From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from salyko.cube.net (salyko.cube.net [194.97.64.2]) by redhat.com (8.7.4/8.7.3) with ESMTP id SAA11328 for ; Tue, 5 Nov 1996 18:46:06 -0500 Received: from goldfish(really [194.97.65.88]) by salyko.cube.net via sendmail with esmtp id for ; Wed, 6 Nov 1996 00:47:59 +0100 (MET) (Smail-3.2 1996-Jul-4 #1 built DST-Sep-18) Received: (qmail 17229 invoked from smtpd); 5 Nov 1996 23:43:18 -0000 Received: from localhost (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 5 Nov 1996 23:43:18 -0000 Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 00:43:16 +0100 (MET) From: Hans Zoebelein To: blinux-list@redhat.com Subject: Web access 97 conference (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII List-Id: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 17:11:40 EST From: Jamal Mazrui <74444.1076@COMPUSERVE.COM> Reply-To: Access to GUI via Speech To: GUISPEAK@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU Subject: Web access 97 conference I'm forwarding this information about a web access conference. ---------- November 1, 1996 Dear Friends and Colleagues: Thank you for your interest in the Third Access to Graphical User Interface Conference. We have changed our name to WEB ACCESS 97. WEB ACCESS 97 is a follow-up to our two previous conferences which addressed the problems blind and visually impaired people face in accessing graphical user interfaces (see our attached FAQ sheet for more information on this subject). WEB ACCESS 97 will take place from April 7-10 at the Santa Clara Convention Center as part of the larger World Wide Web conference WWW6 which is being held on April 7-12. Combining the conferences offers us an unparalleled opportunity to experience the very latest hardware and software and to bring Web access issues to the attention of Web developers and vendors. The conference program will provide numerous opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas between web developers and individuals with disabilities. Pre-conference sessions will be held on April 7 at the Center for the Study of Language and Information on Stanford campus. These will consist of two workshops: one on web and Internet access for blind users and the second on building accessible web pages. In addition a "Battling Browsers" event to be held during the main conference will compare web access using different combinations of screen readers and web browsers. Papers for WEB ACCESS 97 will be refereed for inclusion in the program for the World Wide Web conference and will be published on the web prior to the conference. If you want to submit a paper for WEB ACCESS 97, we need to receive an abstract of 100 to 200 words by November 30 at the latest. Possible topics are 1) Legislative and policy issues regarding GUI access and the Web 2) Vendor neutral comparisons of existing products 3) The social impact of the web on disability populations 4) uses of the web and their interaction with GUI screen readers 5) managing multi-media (e.g. -- audio description for video output) 6) technical interface -- issues of access technology developers vis a vis the mainstream. Acceptance of an abstract will result in an invitation to submit a paper which must then be received by January 15, 1997 in order to be approved for the final program. We will have some funding available to award partial scholarships to those who wish to participate in WEB ACCESS 97. Priority will go to those with the greatest need (e.g. whose agency or workplace cannot fund them) and to those who are participating in some way (helping us with pre-conference sessions or giving a paper, etc.). Please let us know by December 1 at the latest if you wish to be considered for a scholarship. We have set up a web page at the URL: http://www- csli.stanford.edu/arch/GUI/ This will be updated with information about the conference as it becomes available. We will also be posting information regarding past GUI conferences and previous work published on this subject. Prior to the conference we will be posting the papers which have been accepted and asking for comments. This will give people who aren't able to attend in person a chance to participate. Following the conference we will use our web site to continue the dialogue. As of this writing Stanford University is still negotiating on the final details of the main conference. We have recommended that the WEB ACCESS 97 conference fees be set at $400, but the final amount is still being negotiated. Please check the WWW6 conference web site at URL: http://www6conf.slac.stanford.edu/ for more information about the overall conference. Requirements for submitting papers to the general conference are available at this site. These are different from the requirements for the GUI Access Conference. For those of you who haven't been in touch with us this year, please let us know if you wish to receive further mailings. We are in the process of updating our mailing list and in the future we will send out information only to those people who have specifically indicated their interest in WEB ACCESS 97. Be sure to include your email address if you have one. If you have no on-line address, and need to receive information on disk, please let us know. We are excited about the response we have received so far and look forward to a great conference! Sincerely, Conference Organizers: Margy Kahn mkahn@arch.stanford.edu Jan McKinley mckinley@arch.stanford.edu Neil Scott ngscott@arch.stanford.edu WEB ACCESS 97 address