TPG Web Accessibility Challenge

The 11th “Web Accessibility Challenge” is your opportunity to showcase advanced Web and Mobile technologies to technical leaders from academia and industry. The main goal of the Challenge is to encourage and accelerate the development of innovative and usable technologies, as well as provide feedback from end-users and experts in the field. The Challenge is where experimental systems and technologies are compared and evaluated both by the delegates and an independent panel of judges to identify the most significant advances in accessibility research that year. Our deadlines have been chosen to give successful applicants as much time as possible for making their travel and accommodation arrangements.

Awards

  • Judges Award is decided by a panel of judges
  • Delegates Award is decided by the audience

Submission materials

  • Two-page abstract following the formatting requirements of the main track.
  • Demonstration movie or audio recording, maximum 5 minutes
  • Software is not required, but encouraged

Conference attendance

A presentation and demonstration will be part of the W4A event, thus attendance of at least one author is mandatory.

System requirements

  • Any kind of system that improves usability and accessibility is acceptable, such as mobile applications, assistive technologies, voice browsers, browser plug-ins, server-based services, telephony systems, etc.
  • Open source systems are welcome

Submission details

  • Submissions should be sent to this email address: cc2017@w4a.info.
  • For large movie files, you can consider alternative methods for submission such as posting on YouTube; in this case, please add a tag “w4a2017″ to the movie, and submit the URL of the movie
  • Abstracts and movies should emphasize the innovative ideas in the system; do not demonstrate whole functions including usual or average functions
  • The demonstration movies should be non-visually accessible; please consider adding audio descriptions and not adding unnecessary audio (e.g., background music)

Challenge Judges

  • Jutta Treviranus (IDRC – OCAD University, Toronto Canada)
  • Jonathan Godfrey (Massey University, Turtitea, New Zealand)
  • Sarah Horton (The Paciello Group)
  • Armin Haller (Australian National University & W3C)

Contact

If you have any questions relating to the submission process, please email cc2017@w4a.info

Challenge Details for Delegates

This year the W4A/TPG Web Accessibility Challenge will involve two activities:

  • A five minute pitch presentation
  • A five minute lightning demo

Presentation Session:

During a 5 minute presentation, each Challenge entrant will “pitch” their solution to delegates and articulate the innovative aspects of their technology and how it advances accessibility and usability. Their presentation will define the accessibility issue their technology solves, and describe the innovations one can expect to see during the demonstration session that will follow.

There will be scheduled break following the Presentation Session.

Demonstration Session:

To ensure the session can commence on schedule, please return from the break on time. Delegates will then be given a voting ballot paper, split into groups and assigned a station where they will start the demonstration session. When the bell rings, the presenter at the station will do his or her 5 minute demo of the innovative aspect of their technology. The presenter may or may not allocate time for questions during the session.
After five minutes the bell will ring again, at which time your group will move on to the next demo. This continues until all groups have visited all the demos. “Timekeepers” will be present who will facilitate the rotation between demo stations.

Important Dates

  • W4A 2017 April 2 to 4
  • Submission deadline Jan 6, 2017
  • Author Notifications Feb 6, 2017
  • Camera ready Feb 27, 2017