First Call for Participation - Web4All 2022

First Call for Participation

The 19th International Web for All Conference
April 25 & 26, 2022
Virtual

W4A<https://www.w4a.info/2022/?page_id=243> is the premier venue for web accessibility research and it is co-located with The ACM Web Conference (TheWebConf’22)<https://www2022.thewebconf.org/>, 31st of the International World Wide Web Conference series. The conference focuses on all aspects of web accessibility. Areas of general interest include, but are not limited to: age, cognition, culture, education, emotions, dexterity, disability, diversity, health, hearing, income, infrastructure, language, learning, literacy, mobility, situation, society, and vision.

Accessibility in a Hybrid World

The global Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the world, marking a shift towards remote, web-based services and communication. This shift introduced a new way of doing things where physical presence is no longer a requirement for collaboration – millions of people successfully worked and studied from home, telehealth appointments became a common part of medicine, research conferences involving thousands of participants were held online, and many businesses adapted to offering their services in a remote mode. Some of these changes are here to stay, with many workplaces, education programs, conferences, and businesses offering a hybrid format going forward, where part of the interaction happens in the physical world and another part happens virtually. Yet, there is very little research on the implications that this hybrid format has for accessibility and inclusivity. What are the needs of people with disabilities in a hybrid workforce? How can we ensure that hybrid education is inclusive? What are the accessibility requirements for hybrid healthcare? Can advances in accessibility research be harnessed to improve hybrid collaboration for everyone?

  *   We particularly welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
  *   Accessibility requirements for hybrid communication and collaboration
  *   Accessibility solutions for hybrid communication and collaboration
  *   Evaluating the accessibility and inclusivity of hybrid communication and collaboration systems
  *   Inclusive hybrid workplaces, classrooms, health services, and conferencing tools
  *   Implications of the shift towards hybrid interaction for the development of inclusive urban environments
  *   Implications of hybrid interaction for the mental health of people with disabilities
  *   Adjustments for older adults
  *   Implications of hybrid interaction for eliminating or perpetuating bias and inequality
  *   Barriers and benefits of hybrid communication and collaboration
  *   Education and training for inclusive hybrid communication and collaboration

Like every year, don’t be deterred by the theme; all topics related to web accessibility are welcome as are papers dealing with wider aspects of digital accessibility and universal access.

Keynotes

We are proud to announce three keynote talks:

The story behind Dytective: How We Brought Research Results on Dyslexia and Accessibility to Spanish Public Schools
Luz Rello (Change Dyslexia; IE University)

In this talk Luz Rello will present the research – and the entrepreneurial journey – behind Dytective conducted at Carnegie Mellon University and licensed to the social company, Change Dyslexia. Dytective is a tool that combines machine learning and computer games to detect risk of dyslexia and ameliorate the symptoms of dyslexia through personalized exercises. It has been used over 325,000 times in the Spanish speaking countries, becoming the most used dyslexia screener online. Recently, this platform has been adopted over 400 Spanish public schools in collaboration Regional Governments.

Out with Accessibility – In with Inclusive Design
Robin Christopherson (AbilityNet)

Globally recognised as a leading expert on accessibility and digital inclusion and himself blind, Robin Christopherson of leading UK tech charity AbilityNet will explore the ‘mental 180’ we all need to undergo when it comes to considering accessibility in this complex hybrid-working world, as well as exploring a more mature approach to embedding accessibility within every aspect of an organisation.
Packed with practical illustrations and demos, this talk will include:

  *   An overview of key accessibility issues and why accessibility is important
  *   Demonstrations of a range of apps and technologies people with disabilities use to embrace the opportunities, and overcome the challenges of hybrid working
  *   Using a digital accessibility maturity model to make embedding best practice a more strategic process
  *   SCULPTing an approach to inclusion that’s easy to use by all
  *   Various illustrations of why, with the advent of mobile computing, accessibility is no longer a specialist requirement

Beyond Accessibility
Julio Abascal (University of the Basque Country)

In 1985, we created a research group on digital accessibility. The three founders were “hardware people” and our first projects focused on Alternative and Augmentative Communication. These “one person design” devices were expensive and difficult to maintain. New paradigms, such as design for all / universal accessibility, led us to study the latest methodologies in Human-Computer Interaction to apply advanced user-centered design.
After gaining physical access to the computer, users with disabilities discovered that the Web opens up a huge set of possibilities for access to work, leisure, social integration, and interpersonal communication, but found that they were marginalized from these sites due to existing accessibility barriers. For this reason, we decided to focus part of our research work on web accessibility: quantitative accessibility metrics, automated accessibility evaluation tools, accessible adaptive browsers, transcoding, etc. In recent years, our work in this field has focused on accessibility to e-government websites.
Throughout these stimulating projects, our team shared experiences and evolved in parallel with many other European research groups. Reflecting on our trajectory could be helpful in analyzing past failures and successes. After 36 years of experience, we still have a series of questions about the role of academic research in accessibility. For example, does accessibility research have a substantial impact on the daily use of the Web by people with disabilities? Are there other factors, such as the use of the mother tongue, that have a significant impact on accessibility? Can we ignore socio-economic aspects of the access to the Web? In this talk, we will try to discuss these issues and imagine future ways for web accessibility.