Research and Development Interest
Group Research and Development Interest
Group
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Research and Development Interest Group (RDIG) announces that registration is now open for the first in a series of teleconferences focusing on research issues in the area of accessibility and Web-related technologies.
The Web is bringing together individuals and enabling them to collaborate in new and innovative ways. Today, diverse communities of people can come together in virtual spaces for meetings and working sessions. This is particularly important as travel to face to face meetings can be difficult for financial, health or safety reasons.
Examples of such communities include standards development, engineering, knowledge management, software/content development, accessibility, scientific research, government/international rules and regulations, and education. Diverse, international groups currently use a variety of tools, such as instant messaging, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), shared desktops, and teleconferencing for real time interaction, as well as email, mailing lists, weblogs and proprietary format documents for asynchronous interaction. Participants in a collaboration environment may not all have equal access in the process, for reasons of disability, bandwidth, firewalls, language, etc.
This teleconference will explore accessibility issues in collaboration technologies from the perspectives of researchers in the field. Presenters include:
Additional details and position papers are located on the teleconference agenda page.
Researchers and practitioners active in any aspect of Collaboration Technologies, Human Computer Interaction, Assistive Technologies, Disability Studies, Web Accessibility, or related fields.
Participants in this conference can expect to gain an improved, synergistic understanding of research in accessible collaboration technologies for the internet and to develop contacts with others performing such research.
The mission of the Research and Development Interest Group (RDIG) is to increase the number of Web-related researchers who incorporate accessibility into their research design, and to identify projects researching Web accessibility, and suggest techniques that may contribute to new projects. The desired outcome of more research in Web accessibility and awareness of accessibility in mainstream Web-related research should decrease the number of potential barriers in future Web-related technologies.
Proceedings of the Teleconference will be published on the web by the Research and Development Interest Group.
The teleconference will take place on Monday, 28 April, 2003, at 10:00 New York, 15:00 London, 16:00 Paris, 23:00 Tokyo. To determine the time in your location, we recommend TimeAndDate.com.
Duration of the teleconference will be 90 minutes. The format of the event is a teleconference, augmented by Web-based presentation material. Registration for the teleconference is required, and is limited to 43 participants. The teleconference will be captioned. Registration will close on 25 April, 2003.
Questions for discussion may be submitted in advance by email to the chair, no later than 08:00 am New York time on 28 April, 2003.