[Air-l] Workshop on Accessibility Issues for interactive TV

[A.C.Roibas at bton.ac.uk]

Call  for participation
Accessibility Issues for Interactive Television
Workshop at HCI2003, University of Bath, U.K.
Tuesday 9 September 2003
All day workshop
Contributions (short papers, position statements) are invited for a workshop
at HCI2003 on Accessibility Issues for Interactive Television.
The workshop will be of interest to practitioners working in iTV production,
government bodies, user groups and academics/HCI practitioners with
interests in accessibility and iTV production.  If you would like to take
part, see the Workshop web site -
http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/lp22/HCI2003.html
<http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/lp22/HCI2003.html>  - for more details.
Background
Interactive television gives the newly active viewer the opportunity to
extend their use of the television to activities now familiar from the
Internet.  They can browse information on topics of interest, personalise
their viewing choices, play interactive games, carry out e-commerce related
activities (shopping, banking, betting, etc.), interacting with other
viewers, and play an increasingly active role in broadcast programmes.
Interactive television could be of particular use to the elderly (the
biggest consumers of television, watching on average more than 5 hours a
day) and the physically disabled (94% of visually impaired people watch
television regularly), as it would allow them to access services from home.
However usability and accessibility currently cause serious problems for
many poten tviewers. Difficulties include use of the remote control handset
by people with impaired motor control, perception of text and icons on
screen by visually impaired or dyslexic people and the limitations of
subtitles designed to include people with hearing difficulties.
Goals
The goals of the workshop are to develop an accessibility research agenda
for iTV, to identify and extend the research community in this area and to
investigate ways of creating productive connections with commissioners,
producers and directors of iTV services to support the integration of
accessibility into the design process.
In the workshop we will encourage developers and HCI practitioners to share
knowledge and experiences, exploring a range of issues including:
*	the particular accessibility issues raised by iTV
*	the issues involved in designing iTV so that it is accessible to as
wide a range of viewers as possible
*	accessibility issues for input/output devices to iTV
*	the potential of personalisation for creating more accessible iTV
*	accessibility evaluation techniques for iTV programmes and services
*	the relevance of current accessibility knowledge to iTV
*	the potential of using multiple platforms to improve accessibility,
e.g. iTV and mobile phone
*	the accessibility/usability relationship

Format
The workshop is designed as a one-day mix of presentations and small-and
whole- group discussion, ending with a poster design session.
Please send your contributions by 13 June to: usability at brighton.ac.uk
<mailto:usability at brighton.ac.uk>  (We are aware that the deadlines are
tight. If you are considering to submit but have difficulty to do it in
time, please send us an email).
Participants will be selected on the basis of their interest in and
familiarity with the topic. Contributions will be circulated beforehand and
posted on the Workshop web site.


----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Anxo Cereijo Roibás,
School of Computing, Mathematical 
& Information Sciences
Faculty of Management & Information Sciences 
University of Brighton
Watts Building, Moulsecoomb
Brighton BN2 4GJ
United Kingdom
t   +44(0)1273 64 2458
f   +44(0)1273 64 2405
m +44(0)7814 491790
http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/anxo/ <http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/anxo/>