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This is an internal CFP planning page. Please see the main Mobile Accessibility Call for Papers and Internal Planning Page for more current information.

Mobile Accessibility
Online Symposium 25 June 2012

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly important and are already the primary form of accessing the Web in many parts of the world. However, people with disabilities experience many difficulties when they access the Web with mobile devices. This symposium aims to bring researchers and practitioners together to discuss these challenges and possible solutions, and develop a roadmap for future research and development in the field. The online symposium will be held on 25 June 2012; paper deadline will close on 07 May 2012.

Background

The mobile world is rapidly evolving with increasingly sophisticated devices, platforms, APIs, applications, and web browsers. Also the complexity of the web content and applications provided via mobile devices has become increasingly sophisticated. At the same time, the many sensors and gauges deployed on mobile devices are being utilized to provide new interaction paradigms such as touch events and gestures.

While these developments provide vast opportunities opportunities for people with disabilities they also entail accessibility challenges. In particular, it is not sufficiently clear how well existing standards such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG), Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), Mobile Web Best Practice (MWBP), Mobile Web Application Best Practice (MWABP), Touch Events, and others address accessibility in the mobile context, despite some initial work on mapping between WCAG and MWBP.

There is a need to better understand these challenges and to develop a roadmap to guide further research and development activities.

Objectives and Research Questions

The primary objective of this symposium is to gather, analyze, and discuss practical experience with mobile web accessibility. In particular, the objective is to investigate:
  • the technical challenges in terms of API, platform, browser, applications, and web content accessibility;
  • the cover of mobile accessibility by existing standards such as UAAG, WCAG, MWBP, and MWABP;
  • new interaction models such as touch interfaces and their accessibility.

These research objectives can be supported with the following research questions:

  • What is the state (i.e., problems and successes) of mobile web accessibility?
  • How can new interaction paradigms be leveraged for mobile web accessibility?
  • How do existing interaction models such as touch interfaces and gesture interaction support accessibility?
  • How does W3C guidelines and best practices (UAAG, WCAG, MWBP, and MWABP) apply to websites and web applications accessed via mobile devices?

The research note resulting from this symposium will constitute the basis from which to further explore a research and development roadmap for mobile accessibility.

Call for Papers

Contributing

We invite extended research abstracts of no more than 1000 words. We encourage concise contributions that are scientifically sound with appropriate references. We specifically seek reports and guides, which can be theoretical or practical in nature, that will help us to form our opinions and educate future readers. Papers should follow the template provided to clearly explain:

  • the problem that is addressed by the contribution;
  • the background, including previous and related work;
  • the potential strategies to address the problem;
  • the major obstacles in the path taken or to be taken;
  • the main outcomes, including mistakes and lessons learned;
  • the future perspectives opened with this work.

Paper Requirements

Papers (of no more than 1000 words) must be provided in accessible HTML in the template provided. No modifications to this template or additional styling is permitted to facilitate amalgamation of the contributions.

Paper submission closed on 07 May 2012 (midnight US Eastern Time).

Review Process

Contributions will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee, and each paper will get at least three independent reviews, based on criteria including relevance, clarity, soundness and power of the arguments, generality of results/claims, novelty. Papers will be accepted based on this criteria and space availability. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to present their work during the symposium.

Important Dates

  • 07 May 2012: deadline for paper submissions.
  • 04 June 2012: notification of accepted papers and announcement of symposium agenda.
  • 25 June 2012: online symposium event (expected between 12:00-16:00 UTC).
  • 09 July 2012: draft consolidated findings (in form of a W3C Note) for for public review.
  • 23 July 2012: symposium proceedings (minutes, presentations, and papers from the symposium).
  • 15 October 2012: publication of consolidated findings (in form of a W3C Note).

Organization

Online Symposium on Mobile Accessibility is organized by the W3C WAI Research and Development Working Group (RDWG).

Symposium Chairs

Scientific Committee

Copyright Policy

Accepted papers will be published as part of the proceedings, in attributable form, which will be published using the W3C Document License. Authors shall grant W3C a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right and license to copy, publish, use, and modify the contribution and to distribute the contribution under a Berkley Shell Distribution (BSD) License or one with more restrictive terms, as well as a right and license of the same scope to any derivative works prepared by the W3C and based on, or incorporating all or part of the contribution. The Contributor further agrees that any derivative works of this contribution prepared by the W3C shall be solely owned by the W3C.

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