everyone. The activation mechanism was designed to be minimally intrusive: users simply tap their bank card or NFC-enabled phone on a reader, and the terminal automatically adapts. Available personalisation features included text resizing, foreground/background colour changes, audio output, signing avatars for deaf users, contextual help content, and pre-set common transactions. The use of the EN 1332-4 standard for storing preferences ensures that the approach is portable across different terminal manufacturers and service providers.
Relevance
This paper demonstrates a practical, scalable approach to making public-facing technology accessible through user-driven personalisation rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. The concept of portable accessibility profiles — where users define their needs once and have them applied automatically across different devices and services — remains highly relevant to modern accessibility work, from web personalisation to mobile apps and smart city infrastructure. The project also shows the value of designing accessibility solutions that benefit all users, not just those with disabilities. For practitioners, the key takeaway is that personalisation and accessibility are complementary strategies: giving users control over their interface reduces barriers more effectively than static accommodations. The EU-funded, multi-country deployment provides a model for how accessibility innovation can scale across organisations and borders.
Tags: kiosk accessibility · personalization · public digital terminals · ATM accessibility · user experience · assistive technology · NFC · sign language avatar · user profiles · adaptive interfaces
Standards referenced: EN 1332-4