Special Session on eAccessibility and User Experience (eAUX)

Organizer:
Prof. dr. Željka Car, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing

Updated deadline: March 8, 2013

[Download this Call for Paper in PDF]

New ICT services and emerging digital content being provided for users daily represent an extraordinary enabler for business opportunities, education and infotainment. However, a significant number of users face particular difficulties in benefiting fully from them, and they need enhanced skills to tackle that digital barrier. eAccessibility is a strategy undertaken to identify and overcome barriers that may inhibit or prevent people with specific access needs from being able to successfully use the resource as intended, and participate fully in society. eAccessibility is also one of the major activities of European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, aiming to enhance digital literacy, skills and inclusion.

Human-computer interaction (HCI), as a mature research discipline, offers numerous approaches for development of efficient user interfaces and means of people interacting with technology. Nevertheless, taking into account all aspects of a user experience (UX) with the system, product or service represents a challenge regarding the dynamic nature of person’s experience, its subjectivity, and the specificities of concerned user group(s). The challenge is even more expressed if users depend on an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), combining different methods to replace or supplement natural speech and/or writing with symbols. User experience design (UED) fully encompasses traditional HCI design, and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users.

The goal of this Special Session is to share and discuss research, clinical and industrial results on developing and applying Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) systems for people with special communication needs. Multidisciplinary approach is beneficial, involving the aspects of software engineering, computer science, education and rehabilitation sciences, speech therapy, psychology, and design. The original submissions are solicited on topics related to the R&D issues and solutions in the field of eAccessibility of new ICT services and various digital resources, with emphasis on new mainstream technology (smartphones, tablets) and related user experience design.

Authors are encouraged to submit their contributions related to the Special Session main theme – eAccessibility and User Experience – and especially the following topics:

  • Concepts and case studies of eAccessibility and e-Inclusion in general,
  • ICT-based services for augmentative and alternative communication,
  • Participatory design for people with complex communication needs,
  • ICT-related education on eAccessibility and user-centered design,
  • Usability and accessibility focused requirements engineering,
  • Novel methods and case studies in user experience design,
  • User interface and content adaptation in AAC services,
  • Context aware agents for user experience evaluation.

Paper should be formatted according to the general conference paper format, and submitted through EDAS (select the special session under topics).

The deadline for Full Papers is March 8, 2013.

The paper submission, review, and publication rules are the same as for the general conference.

To see detailed instructions, go to Paper Submission, or to submit a paper, go directly to submission page in EDAS.

Organizer:

Prof. dr. Željka Car, University of Zagreb
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Unska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
E-mail: zeljka.car@fer.hr
Phone: +385 1 6129 787,
Fax: +385 1 6129 832

Željka Car, Ph.D. is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb where she works as an associate professor at the Department of Telecommunications. She received Ph.D. (2001) and M.Sc. (1996) degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb. Her research interests are software engineering and project management in the area of e-accessibility and telecommunications value added services. She participates in the research projects funded by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, as well as in industry projects dealing with software development processes and project management. Ms. Car is one of the founders and charter member of the PMI Zagreb, Croatia Chapter. She is also chair of the IEEE Engineering Management Society Croatia Chapter.