Overview of ASSETS 2018: Celebrating Our 20th Conference
Faustina Hwang, General Chair, University of Reading, UK, f.hwang@reading.ac.ukJoanna McGrenere, Program Chair, University of British Columbia, Canada, joanna@cs.ubc.ca
David R. Flatla, Program Chair, University of Guelph, Canada, dflatla@uoguelph.ca
Anke M. Brock, Treasurer and Registration Chair, ENAC – Université Toulouse, France, anke.brock@enac.fr, www.ankebrock.com
1. Introduction
This year marked the 20th ACM SIGACCESS International Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018) , held October 22-24 in Galway, Ireland. The ASSETS conference is the premier computing research conference exploring the design, evaluation, and use of computing and information technologies to benefit people with disabilities and older adults. We welcomed 165 participants from around the world, including attendees from academia and industry. Over three days of rich technical and social programs, ASSETS continued its tradition of bringing together a community with common interests in innovative research on mainstream and specialized assistive technologies, accessible computing, and assistive applications of computer, network, and information technologies.
SIGACCESS made several awards during this year’s conference. The SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility was made to Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Ms. Brewer gave the keynote presentation at the start of the conference. The Best Paper Award was presented to Sedeeq Al-khazraji, Larwan Berke, Sushant Kafle, Peter Yeung and Matt Huenerfauth for their paper "Modeling the Speed and Timing of American Sign Language to Generate Realistic Animations." The Best Student Paper Award was presented to Cynthia Bennett, Erin Brady and Stacy Branham for their paper "Interdependence as a Frame for Assistive Technology Research and Design."
2. Behind the Scenes
ASSETS planning started approximately two years before the conference, starting with the appointment of the General Chair, Program Chairs, and Treasurer and Registration Chair. The General Chair and Treasurer then worked closely on site selection, while the Program Chairs focused on assembling a program committee and call for papers.
Following the past two conferences in Reno, Nevada, USA (2016) and Baltimore, Maryland, USA (2017), we were keen for ASSETS to return to Europe. This would be the fourth time in ASSETS history that the conference would be held in Europe, following successful meetings in Edinburgh, Scotland (2002), Dundee, Scotland (2011), and Lisbon, Portugal (2015). We looked at multiple sites in Europe, considering a wide range of factors including the likely costs and ease of travel for delegates, the accessibility of the accommodation and meeting rooms, the availability of local support, and the value for money of the meeting packages. Following a systematic and thorough analysis, The Galmont Hotel and Spa in Galway, Ireland was selected as the site for ASSETS 2018.
Our program committee comprised 59 distinguished researchers from around the world. They were crucial in ensuring the excellence and integrity of our technical program, providing careful and constructive reviews and participating in discussions of 108 paper and 72 posters/demo submissions. Eleven secondary reviewers also assisted with reviewing submissions. We thank all who contributed to the reviewing process.
For many years, ASSETS has offered a mentoring program for authors who have not previously published at ASSETS, in the spirit of welcoming and supporting researchers who are new to the community. This year, we received six requests for mentoring, and the prospective authors were paired with an experienced author from the community who advised on what reviewers require in general. We received feedback from authors that the mentoring experience was “positive” and “extremely valuable.” We thank all the mentors who gave their time and advice so generously.
The organisation of ASSETS is a collaborative effort. In inviting the organising committee, we aimed for inclusivity, taking into consideration geographical location, gender balance, and career stage. The 2018 organising committee comprised 29 people from 8 countries, 14 women and 15 men, and a range of experience from early-career researchers through to seasoned researchers. In addition to the organising committee, we had the help of additional volunteers and the ASSETS Steering Committee, all making an invaluable contribution to the success of the conference. Indeed working with such an enthusiastic and dedicated team was one of the great joys of organising this conference! We are tremendously grateful to all our volunteers for all their hard work.
3. Conference Technical Program
The ASSETS 2018 technical program comprised 3 days of oral presentations, posters and presentations, and a panel discussion. On Monday (Day 1), the technical program started with a keynote presentation by Judy Brewer. Following the keynote, there were a series of technical paper sessions organized around Interacting with the Real World, Supporting Speech, and Accessing Information. The poster sessions during the day featured poster papers, along with the Student Research Competition posters.
On Tuesday (Day 2), the program continued with sessions on Considering Design and Data & Privacy. After the technical paper sessions, the program featured a User Experience Panel on the topic of Accessibility for Living, followed by a session that included short talks from the finalists in the ACM Student Research Competition. The poster sessions on this day also included more poster papers, along with posters from our Doctoral Consortium participants and SIGACCESS Travel Scholarship recipients.