and phone number: WEB ACCESS 97, Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Ventura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4115; (415) 723-8456 Frequently Asked Questions about the Access to GUI Conference What is the purpose of the GUI access conferences? The GUI conferences have three major purposes: * To review the state of the art in access technology for persons who are blind and visually impaired. *To consolidate ideas on the research and development necessary to provide long-term comprehensive solutions to the GUI access problem as recommended at the "Access to GUI" conference held at Asilomar in 1993 and Access to GUI II at Vallombrosa in 1995. *To develop collaborations for ongoing research and development, manufacture, and delivery of solutions to the GUI problems. How did they start? Jan McKinley, researcher at the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center at the Veterans Medical Center in Palo Alto was concerned about the potential exclusion of blind people from computer access in the early 90's. After talking with Neil Scott, chief engineer of the Archimedes Project at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University, they decided to gather together blind computer users, trainers, access products developers, computer programmers and researchers to address the issue of how blind computer users were going to access graphical interfaces. Together with Margy Kahn, who was then at Sensory Access Foundation, they planned the first GUI access conference which was held at Asilomar in November 1993. Using the resources of the three sponsoring organizations as well as the help of dedicated volunteers they were able to put together an intimate working conference on a remarkably low budget. The next conference, GUI95, was partly funded by the NEC Foundation of America. It focused on the intersection of GUI issues and access to employment. Both developers of GUI screen readers and mainstream software companies sent representatives. Discussions and papers given at the conference covered a wide range of topics including an overview of existing solutions to GUI access for blind computer users, access to GUIs in employment situations, suggestions on how hardware and software manufacturers could minimize GUI access problems, options for input and output strategies and innovative technologies which would assist blind and visually impaired computer users, and research that would support continued development of products and improvements in GUI access systems as well as follow-up on recommendations from the first Access to GUI conference. Outside of the formal sessions there was plenty of room for networking and collaborations, one of which resulted in the official conference song (gui- blues). How will WEB ACCESS 97 be different from the earlier GUI access conferences? The previous two conferences were stand-alones, held in intimate settings with a small number of people. WEB ACCESS 97 will be held as a part of the much larger Sixth International World Wide Web Conference. As a result, we will be focusing access to GUI on a specific application -- using the World Wide Web. We plan to continue the GUI Access Conference tradition of small gatherings on focused topics while at the same time taking advantage of this opportunity to educate mainstream developers about our issues and to educate ourselves. We expect that this conference may be more "professional" looking than the previous ones but we still hope to have a lot of fun! What is the Sixth International WWW Conference? The International W3 Committee sponsors regular conferences focused on the World Wide Web. This year the theme of the conference is access. The following quote is taken from the conference brochure: "Since the first invocation of the hypertext protocol, the Web has been about access. Remote access, universal access, easy access.[This conference] will focus on the many and varied connotations of accessibility. from the geographical to the sociological to the physical..." The conference hosts this year are Stanford University and Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC). How will the WEB ACCESS 97 sessions fit in with the Sixth International WWW Conference? The WEB ACCESS sessions will be an integral part of the Sixth International WWW Conference program located at Santa Clara Convention Center. They are designed to bring attention to the needs of disabled users for accessible computing and other groups with special needs. Sessions will address topics such as the impact of multi-media, the impact of graphical user interfaces, creating accessible Web pages, and using text-only or non-visual interfaces. Interactive demonstrations and exhibits of access technology for disabled computer users will be held in the main exhibit hall. How can I get involved? We encourage everyone with an interest to contact us. If you are not yet a high speed traveler of the Internet you may want to sign up for the pre-conference session on tips for navigating and building your own web page. We are interested in receiving papers about any work relating to Internet access. If you are in the area and would like to volunteer to help out with conference tasks we would be happy to hear from you. If you can't attend the conference in person you can send mail to this web site. We will be posting all the papers submitted as well as transcripts of the proceedings and we hope to have an interactive virtual conference that transcends the actual four days.