Call for participation

The Eighth International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility - ASSETS 2006

Embassy Suites – Downtown, Portland, Oregon

23^rd-25^th October, 2006

URL: http://www.acm.org/sigaccess/assets06/

Introduction

Computer and Information Technologies have redesigned the way modern society operates. In particular, they have identified new avenues to assist individuals with special needs and provided tools and resources to alleviate the traditional barriers encountered by persons with disabilities. For example, speech generation systems have assisted persons with visual disabilities, voice recognition has helped people with motor impairments, multi-modal presentations have been shown to be effective in helping people with learning disabilities understand information.

The ASSETS conference program covers a multitude of topics relevant to assistive technologies and universal accessibility and is structured around technical papers, poster sessions, demonstrations, the doctoral consortium, and the conference reception. A new addition for this year is the SIGACCESS student research competition. This is an exciting opportunity for students to receive subsidised attendance at the conference.

Note: New for this year, American Sign Language interpreters will be provided upon request for all ASSETS technical sessions and events. Requests for an interpreter must be indicated on the conference registration form when registering for ASSETS 2006.

About the call

The ASSETS series of conferences is aimed at providing a technical forum for presenting and disseminating innovative research results that cover either:

1. applications of computing and information technologies to provide assistive systems to persons with disabilities; or,
2. investigation of computing technologies and their use by persons with disabilities.

The ASSETS conferences (to be held this year at the Embassy Suites - Downtown, Portland, Oregon, USA) have been developed with the specific focus of facilitating the sharing of information and exchange of ideas through formal paper sessions, demonstrations, posters, and informal/social events. To this purpose, ASSETS is a single-track conference to encourage group participation and interactions.

Topics

ASSETS is the principal forum for discussions and information exchange between researchers, clinicians, and educators; including rehabilitation personnel who administer assistive technologies; and policy makers concerned with equitable access to information technologies for people with disabilities. As such we solicit high quality original work that addresses the issues associated with computing/information technology in relation to:

• Hearing, sight and other sensory impairments;
• Motor impairments;
• Memory, learning and cognitive disabilities; and,
• Ageing.

Preference will be given to papers with experimental results, but strong papers presenting new theoretical insights or positions will also be given consideration. Topics should focus on (but are not necessarily limited to) the design, development, evaluation and scientific investigation of technologies to support these individuals as well as practising professionals including:

• User Evaluation, Experience and Studies;
• System Papers for Assistive Devices and Technologies;
• Social Issues;
• Best Practice;
• Education and Outreach;
• Web / Interface Accessibility;
• Access to Technology;
• Access to the Real and Built Environment (Pervasive and Ubiquitous Systems);
• Multi-Modal Interaction;
• Theoretical / Position Papers;
• System Demonstrations; and
• Poster Submissions.

Submission categories

Technical papers

The deadline for submitting technical papers was 2^nd June, 2006.

Posters and demonstrations

The Conference will also offer a session dedicated to poster presentations and demonstrations of research products and tools. Posters and demonstration proposals (i.e. extended abstracts) are limited in length to 2 pages. Extended abstracts will be reviewed, and accepted extended abstracts will be included in the conference proceedings. The deadline for submissions is 14^th July, 2006.

Doctoral Consortium

ASSETS 2006 invites doctoral students to apply for the Doctoral Consortium. The consortium provides a great opportunity to doctoral students to share and discuss their research with other students and a panel of established researchers. The consortium has the following objectives:

• Provide a forum for students to present their current research and receive feedback;
• Promote contacts among doctoral students working in similar areas; and,
• Support students with information and advice on their research.

The Consortium will be held on Sunday 22 October 2006 in Portland, Oregon. Approximately 10 students and four faculty members will be invited to attend and discuss each student's work in turn. Students will present their work during a poster session dedicated to the work of the Doctoral Consortium participants that will take place during the main conference.

Please note: the purpose of the Doctoral Consortium is to provide feedback to Doctoral candidates at an early stage of their research, to help guide and shape their research program. Student work that is complete, or near to completion, should be submitted as either a technical paper or poster.

Students submitting papers for the Doctoral Consortium may submit a different (and more complete) piece of work for the Student Research Competition, but may not submit the same work to both the Doctoral Consortium and the Student Research Competition.

Student Research Competition

New for this year is the SIGACCESS student research competition. This is an exciting opportunity for students to participate in an ACM conference and get visibility for their research.

Students wishing to participate should submit abstracts of their work, and up to 25 entrants will be selected for the competition. Qualifying research must deal with issues related to computing and information technology to help persons with disabilities. Selected students will receive partial support from ACM to attend the conference. At the conference, entrants will display a poster and make a brief presentation to a panel of judges. A small number of semi-finalists will be chosen by the judges to present their work in a conference session, and of those up to three undergraduate and three graduate students will be designated finalists by the judges, and entered in the Grand Finals of ACM's Student Research Competition.

To be eligible to enter this competition, entrants must be undergraduate or graduate students, and members of ACM. Entrants must be sole authors of their abstracts and posters. Work accepted as a full paper for one of the technical sessions of the conference cannot also be considered for the Student Research Competition. Students having a technical paper, however, are encouraged to submit other research to the Student Research Competition.

Please note that the judges will look more favourably on complete, or nearly complete, work than research which is still in its early formative stages. Students at, or near, the outset of their work in this area are encouraged to submit to the Doctoral Consortium instead.

Student funding

The Doctoral Consortium is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Conference registration and basic travel expenses including airfare, hotel, and some meals will be covered for all students accepted to the Consortium. The ASSETS 2006 conference organizers express their deepest appreciation to the National Science Foundation for its support.

The Student Research Competition is supported by ACM and Microsoft. Bursaries of up to $500 are available to reimburse travel and other expenses (but not conference registration).