DEADLINE extended to: 30 APRIL 2010

We are pleased to request nominations for the ACM SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility. The award recognizes 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 will be recognized. Towards this goal, contributions will be 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 will recognize 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 2010 Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA (25-27 October 2010). A public citation for the award will be placed on the SIGACCESS website.

Nomination Procedure

A nomination for the award should include:

1. A statement summarizing the candidate's accomplishments, description of the significance of the work, and justification of the nomination (two pages maximum)
2. Curriculum vitae of the nominee;
3. Three endorsement letters supporting the nomination including the significant contributions of the candidate. Each endorsement should be no more than 300 words;
4. A concise statement (one sentence) of the achievement(s) for which the award is being given. This statement will appear on the award certificate and on the website.

Nominations should be sent either:

Electronically:

Gerhard Weber gerhard.weber -AT- tu-dresden.de

Hardcopy:

Gerhard Weber,

ACM SIGACCESS Award Chair
Department of Computer Science
TU Dresden
Noethnizer Str. 46
01602 Dresden,
Germany

We kindly request that nominations meet the following conditions:

1. The nominee can be any member of the scientific community.
2. The nominator must be a SIGACCESS member.
3. No self-nomination is allowed.
4. Current members of the SIGACCESS Executive Committee as well as members of the Awards Committee are not eligible.

Important Dates

Submission of Nominations:

30th April 2010

Notification of Selection:

1st June 2010

Selection Committee

Julio Abascal

University of the Basque Country, Spain

Enrico Pontelli

New Mexico State University, USA

Gerhard Weber (Chair)

TU Dresden, Germany

Labels: Awards, Outstanding Achievement, SIGACCESS

Volume 2, Issue 3 of ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing is now available. This issue includes two articles. The first explores the design of auditory graphs while the second addresses computer use by children with Down Syndrome and is now available in the ACM Digital Library.

Table of Contents

1. Universal Design of Auditory Graphs: A Comparison of Sonification Mappings for Visually Impaired and Sighted Listeners
   B. N. Walker and L. M. Mauney
2. Computer Usage by Children with Down Syndrome: Challenges and Future Research
   Jinjuan Feng, Jonathan Lazar, Libby Kumin and Ant Ozok

Labels: TACCESS

Google is excited to announce the most recent addition to their scholarship programs in Europe, the Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities. This scholarship is designed for students with disabilities studying Computer Science or Computer Engineering who have shown academic strength and demonstrated a passion for computer science.

Deadline:

15th March 2010

Website:

http://www.google.com/studentswithdisabilities-europe/

Labels: Google Scholarship

We are looking for experienced authors to help us with mentoring individuals new to the ASSETS conference. If you have published in ASSETS or similar venues, we encourage you to volunteer to be a mentor. If you are interested, please email the Mentor Chair (mc-assets10@acm.org) with your name, affiliation, and up to 4 keywords that represent your research areas by March 7th, 2010.

Mentoring Request

Help with submissions by seasoned researchers is available through the ASSETS Mentoring Program. You may receive advice on your submission in any of the submission categories provided by ASSETS. Although we do not guarantee that your submission will be accepted by ASSETS, most individuals who have used the mentoring service at ASSETS or at the CHI conference where it began have reported positive experiences and an improved understanding of what is required by reviewers.

If you think you would benefit from mentoring either because you are new to presenting your research, new to the type of category you are interested in submitting to or simply find that preparing English language papers foreign to your paper writing experience, please consider applying for mentoring help by emailing the Mentor Chair (mc-assets10@acm.org) a 1 page extended abstract of your paper. The deadline for mentoring request is March 5th, 2010. A mentor will be assigned to you shortly. You will then need to send your submission to the mentor assigned to you and work with this person through email, voice over IP, etc.

Deadline to request a Mentor:

March 5th, 2010

Deadline to volunteer as a Mentor:

March 7th, 2010

Website:

http://www.sigaccess.org/assets10/mentor.html

Labels: ASSETS, Mentoring