On Wednesday (Day 3), the program concluded with a morning of technical presentations featuring recent publications in the TACCESS journal. This was followed by an interactive demo session and then two technical sessions on Advancing Communication and Enhancing Navigation. In the closing session, we presented authors with the Best Paper, Best Student Paper, and Student Research Competition awards. We also introduced Jeff Bigham as General Chair of ASSETS 2019 , who announced that the next ASSETS will be held October 28-30, 2019 in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
3.1. Keynote presentation and SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contribution
We were privileged to have Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), as our keynote speaker for 2018. In the first session of the program, Ms. Brewer was presented with the 2018 SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility, an award that recognizes individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to the development of computing technologies that improve the accessibility of media and services to people with disabilities. This year's award to Judy Brewer was in recognition of her life-long dedication to creating policies and guidelines related to making the world wide web accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. After receiving her award, Ms. Brewer gave her keynote presentation entitled "Exploring Paths to a More Accessible Digital Future."
3.2. Papers, Posters and Demonstrations
This year's technical papers program featured 28 papers selected through peer-review by a distinguished international program committee. We received 108 submissions. The 28 accepted papers (a 26% acceptance rate) spanned a variety of topic areas relevant to computers and accessibility. This included technology by and in support of individuals with diverse motor, cognitive, and sensory abilities. Following on from last year, we included a track within technical papers for short papers, which are for more succinct research contributions. Three of this year’s 28 papers were from the short papers category.
The program also included 42 posters and demonstration, selected from 72 submissions (a 58% acceptance rate). These provided an opportunity for showcasing late-breaking results and demonstrations of authors’ technological innovations. This year, we tried a new format where we had a dedicated, extended timeslot in the Wednesday program for demonstrations, which gave people more time to engage with the hands-on demos.
3.3. Experience Reports and User Experience Panel
The value of accessible and assistive technology is measured ultimately by the experience of people who use it, and the conference program this year included three experience reports which reflected these experiences first-hand. Experience reports must be authored or co-authored by an author from the user population discussed in the report, or by a rehabilitation professional (not involved in the design and development of technology) who can represent clients in the target user population. ASSETS was pleased to be able to support two such authors to attend and co-present at the conference this year.
We were delighted to have the User Experience Panel back on the program, the first time since being introduced at ASSETS 2013 in Bellevue, WA, USA. Three invited panellists with diverse and interesting backgrounds shared their personal experiences and points of view on a range of topics related to accessibility for living.
3.4. Doctoral Consortium, Student Research Competition, and Travel Scholars
ACM SIGACCESS is committed to developing the next generation of researchers in the field of accessible computing. ASSETS 2018 continued a tradition of supporting and showcasing the work of student researchers. On the Sunday before the start of the main conference, we hosted a day-long Doctoral Consortium which brought together eight doctoral researchers to discuss their work with a panel of established researchers. The work of these doctoral researchers features in this edition of the SIGACCESS newsletter. We thank the U.S. National Science Foundation and SIGACCESS for their generous support of the doctoral consortium.
The ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) offers a unique forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research before a panel of judges, and also a chance to meet other students and to get direct feedback on their work from experts. We had a record number of 22 submissions to the ASSETS SRC this year, and eight entries were selected as SRC finalists to attend the conference and give poster presentations on Monday. Three undergraduate and three graduate entries were selected to give oral presentations on Tuesday. We wish our finalists all the best as they go on to compete in the ACM-wide grand finals.
ASSETS was also pleased to welcome four ACM SIGACCESS Travel Scholars. SIGACCESS travel scholarships provide support for practitioners, researchers, members of advocacy groups, and individuals with disabilities who are interested in the field of computers and accessibility to actively participate in the conference.
3.5. TACCESS Presentations
This year, we kept up the practice of inviting authors of papers accepted to the ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS) journal in the 12 months before the conference to present at ASSETS. The opening session on Day 3 included four oral presentations of TACCESS papers, providing an excellent opportunity for the research community to engage further with this recently-published work.
4. Social Program
Early on in the conference, we introduced delegates to the Irish word “craic” referring to fun and entertainment, and over four days in Galway, we did our best to ensure that participants would have great craic. Social events are an important part of the ASSETS tradition, providing opportunities for networking and community-building.
We held a film screening on Sunday evening, an ASSETS first. The film Sanctuary was voted Best Irish Film of 2017 by the readers of the Irish Times, and tells the story of two people with intellectual disabilities who wish to have an intimate relationship at a time when it was illegal in Ireland for people with an intellectual disability to do so. The film stars actors from Galway’s Blue Teapot Theatre Company. We showed the film with captions and audio description for the whole audience, and we are indebted to Director Len Collin for his dedication and assistance in making our screening accessible. The event, complete with popcorn and ice cream, was a big hit with attendees, with one filmgoer commenting "Wonderful film ... an inspired evening event."
