Siemens AG (headquartered in Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering. The company has roughly 343,000 employees – of which 115,000 or 33% are based in Germany. For almost 170 years, Siemens stands for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. Innovation is Siemens’ most important growth and productivity driver. With over 7,100 employees worldwide, Corporate Technology (CT) plays a key role in R&D at Siemens. In 19 research centers, Corporate Technology works closely with the R&D teams in the Siemens´ Divisions. Corporate Technology is networked to facilitate efficient collaboration between its various sites around the world and with the rest of the Company. Establishing own research centers is combined with an intensive cooperation with top universities.
Siemens participates in this project through the Accessibility Competence Center (ACC) and the User experience Design Group, which are parts of the Siemens division Corporate Technology (CT). The ACC-team has more than 20 years of experience in the design of accessible products, the implementation of the concept of “Design for All” in mainstream products and the efficient usage of assistive technologies. They have many years of experiences in the user-centred design process ensuring at the same time that the user interfaces are accessible (ISO 9241-171) to everyone, also those with reduced abilities. To ensure that the system is usable by the intended target groups, we are following the Human centered design process for interactive systems (ISO 9241-210) and ensure that all relevant stakeholders from older persons, their family and healthcare professionals play an important role in the requirement phase and throughout the project. Therefore we have established a trusty relationship with local, national and european associations of older or disabled persons.
