CALL FOR PAPERS
ACM SIG-ACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS-2013) [Bellevue, Washington, USA | 19-24, October, 2013.]
www.sigaccess.org/assets13/

The ASSETS conference explores the design, evaluation, and use of computing and information technologies to benefit people with disabilities and older adults. ASSETS is the premier forum for presenting innovative research on mainstream and specialized assistive technologies, accessible computing, and assistive applications of computer, network, and information ASSETS is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and its SIGACCESS Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing. The single track and friendly atmosphere make ASSETS the ideal venue to meet researchers, practitioners, developers and policymakers to exchange ideas, share information and make new contacts.

Topics:
High quality, original submissions are invited on computer and accessibility topics relevant to:
• People with hearing disabilities
• People with visual disabilities
• People with motor disabilities
• People with memory or cognitive disabilities
• Older adults who may become disabled
• Professionals or others who provide direct or remote support

Submissions should present novel ideas, techniques, systems, tools, evaluations, scientific investigations, methodologies, social issues or policy issues. Topics include, but are not limited to:
• Designing for accessibility and universal design
• Evaluation of accessibility
• Studies on technology use and acceptance by people with disabilities
• First-hand reports of user experience with technologies
• Web accessibility
• Mobile and personal technologies
• Designs supporting communication and information access
• Teaching and learning technologies for students with disabilities
• Alternative input systems for people with disabilities
• Navigation and wayfinding assistance
• Non-visual presentation of information

Where relevant, work that includes empirical data from the target user group is strongly preferred.


Submission Procedures:
ASSETS accepts submissions in the following categories:
• Technical papers
• Posters
• Demonstrations
• Experience Reports
• Doctoral Consortium
• Student Research Competition
• Captioning Competition

All contributions are peer-reviewed by an international Program Committee. Accepted papers, posters, demonstrations and experience reports will be archived in the ACM digital library. At least one author of accepted submissions must register as the presenter by the early registration deadline. Submissions MUST contain substantial original, unpublished material. Please refer to the ACM policy on plagiarism for guidance.

Mentoring Requests: Help with submissions by seasoned researchers is available through the ASSETS Mentoring Program. If you think you would benefit from mentoring either because you are new to presenting your research, new to the type of category you are interested in submitting to or simply find that preparing English language papers foreign to your paper writing experience, please consider applying for mentoring help by emailing the Mentor Chair (mc-assets13@acm.org) a 1-page extended abstract of your paper.

Technical Papers: Accepted technical papers will be presented at the conference and will appear in the conference proceedings. Authors of the best papers will be invited to submit extended versions to a special issue of the ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS). Papers must be a maximum of 8 pages long, in the ACM conference format. They should be submitted electronically via the conference Web site no later than 3 May 2013, Friday, midnight HAST (GMT-10.00).

Posters and Demonstrations: The Poster and Demonstration Session is an opportunity for presenting late-breaking results, ongoing research projects, and speculative or innovative work in progress. A poster is a great way to test new ideas, generate interest in a research area, or describe useful or interesting work that is not substantial enough for a full paper presentation or present late-breaking result. A demonstration is a great way to communicate inventive accessible computing and IT technologies in action. Posters and demonstration proposals should be submitted using the ACM Conference format, and they are limited in length to 2 pages. They should be submitted electronically via the conference Web site no later than 28 June 2013, Friday, midnight HAST (GMT-10.00).

Experience Reports: The value of accessible technology is measured ultimately by the experience of people who use it. ASSETS 2013 invites papers that reflect these experiences first-hand. An experience report is authored or co-authored by one or more persons who are in the intended audience for the technology discussed in the report. It describes these authors’ experience with the technology, positive or negative (and may describe the experience of other users, as well). Posters and demonstration proposals should be submitted using the ACM Conference format, and they are limited in length to 6 pages. They should be submitted electronically via the conference Web site no later than 28 June 2013, Friday, midnight HAST (GMT-10.00).

Doctoral Consortium: The Doctoral Consortium provides doctoral students the opportunity to share and discuss their research with other students and a panel of established researchers (led by Dr. Gregory Abowd, Georgia Tech) who will provide feedback on all aspects of the students’ research. The consortium will be held on Sunday October 20, 2013. Please note that the Doctoral Consortium Is intended to provide feedback to Doctoral candidates in the early stages of their work: student work that is complete or near completion should be submitted to the regular presentation/poster sessions. We hope to provide travel support for those students selected for the consortium. Submission requirements are stated on the conference website. The submission deadline is June 28, 2013.