On Monday evening, we concluded the first full day of the conference with a prosecco reception and a sit-down dinner at the conference hotel, featuring some of the best ingredients that the West of Ireland has to offer. Shari Trewin, Chair of SIGACCESS and long-time supporter of the conference shared her reflections on ASSETS over the years, in celebration of it being the 20th edition of the conference.
On Tuesday evening, we had a reception at Tribeton, a local restaurant and bar, and this was a lively evening of drinks, finger food, and traditional Irish music featuring ASSETS organising committee members Dónal Fitzpatrick, Emma Murphy, and Ian Pitt, along with a surprise performance from Jonathan Lazar.
5. Closing remarks
The success of a conference can be measured by the experience of the participants. We close this article with quotes from attendees:
ASSETS'18 is my first experience with this group and it has been flat out exhausting and fantastic in all of the right ways.
Thanks for the wonderful conference, absolutely amazing experience for a 1st timer at ASSETS.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Galway and meeting up with old friends and seeing how the younger guys are coming along.
It's been a while since I've been to an ASSETS, but I see I've been missing out ... social events were brilliant. Roll on next year!
Had wonderful experience at my first #assets2018. Looking forward to seeing all again next year in Pittsburgh!
I had a wonderful time at ASSETS this year and also enjoyed exploring Galway and the area.
Thank you for an inspiring conference with many thoughts and discussions to bring home!
Acknowledgments
ASSETS is only possible thanks to the contributions of many people and organisations. We would like to thank all authors who submitted their research to the conference, which has enabled us to assemble an excellent program of high-quality research. We are grateful to the program committee who worked very hard together in reviewing papers and providing feedback for authors. We also thank the other members of the organizing committee for all they have done: Proceedings Chair Kristen Shinohara, Posters and Demonstrations Chairs Tiago Guerreiro, Graham Wilson, and Tim Neate, Doctoral Consortium Chairs Shiri Azenkot and Keith Vertanen, Experience Reports Chair Annalu Waller, User Experience Panel Chairs Dónal Fitzpatrick and Emma Murphy, Student Research Competition Chairs Hernisa Kacorri and Kotaro Hara, Mentoring Chair Clayton Lewis, Publicity Chair Abi Roper, Web Chair Lourdes M. Morales-Villaverde, Graphic Design Chairs Jeanne-Louise Moys, Charles Parish, Emma Chard and Jess Downie, Sponsorship Chair Yeliz Yesilada, Accessibility Chairs Kyle Montague, Raja Kushalnagar and Larwan Berke, Local Arrangements Chair Ian Pitt, and Best Papers Committee Chair Simon Harper. We thank Shari Trewin, Matt Huenerfauth, Jinjuan Heidi Feng, Yeliz Yesilada, and Amy Hurst of the ASSETS Steering Committee and Irene Frawley from the ACM for their invaluable support and guidance throughout the planning of ASSETS'18.Sponsors and Partners
We are very grateful to our sponsors and partners, whose generous contributions helped support many aspects of the conference including travel scholarships targeted at students with disabilities, a doctoral consortium for aspiring PhD researchers, and accessibility support for the conference such as sign language interpreters.
Sponsors
Doctoral Consortium
Student Research Competition
Gold Partners
Silver Partners
Bronze Partners
About the Author
Faustina Hwang is Associate Professor of Digital Health at the University of Reading, UK. Her accessibility research involves the design, development, and deployment of technology for older adults, people with disabilities, and patient groups. She received her PhD from the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge where her research focused on cursor control by people with motor impairment. She is Associate Editor for the ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS).
Joanna McGrenere is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. Her current accessibility research focusses on older adults, and in the past she has designed interactive technologies for people with aphasia. Joanna received a PhD from the University of Toronto. She served as the Papers Co-Chair for CHI 2015, is serving as the Technical Program Co-Chair for CHI 2020, and is a member of the editorial boards for ACM Transactions on Computer-Human-Interaction (ToCHI) and ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS).
David R. Flatla is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Guelph, Canada, and an Honorary Lecturer in Computing at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He received his PhD from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. His accessibility research is focussed on personalized modelling and simulations of impaired colour vision (ICV), as well as developing new techniques for improving colour identification for people with ICV.
Anke Brock is Assistant Professor in Human-Computer Interaction at ENAC (National School of Civil Aviation) in Toulouse, France, and an associate researcher of Inria and LaBRI at University Bordeaux. She received her PhD in Computer Science from University of Toulouse. Her accessibility research focuses mainly on the design, development and evaluation of interactive tools for supporting orientation and mobility of visually impaired people.