ASSETS

On behalf of the ASSETS 2012 Program Committee, it is my pleasure to welcome you to an exciting technical program offered by the Fourteenth International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility.

The technical program of 25 podium presentations and 46 posters and demonstrations has been selected through peer-review by a distinguished international program committee. This committee had the very difficult job of assembling a conference program from the diverse set of very highquality submissions. We received submissions from more than 20 different countries. The podium presentations were selected from 88 full-length submissions (a 28% acceptance rate), and have been organized into 9 themes including designing for older adults, understanding aging performance, accessibility at large, shared work, screen reader usage, interactions without sight, visual impairment simulation, communication aids and sign language. The accepted papers address a variety of assistive technology users including older adults, people who use sign language, and people with visual, intellectual, mobility and speech impairments. The Program Committee was also involved in the poster and demonstration program, which was chaired by Faustina Hwang. These 46 presentations were selected from 65 submissions (a 70% acceptance rate). The posters and demonstrations provide an opportunity to showcase late-breaking results as well as work in progress and practical implementations.

Posters and demonstrations and selected ACM Student Research Competition entries are represented by abstracts in these proceedings and in two poster sessions during the conference. The winners of the ACM Student Research Competition will go on to compete in the ACM-wide grand finals, where ASSETS entrants have established a strong track record.

The poster sessions will also showcase participants in the Doctoral Consortium. This one-day workshop preceding the main conference brought together 10 emerging researchers working on accessibility to discuss their ideas with a panel of established experts. A special edition of the SIGACCESS newsletter will feature extended abstracts from these doctoral students.