Student Research Competition: The Student Research Competition provides both undergraduate and graduate students a chance to present their individual research and win awards for their work. Only individual research is accepted: group research projects will not be considered unless only the individual’s part in it is presented. Preference will be given to work that has been completed (or close to completion). Participants must be currently enrolled in a university or college and have active ACM student membership. Work accepted as a full paper for one of the technical sessions of the conference cannot also be considered for the Student Research Competition. Abstracts for the initial stage of the competition should be submitted using the ACM Conference format, and they are limited in length to 2 pages. They should be submitted electronically via the conference Web site no later than 28 June 2013, Friday, midnight HAST (GMT-10.00). Further details about the subsequent competition stages are given on the conference website.

Captioning Competition: T o prepare for possible capture of sessions at future ASSETS conferences for later use, we want to explore approaches to captioning recordings of sessions. Because this is an active area of research for a number of groups in the ASSETS community, we invite participants for a competition to be held at ASSETS 2013 in which teams will use their technology to caption one or more of the sessions. Our aim is to promote research that will make it possible for ASSETS, and other organizations, to create captions of good quality at very low cost. If you are interested in participating, please contact the Captioning Competition Chair, Raja Kushalnalgar, at caption-assets13@acm.org.


Awards:
The following awards will be made at ASSETS 2013 from those papers appearing in the ASSETS conference proceedings:
• Best Technical Paper
• Best Student paper (to be considered a student paper, the student must be the first author)

The selection process for these papers is based on the technical paper reviews from which the Program Chair selects a shortlist of best paper candidates. These are discussed and reviewed by a selection committee drawn from the program committee. Membership on this selection committee is limited to those who have no conflict of interest with the shortlisted papers. Recipients of the best paper awards will be presented with a certificate from ACM at the conference.


Important Dates
• Requesting mentors: March 5, 2013, Tuesday
• Technical paper submission: May 3, 2013, Friday
• Notification of technical paper acceptance: June 14, 2013, Friday
• Posters and demos submission: June 28, 2013, Friday
• Experience Report submission: June 28, 2013, Friday
• Doctoral consortium submission: June 28, 2013, Friday
• Student research competition submission: June 28, 2013, Friday
• Notification of posters and demos acceptance: July 24, 2013, Wednesday
• Notification of experience reports acceptance: July 24, 2013, Wednesday
• Notification of doctoral consortium acceptance: July 24, 2013, Wednesday
• Notification of student research competition acceptance: July 24, 2013, Wednesday


Organizing Committee
General Chair
Clayton Lewis, University of Colorado, USA
gc-assets13@acm.org
Program Chair
Richard Ladner, University of Washington, USA
pc-assets13@acm.org
Program Chair Select
John Richards, IBM, USA
pc-assets13@acm.org
Treasurer and Registration Chair
Faustina Hwang, University of Reading, UK
trc-assets13@acm.org
Posters and Demonstrations Chair
Jinjuan Feng, Towson University, USA
pd-assets13@acm.org
Experience Reports Chair
Annalu Waller, University of Dundee, UK
er-assets13@acm.org
Doctoral Consortium Chair
Gregory Abowd, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
dc-assets13@acm.org
Student Research Competition Chair
Ornella Mich, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy
src-assets13@acm.org
Mentoring Chair
Joshua Hailpern, Hewlett Packard, USA
mc-assets13@acm.org
Local Arrangements Chair
Merrie Morris & Annuska Perkins, Microsoft, USA
local-assets13@acm.org
Logistics Chair
Barbara Morris, UMBC, USA
lc-assets13@acm.org
Accessibility Chair/ Captioning Competition Chair
Raja Kushalnagar, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA & Amanda Stent, ATT, USA
access-assets13@acm.org
Web Chair
Tiago Guerreiro, University of Lisbon, Portugal
web-assets13@acm.org
Student Volunteers Chair
Shiri Azenkot, University of Washington, USA
sv-assets13@acm.org
Publicity Chair
Dianne Pawluk, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
pub-assets13@acm.org