The Third Web Accessibility Challenge in conjunction with the W4A 2009 Conference is scheduled for April 20 & 21 in Madrid, Spain. We invite you to profile your work in this area by submitting a: * Two-page abstract (see the W4A submission page – <http://www.w4a.info/2009/submissions.shtml>) * Demonstration movie (or audio recording) with audio description. * Software is not required, but encouraged. Please note that submissions can be related to the theme, "Accessibility Technologies for Older Users", but it is certainly not a requirement as all accessibility technologies are welcomed for the challenge. Submission deadline is 30-Jan-2009 (Midnight Hawaii Standard Time). A Judges Award and a Delegates Award will honour the best of the submissions. You will also have a chance to receive feedback from the judges as well as from the participants. For system requirements and full submission details, please see: <http://www.w4a.info/2009/challenge.shtml> For more information on the W4A-2009 Conference, please see the website <http://www.w4a.info/2009/> We would gladly welcome your participation with your latest achievements. We hope you will please consider joining in. If you know anyone else who may be interested in participating in this Challenge, please do forward this email along. We are looking forward to meeting you in Madrid! Best Regards, W4A Accessibility Challenge organizers ============================== The Third Web Accessibility Challenge Accessibility Technologies for Older Users – Are we There Yet? 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? 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? Conference attendance ---------------------- * A presentation and demonstration session will be part of the W4A event, so at least one of the authors is required to attend the conference. Awards: ---------- * 2009 Web Accessibility Challenge: Judges Award Decided by the invited judges, who are experts from academia, industry and end-users. * 2009 Web Accessibility Challenge: Delegates Award Decided by the participants of the conference. * In addition, you can get feedback from judges and participants. System Requirements: -------------------------------- * Any kind of system is acceptable, such as standalone assistive technologies, voice browsers, browser plug-ins, server-based services, and telephony systems. Other accessibility technologies can be accepted (e.g., tactile browser). * Open source systems are welcomed. * Please contact us, if you have any questions about the coverage (<[log in to unmask]>). Submission details: ------------------------------ * Submissions should be sent to this email address: <[log in to unmask]> * You can also consider alternative methods for submission of large movie files such as uploading the file to YouTube. In this case, please add a tag "w4a2009" to the movie, and send the URL of the movie to the submission address (<[log in to unmask]>). * Abstracts and movies should emphasise the innovative ideas in the system. Do not demonstrate whole functions including usual or average functions. * The demonstration movies should also be non-visually accessible, since some of referees are blind. Please consider to add audio descriptions to the submission movie, and do not add unnecessary audio (e.g., background music). * Abstracts should be in ACM/W4A paper format, since abstracts will be published in the proceedings. Abstracts and movies will be stored in the ACM Digital Library. -- Leo Ferres, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile --------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send an empty email to mailto:[log in to unmask] For further details of CHI lists see http://sigchi.org/listserv ---------------------------------------------------------------