5th ERCIM Workshop on ‘User Interfaces for All’
by Constantine Stephanidis, Alfred Kobsa and Michael Pieper
The 5th Workshop of the ERCIM Working Group ‘User Interfaces for All’ took place at the International Conference and Research Centre For Computer Science in the Castle of Dagstuhl, Germany, 28 November to 1st December 1999. The Workshop was organised by GMD, with Prof. Alfred Kobsa acting as the Programme Chair and Dr. Michael Pieper as the local organisation Chair.
The Workshop aimed to consolidate recent work, and to stimulate further discussion, on the state of the art in the field of User Interfaces for All. The emphasis of this year’s Workshop was on theories, methodologies, techniques and tools that contribute to the development of User-Tailored Information Environments. The Workshop attracted considerable interest, with 47 participants from 15 countries around the world.
There were two invited speakers: Dr. Jon Gunderson, Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology Accessibility in the Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, USA, who focussed on Universal Design as a critical factor toward Web accessibility in his capacity as chair of the W3C-Web Accessibility Initiative User Agent Working Group, and Dr. Hans-Heinrich Bothe, Associate Professor at the Department of Technology and Science at Orebro University, Sweden, who focussed on the application of assistive technologies, multimedia and robotics in communication between hard of hearing/ deaf people and able-bodied people. The paper presentations and the discussions during the workshop covered a variety of related topics, including user requirements, information filtering and presentation, evaluation, design principles and guidelines, assistive technologies, and adaptivity and adaptability.
Following a peer review process, the Workshop’s proceedings have included 13 long papers and six short papers. Additionally, six posters were presented during the interactive poster session at the Workshop. The proceedings of the Workshop will be electronically available via the Web site of the ERCIM Working Group ‘User Interfaces for All’ at: http://www.ics.forth.gr/ercim-wg-ui4all/.
In the morning of December the 1st, 1999, an open meeting of the ERCIM UI4ALL Working Group was held at the same location. Following an overview and discussion of recent activities, the group focused on the planning of future activities, and in particular collaborative project work. The 6th ERCIM Workshop on ‘User Interfaces for All’ is planned to take place in Florence, Italy, 26-28 October 2000, and the Programme Chair and local organiser will be Dr. Pier Luigi Emiliani, Director of CNR-IROE.
Please contact:
Constantine Stephanidis - FORTH-ICS
Chair, ERCIM Working Group ‘User Interfaces for All
Tel: +30 81 39 17 41
E-mail: cs@ics.forth.gr