User modelling and social intelligence

There is a growing body of evidence that key components of human cognition can be used to identify important aspects of accessibility design for universal access in the information society, through user modelling. However, there is an equal growth in an appreciation of the contexts within which any interactive system must function, including the vocational and social contexts. If so, there is an important need is to extend cognitive user models to respond to and make predictions about the vocational and social contexts that make up the information society. Whilst many aspects of social intelligence can, it seems, be subsumed under current cognitive architectures of the user, there is the practical danger that the contribution of social intelligence may be underestimated when considered as a subset of the knowledge domains or skills sets of human cognition. To counter this practical development problem, the concept of the social intelligence interface is introduced as a developmental construct to inform the inclusive design process.