The January 2013 edition of the SIGACCESS Newsletter is now available online from the SIGACCESS Newsletter pages.

Labels: Newsletter, January 2013

SIGACCESS is sponsoring a 2 day workshop on eAccessibility under the auspices of the ACM European Computing Research Congress. The workshop will consider what progress has been made towards the eAccessibility aspirations in Europe and propose ways in which European stakeholders can push the digital agenda for eAccessibility further forward.

For More Information Please Click Here

Deadline: June 20th, 2013.

For More Information Please Click Here

Call for Nominations

Important Dates:

• Submission of Nominations: July. 15th, 2012
• Notification of Selection: Aug. 6th, 2012

Award Description:

The SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility recognises individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to the development of computing technologies which improve the accessibility of media and services to people with disabilities. Outstanding contributions through research, practice, or advocacy are recognised. Towards this goal, contributions are considered from academia, industry, as well as other professions that focus on computer users with disabilities and the application of computing technology to improve access. The award recognises members of the community for long-term accomplishments or those who have made a notable impact through a significant innovation.

Candidates' contributions can include innovative ideas, influence in the community, and/or the social impact of their work.

The award includes a $1000 honorarium, an award certificate of recognition, and an invitation for the recipient to present a keynote talk at the ASSETS Conference. A public citation for the award will be placed on the SIGACCESS website.

Selection Committee:

• Julio Abascal, University of the Basque Country, Spain
• Bruce Walker, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
• Gerhard Weber (Chair), TU Dresden, Germany

For nomination procedure and rules please see Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility.

Many congratulations to Timothy Walsh of the University of Delaware. His undergraduate research project 'Utterance-based systems: organization and design of AAC interfaces' won third place in the Grand Finals of the ACM Student Research Competition for 2010-2011.

Timothy's project was the second place winner in the undergraduate category at ASSETS 2010. Details of the other winning ASSETS 2010 entries are on the SIGACCESS web site.

Timothy joins a growing list of ASSETS Student Research Competition winners who have gone on to place at the Grand Finals:

• 2009: 1st place Graduate: Xu Liu (University of Maryland) 'Mobile Currency Reader for People with Visual Impairments'
• 2007: 1st Place Graduate: Eugene Borodin (Stony Brook University) 'HearSay: Context-directed Non-visual Web Browser'

This reflects very well on the quality of entries we get at the conference. We look forward to seeing more outstanding entries in Dundee at ASSETS 2011. See the ASSETS web site for information on how to enter this year's competition (deadline July 1, 2011).

This year's ACM Grand Finals winners.

The 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, 24-26 October 2011, Dundee, UK.

People with disabilities can use Computer and Information Technologies to overcome barriers encountered in day-to-day life, and to participate more fully in society.

The ASSETS series of conferences explores the potential of Computer and Information Technologies to support and include individuals with disabilities, and those around them. ASSETS is the premier forum for presenting innovative research on the design and use of both mainstream and specialized assistive technologies by people with disabilities. Sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and its SIGACCESS Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing, ASSETS includes formal paper sessions, demonstrations, posters, a doctoral consortium, and a student research competition. The single track and friendly atmosphere make ASSETS the ideal venue to meet researchers, practitioners, developers and policymakers to exchange ideas, share information, and make new contacts.

Topics

High quality, original submissions on topics relevant to computers and accessibility are invited. Appropriate topics include (but are not limited to) the use of technology by and in support of:

• Individuals with hearing, sight and other sensory impairments
• Individuals with motor impairments
• Individuals with memory, learning and cognitive impairments
• Individuals with multiple impairments
• Older adults

Successful submissions typically present (though submissions from other related areas are encouraged) novel ideas, designs, techniques, systems, evaluations, scientific investigations, methodologies, social issues or policy issues relating to:

• Assistive technologies that improve day-to-day life
• Assistive technologies that improve access to mainstream Computer and Information Technologies
• Innovative use of mainstream technologies to overcome access barriers
• Accessibility and usability of mainstream technologies
• Identification of barriers to technology access that are not addressed by existing research

Where relevant, work that includes empirical data from the target user groups is strongly preferred. ASSETS strives to publish research that carefully addresses the issues involved when individuals with disabilities interact with information technologies. In general, this means that empirical studies should include participants that are representative of the intended users of the system being studied. This does not mean that all participants must be representative of the intended users, but it does mean that some individuals fitting this description should be included in an appropriate way in the data collection process. In some cases, articles may be accepted for publication if representative users are not included in studies, but only if a sufficiently compelling argument is presented as to why it is appropriate or necessary to use non-representative users and any implications of this decision are adequately addressed. Authors should refer to the General Writing Guidelines for Technology and People with Disabilities when preparing submissions.

Submission Procedures

ASSETS accepts submissions in the following categories:

• Technical papers
• Posters and demonstrations
• Doctoral consortium
• Student research competition

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by an international panel. Submissions MUST contain substantial original, unpublished material. Please refer to the ACM policy on plagiarism for guidance.

Important Dates

Requesting mentors:

4 March 2011, Friday

Paper submission:

6 May 2011, Friday

Notification of acceptance:

17 June 2011, Friday

Posters and demos submission:

1 July 2011, Friday

Doctoral consortium submission:

1 July 2011, Friday

Student research competition submission:

1 July 2011, Friday

Notification of posters and demos acceptance:

27 July 2011, Wednesday

Notification of doctoral consortium acceptance:

27 July 2011, Wednesday

Notification of student research competition acceptance:

27 July 2011, Wednesday

Camera-ready materials:

15 August 2011, Monday

All deadlines are at midnight HAST (GMT-10:00) on the specified day.

Labels: ASSETS, Call For Papers, Conferences

The January 2011 edition of the SIGACCESS Newsletter is now available online from the SIGACCESS Newsletter pages.

Labels: Newsletter, January 2011

The September 2010 edition of the SIGACCESS Newsletter is now available online from the SIGACCESS Newsletter pages.

Labels: Newsletter, September 2010

Volume 3, Issue 2 of ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing is now available in the ACM Digital Library.

Table of Contents

1. Guest Editorial ASSETS 2009
   Kathleen F. McCoy
2. Exploratory Analysis of Collaborative Web Accessibility Improvement
   Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Masatomo Kobayashi, Shinya Kawanaka, and Chieko Asakawa
3. Orienting Kinesthetically: A Haptic Handheld Wayfinder for People with Visual Impairments
   Tomohiro Amemiya and Hisashi Sugiyama
4. Usability of a Multimodal Video Game to Improve Navigation Skills for Blind Children
   Jaime Sánchez, Mauricio Saenz, and Jose Miguel Garrido
5. Multimodal Presentation of Two-Dimensional Charts: An Investigation Using Open Office XML and Microsoft Excel
   Iyad Abu Doush, Enrico Pontelli, Tran Cao Son, Dominic Simon, and Ou Ma

Labels: TACCESS