[misc.handicap] Call for Participation CHI'91 Workshop

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