Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

Abstract

ASSETS 2004 is the sixth in ACM's series of conferences sponsored by the SIG formerly known as SIGCAPH, now known as SIGACCESS. ASSETS 2004 focuses on computer-based system design and its application to the special needs of persons of all ages, and especially those with disabilities. The conference's scope spans special needs associated with speech, motor, hearing, and vision impairments; cognitive limitations; emotional and learning disabilities; and aging. Researchers, developers, and students from academia, industry, government, and the private sector are meeting to exchange ideas and present reports on new advances relevant to all areas related to achieving accessible information technologies. The conference is opened with the plenary address delivered by Dr. Betsy A. Zaborowski, Executive Director of the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute. Her talk is titled, Beyond tagging: the Organized Blind, Your Best Ally in a Proactive Paradigm. The Technical Program Chair, Andrew Sears, served as editor of this proceedings volume, which is composed of 25 technical papers, representing the efforts of 90 different authors from Austria, Canada, Chile, England, Germany, Japan, and the USA. The papers are organized into sessions on topics including auditory interactions, evaluating accessibility, infrastructure and supporting tools, cursor control, visual impairments, design, and web accessibility. The papers were subjected to a competitive peer review process, thus the papers that comprise this conference proceedings truly represent the state-of-the-art in this field. Particularly noteworthy for ASSETS 2004 is the Doctoral Consortium, Chaired by Enrico Pontelli and funded by the National Science Foundation, which is a newly formalized venue that provides an opportunity for doctoral students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of distinguished experts in the field. The Consortium's objective is to provide doctoral students with a friendly and open forum to present their research ideas, listen to ongoing work from peer students, and receive constructive feedback. Doctoral students also participate in the ASSETS 2004 poster presentations. A unique feature of ASSETS 2004 is the closing plenary address, which is delivered by the winner of the Best Doctoral Candidate Award, the recipient of which is announced at the conference.