alistair@MINSTER.YORK.AC.UK (Alistair Edwards) (01/10/91)
Index Number: 12780 [This is from the BLIND-L mailing list] Call for Participation CHI'91 Workshop Human-Computer Interaction and Users with Special Needs This two-day workshop will be held as part of the ACM/SIGCHI conference, CHI'91, which will take place in New Orleans on 28 April - 2 May 1991. The objective of this workshop is to create an opportunity for practitioners who are working in the field of making computers accessible to people with disabilities to share their experience and knowledge, both with each other and with a broader audience. Much of the research which constitutes the study of human-computer interaction is concerned with matching the interface to the user. Users are individuals and hence interfaces should ideally be sufficiently flexible to accommodate variations among users. The research has largely been directed at taking account of quite subtle variations (such as novices versus experts). More significant variations in users' abilities - such as whether a user can see a screen or type on a keyboard - are described as 'disabilities' and accommodating them has been seen as a separate topic, a speciality of a few people, outside the mainstream of human-computer interaction. It has perhaps been seen more as a social service than a scientific or engineering discipline. It seems, however, that Human-Computer Interaction has reached a stage of maturity when it should be embracing the broader community. There is plenty of scope for raising the profile of this topic, and that would be one of the objectives of this workshop and a subsequent book. At the same time there are market pressures emerging to stimulate manufacturers and managers of information technology to become more aware of the needs of potential users who have disabilities. In the United States, there are employment laws which require those who supply information technology products to government agencies to address accessibility needs. There is also the effect of the demographic changes, as employers look to sources of labour which they may not have tapped previously - including disabled people. It is timely for there to be a workshop on the topic as part of the premier international conference on human-computer interaction, at CHI'91. Publication of the subsequent book would be another important contribution to establishing the discipline as well as filling a gap in the market, by pooling the experience of people who have already done a lot of work in this area. So often people have been working in small groups, producing devices and adaptations for use by specific individuals. Often this has not been reported in the literature, or if it has it has been in specialized publications, often in the form of empirical anecdotes. The workshop would be an opportunity to discuss and derive principles which would then be disseminated in the book. Participation In the interests of easy interaction, the workshop will be limited to around twenty participants. Selection will be on the basis of abstracts. Abstracts should consist of around 1000 words, and the deadline for their submission is 25 February 1991. Successful applicants will then be expected to submit full papers by 1 April so that they can be distributed to all participants in advance of the workshop. Papers should be written with a view to their forming the basis of a chapter in the workshop proceedings, though authors will be given the opportunity to update their papers before publication, in the light of the discussions they will have had at the workshop - indeed they will be encouraged so to do. Abstracts should give a clear indication of what you would hope to contribute to the workshop and your paper. Please either send one copy by email (preferable) or four paper copies to Alistair Edwards at the appropriate address below. Email will be acknowledged, so please follow up if no acknowledgement is received. Organizing committee Alistair Edwards University of York, England Susan Brummel General Services Administration, Washington DC Gregg Vanderheiden Trace Center, University of Wisconsin Robert C Williges Virginia Polytechnic and State University Please address all correspondence to: Dr Alistair D N Edwards Human-Computer Interaction Research Group Department of Computer Science University of York York England YO1 5DD Earn/bitnet: alistair@minster.york.ac.uk Arpanet: alistair@minster.york.ac.uk Internet: alistair%minster.york.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Usenet: ukc!minster!alistair Janet: alistair@uk.ac.york.minster Telephone: +44 904 432775 Fax: +44 904 432767