W4A - Final Call for Papers

                    *FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS*

                           W4A 2004
   International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility
----------------------------------------------------------------------
      at the Thirteenth International World Wide Web Conference
                New York Sheraton, 18th May 2004,
                           New York, NY.

                      http://w4a.man.ac.uk

Keynotes
--------
Vicki L Hanson - Manager, Accessibility Research, IBM.
How Much Can Designers Determine the User Experience?

Bob Regan - Senior Product Manager, Macromedia.
Accessibility and Design: A Failure of the Imagination.

Invited Speaker
---------------
Judy Brewer -  Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), W3C.

Publication
-----------
The workshop proceedings will be published as 'The Proceedings of the
ACM W4A International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility
2004', part of the ACM International Conference Proceedings Series.
Extended abstracts of each full paper will also be published in
'ACM SIGCAPH Computers and the Physically Handicapped'.

Selected papers will be invited to submit a revised version for
consideration for a special issue of the The New Review of Hypermedia
and Multimedia focusing on Accessible Hypermedia and Multimedia.
These papers will go through an additional reviewing process to ensure
quality and accepted papers will be published in the special issue,
scheduled for the second half of 2004. See the NRHM website for
general background: http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/~NRHM

Sponsors
--------
ACM SIGCAPH
IBM Research
Macromedia Inc.

Topics and Content
------------------
We invite submissions for W4A 2004 addressing our current theme of
‘Accessible Layout - The Tension Between Accessibility and Visual
Design’.

Layout and structure are key to good visual design. They are the conduit

for both the content and the graphics. They are also very important for
disabled (e.g. dyslexic users) people and specifically visually
impaired users, as they need to be quickly and easily interacted with.
This workshop aims to address layout, structure, and presentation from
the viewpoint of accessibility and good visual design; where these are
in opposition, the workshop aims to facilitate discussion between
interested parties so that a solution (or at least the beginners of a
solution) can be formulated. The workshop organizers support inclusive
design or one design for all however how can this be the case if users
have differing needs? The organizers also assert that no one should be
hindered when interacting with layout. Will making layout accessible
hinder sighted or ‘conventional’ users?

Topics of interests include (but are not limited to):
- Technological advances to support web accessibility.
- End user tools for accessibility.
- Design methodologies for web accessibility.
- Accessibility evaluation techniques and tools.
- Accessibility evaluation guidelines.
- Adaptive applications and graphics.
- Tools and techniques enabling authors to create accessible layout /
content.
- Psychology of end user experiences and scenarios.
- Innovative scripting/markup languages that support web accessibility.
- Universally accessible graphical design approaches.
- Graphical transcoding techniques.
- Accessible graphic formats and tools for their creation.

W4A addresses the fourth dimension of the web; accessibility from a
cross-disciplinary perspective. Conventional workshops on accessibility
tend to be single disciplinary in nature. However, we are concerned that

this focus on a single participant group prevents the cross-pollination
of ideas, needs, and technologies from other related but separate
fields. This workshop will be decidedly cross disciplinary and will
bring together users, accessibility experts, graphic designers, and
technologists from academia and industry to discuss how accessibility
can be supported. We also encourage the participation of users and other

interested parties as an additional balance to the discussion. Our aim
is to focus on accessibility by encouraging participation from many
disciplines. Views will bridge academia, commerce, and industry and we
hope that arguments encompassing a range of beliefs across the
design-accessibility spectrum will be presented.

Submission and Important Dates
-------------------------------
We will accept both position and technical papers. Position papers
should only be in short paper format whereas technical papers can be in
short or long paper format. Accepted papers will appear in the workshop
proceedings contained on the workshop CD, and will also be accessible to

the general public via the workshop website. The official language of
the workshop is English. The following style files must be used for
submissions:
In case of PDF submission:
LaTeX:
http://www.www2004.org/www2004-submission.cls
http://www.www2004.org/www2004-sample.tex
http://www.www2004.org/www2004-sample.pdf
Notes for LaTeX users:
Ensure your submission is formatted for Letter paper.
All authors should be listed on the front page.

Microsoft Word:
http://www.www2004.org/www2004-submission.doc

In case of XHTML submission:
http://www.www2004.org/www2004-submission.htm

These are modified versions of the ACM proceedings style files. More
information on the style files can be found at:
http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html. Accepted papers will

be asked to submit accessible XHTML versions.

We encourage authors to submit concise technical papers with up to 8
pages; however, papers with up to 10 pages may be submitted. Short
papers and position papers should not exceed 4 pages. Please submit
documents to Simon Harper (simon.harper@man.ac.uk).

        *Submissions due:                   05nd April 2004
        *Notification for acceptance:       19th April 2004
        *Camera ready due:                  26th April 2004
        *Workshop date:                     18th May 2004

Workshop Chairs
---------------
Simon Harper, University of Manchester, UK (simon.harper@man.ac.uk)
Yeliz Yesilada, University of Manchester, UK (yesilady@cs.man.ac.uk)
Carole Goble, University of Manchester, UK (carole@cs.man.ac.uk)

Program Committee
-----------------
Chieko Asakawa (IBM, Japan)
Helen Ashman (University of Nottingham, UK)
Tiziana Catarci (University of Roma "La Sapienza", Italy)
David Duce (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Alistair Edwards (University of York, UK)
Alfred S. Gilman (Trace Center, USA)
Joachim Klaus (Universität Karlsruhe, Germany)
Marja-Ritta Koivunen (W3C)
David Lowe (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)
Gustavo H. Rossi (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina)
Constantine Stephanidis (ICS-FORTH, Greece)
Robert Stevens (University of Manchester, UK)
Jim Thatcher (jimthatcher.com, USA)
Jutta Treviranus (University of Toronto, Canada)

Received on Thursday, 25 March 2004 05:21:56 UTC