The W4A 2011 Organising Committee are delighted to announce that, two awards, each of up to US$1200 (including registration), are available to support students to enable them to attend W4A 2011. We now invite applications from interested students.

The 2nd "Student Awards Programme", sponsored since 2010 by Google, is organised to give an opportunity to high quality students with limited funding to attend the W4A Conference.

Timeline 2011

All dates are the target FINISH dates.

• 30-Sep-2010 CC - Invite and Fix Student Award Judges (inform Operations for Website)
• 31-Nov-2010 GC/PC/CC - Create Second (Updated) General Call (Send to General Chair)
• 10-Jan-2011 - Submission Deadline
• 16-Jan-2011 - Judging Period
• 17-Jan-2011 - Notification of award winners (10 Week Elapse Time to Conference)
• 18-Feb-2011 - Camera Ready Copies Complete

The deadlines have been chosen to give as much time as possible to allow successful applicants to make their travel and accommodation arrangements.

Cloud-computing is the technological paradigm where computing resources are distributed over the Internet. This way, the browser becomes the interface to access services and applications with almost unlimited storage capacity and processing power. Cloud-computing and the applications deployed over it facilitate collective intelligence and crowdsourcing phenomena, where millions of users can contribute to a common goal. Following these approaches, a number of successful projects that focus on web accessibility have been released in recent years. These developments range from platforms to collectively removing accessibility barriers to making assistive technologies widespread and available for all. These preliminary approaches such as online screen-readers and accessibility repairing applications have yielded promising results towards an inclusive web by removing both economical and accessibility barriers. In order to develop the cloud to its full potential as far as accessibility is concerned, there are still several research questions that should address the weak points and challenges in a timely manner in order to create an inclusive Web.

Students with interests related to this year's topic are encouraged but it is certainly not a requirement as all students with an interest in accessibility technologies are welcome to apply.

Eligibility

This award is open to any student in a postgraduate position (part time or full time Masters students and above - however, we would mainly expect Doctoral candidates) at a University or other Higher Education institution, AND who is carrying out research that is directly relevant to the field of web accessibility. We particularly encourage applicants from under-represented parts of the world.

Award Judges

• Terri M. Hedgpeth
  Arizona State University, USA
• Richard Ladner
  University of Washington, USA
• Jeffrey P. Bigham
  University of Rochester, USA.
• Yevgen Borodin
  Stony Brook University, USA

Submission details

If you would like to apply, we require the following documents as part of your submission:

• A 500 word statement outlining your interest in web accessibility, why you wish to attend and what you hope to achieve by attending W4A 2011. This can include details of your accessibility research, its originality and its anticipated impact on end users.
• A letter of support from your research supervisor, confirming your position as an accessibility researcher.
• A completed application form including personal details (http://www.w4a.info/2011/backingfiles/Award-Application.doc).

Please send these documents with a covering email to students2011@w4a.info - You will receive an email acknowledgement on successful receipt of your application

Judging criteria

Each submission will be carefully reviewed by members of the W4A Steering Committee. Submissions will be judged on a number of quality factors, each of which you should consider when writing your application:

• Relevance of your research to the theme of this year's conference;
• Awareness of the field of web accessibility;
• Originality and potential impact of your research;
• This award is aimed at supporting students who otherwise would not be able to attend W4A for financial reasons, so you should also provide an indication of current funding limitations (including details of any unsuccessful attempts to secure funding to attend).

Award details

The awards are made as follows:

• Both successful applicants will be entitled to support of up to US$1200, covering expenses incurred in attending W4A 2011 (including reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs).
• Payment will be made by way of reimbursing expenses incurred. Receipts will be required as evidence of purchase - without these we will be unable to make any payment.
• Both successful applicants will be provided with free registration as a conference delegate for the two days of W4A 2011.

Expectations

Conditions of receiving the award are as follows. Successful applicants will:

• Attend the conference as an active delegate - Google Sponsored Accessibility Research Student.
• Present for 15 minutes on their research and the likely impact on the field of web accessibility, as part of a dedicated session in the conference.
• Write a post-event reflective report on W4A 2011. This will be published on the W4A web site, and may also be submitted to other publications, such as the ACM SIGACCESS newsletter.

Questions or queries

If you have any questions relating to the submission process, please email students2011@w4a.info