*** CALL FOR PARTICIPATIONS *** The Sixth International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A 2009) 'Web Accessibility for Older Users: Are We There Yet?' Co-Located with the Eighteenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2009), in Madrid, Spain, 20-21 April 2009. Full Programme with Abstracts ------------------- http://www.w4a.info/2009/programme.shtml Registration ------------------- http://www.w4a.info/2009/fees.shtml ATOM News Feed ------------------- http://www.w4a.info/updates.xml Social Media ------------------- We encourage use of the tag #w4a2009 for references to W4A 2009 on Twitter and other social networking web sites. Presentations will be tagged with the same tag and available on Slideshare afterwards. Topics and Content ------------------- Population demographics indicate that our populations are ageing across the board. As the population ages the financial requirement to work longer is increased, but the ability to work longer is reduced because disability becomes a bar to employment. With the growth of the knowledge economy, and a move from manual work to more thought and communication based activities, there is the very real possibility of older Web users being able to finding productive, fulfilling, and social empowering employment; if only technology, and specifically the Web, where available to them. An ageing but Web-literate population indicates a large market for online shopping and services especially when mobility is a problem for the shopper. In this case we wonder how this new population we interact with Web based resources, and what new problems in accessibility will there be to overcome? Will the Web provide the social, employment, and health care benefits currently unavailable to older users? Will complex and highly graphical interfaces excluded ageing users from access? How do the adaptation patterns for Web access by older people vary across cultures? What problems exist, what are the upcoming problems, what solutions are required? Finally, what effect will an ageing user population have on the wider Web? We pose the question: Web accessibility for older users - are we there yet? Panel: "Supporting older Web users in Spain" organised by Alan Chuter (Technosite/ONCE Foundation) ------------------- * Nerea Galdona, researcher INGEMA (Matia Foundation Gerontological Institute, www.ingema.es); * Beatriz Aguer, manager, DIXIT.cat, Social Services Documentation Centre, Generalitat de Catalunya (dixit.gencat.cat). * Carlos Martinez, UDP (Democratic Union of Pensioners, www.mayoresudp.org). * Antonio Jimenez Lara, Sociologist, Technosite. * Andrew Arch, W3C. Web Accessibility and Ageing Specialist (www.w3.org/People/Andrew/) Most elderly people in Spain today grew up and worked without using computers either at home or at work. Compared to their counterparts in many industrialized countries, and younger people in Spain, they are less likely to perceive the value and usefulness of ICT (information and communication technologies) in their daily activities. The panel will discuss the experience of elderly computer users in Spain today. The social perception of elderly people in Spain has traditionally been different from that in comparable countries. What is the perception of the usefulness of ICT among the elderly? Is advocacy among the elderly community as strong as in other countries? How does this affect provision by content and service providers? Do service providers take their needs into account? What educational provisions are there? How important is peer support? How can those able to provide support and education understand the needs of the older generation? How can the Spanish experience inform provision and practice in other countries? Web Accessibility Challenge ------------------- Sponsored by Microsoft since 2008, the "Web Accessibility Challenge" is organised to give an opportunity to researchers and developers of advanced Web accessibility technologies for showcasing their technologies to technical leaders in this area not only from academia and industry but also from end-users. More details: http://www.w4a.info/2009/challenge.shtml Sponsors ------------------- * Microsoft Corporation (http://www.microsoft.com) * Google (http://www.google.com) * The Mozilla Foundation (http://www.mozillafoundation.org/) * ACM's Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing(SIGACCESS) (http://www.acm.org/sigaccess/) * Zakon Group (http://www.zakongroup.com/) Endorsement ------------------- W4A 2009 is endorsed by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2) General Chair ------------------- David Sloan School of Computing, University of Dundee, DUNDEE UK Email: gc-2009-at-w4a.info Programme Chairs ------------------- Hiro Takagi and Chieko Asakawa Accessibility Research, Tokyo Research Laboratory, IBM Research, TOKYO Japan Email: pc-2009@w4a.info Programme Committee ------------------- * Julio Abascal (University of the Basque Country,Spain.) * Shadi Abou-Zahra (World Wide Web Consortium ,USA.) * Margherita Antona (ICS-FORTH,Greece.) * Helen Ashman (The University of South Australia,Australia.) * Armando Barreto (Florida International University,USA.) * Jeffrey Bigham (University of Washington,USA.) * Yevgen Borodin (Stony Brook University,USA.) * Giorgio Brajnik (Universita di Udine,Italy.) * Catherine Brys (University of Strathclyde,UK.) * Alan Chuter (Technosite (ONCE Foundation.),Spain.) * Sara Czaja (University of Miami,USA.) * Olga DeTroyer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel,Belgium.) * David Duce (Oxford Brookes University,UK.) * Becky Gibson (IBM Emerging Internet Technologies,USA.) * Vicki Hanson (University of Dundee,UK.) * Simon Harper (University of Manchester,UK.) * Sarah Horton (Dartmouth College,USA.) * Sri Kurniawan (University of California Santa Cruz,USA.) * Richard Ladner (University of Washington,USA.) * Jonathan Lazar (Towson University,USA.) * Laura Leventhal (Bowling Green State University,USA.) * Rui Lopes (University of Lisbon ,Portugal.) * Klaus Miesenberger (University of Linz,Austria.) * David Novick (The University of Texas at El Paso,USA.) * Zeljko Obrenovic (Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e),Netherland.) * Enrico Pontelli (New Mexico State University,USA.) * Christopher Power (University of York,UK.) * IV Ramakrishnan (State University of New York at Stony Brook,USA.) * Gustavo Rossi (Universidad Nacional de La Plata,Argentina.) * Paola Salomoni (University of Bologna,Italy.) * Andrew Sears (UMBC,USA.) * Cynthia Shelly (Microsoft,USA.) * Constantine Stephanidis (ICS-FORTH,Greece.) * Shari Trewin (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center,USA.) * Douglas Tudhope (University of Glamorgan,UK.) * Takayuki Watanabe (Tokyo Woman's Christian University,Japan.) * Yeliz Yesilada (University of Manchester,UK.) W4A on the Web ------------------- * http://www.w4a.info * http://www.w4a.info/updates.xml (RSS/ATOM News Feed)