CVHI 2009 EURO-ASSIST-VHI-6 

Conference and Workshop on Assistive Technologies

for People with Vision and Hearing Impairments

Past Successes and Future Challenges

20th – 23th April, 2009

Hotel Dom Jana Pawla II

Wroclaw, Poland

 CALL FOR PAPERS

This is the sixth event in the CVHI international conference series on Assistive Technologies and Rehabilitation Engineering supported by the European Commission. It will be held in Wroclaw, Poland. The conference event will take place 20th – 23th April, 2009 with Tutorial Workshops being held on Monday 20th April 2009 (provisional dates) at the conference hotel. CVHI is part of the CWST project (http://cwst.icchp.org).

This First Call for Papers seeks regular conference papers (six A4 pages) and workshops (12 pages) on any topic relevant to the engineering and scientific themes of assistive technology for sensory impaired people. In particular contributions are being sought on the following topics:
• Overview of progress and successes to date
• Neglected areas: assistive technology for sport and leisure activities
• Mobility and orientation technology: any advances on the long cane and guide dog?
• Improving assistive technology distribution mechanisms
• Making the internet and the information society fully accessible
• Educational technologies and new pedagogical approaches
• The need for new technological developments
• New approaches for matching assistive technology to the end-user
• The need for new assistive technology standards
• The history and development of assistive technology.
• The current state-of-the-art and future directions
• The gaps in assistive technology provision and the potential solutions
• Navigation and orientation: is GPS the ultimate answer?
• What technological and other developments are required to make the home and work environments fully accessible?
• Information technology and the information society
• Technology design for people with multiple impairments
• Design for specific user groups
• Design for all: methods and applications
• Environmental accessibility and building design
• Participating in the democratic process: are e-voting and e-democracy the way forward?
• Devices to support everyday living: where are the gaps and what are the solutions?
• The interfaces between technology developers and (sensory impaired) end-users
• Engineering and social science perspectives on involving end-users and developing assistive technology
• Technical, social, psychological and ergonomic factors in designing assistive technology
• Spreading the word: informing end-users, students and designers about assistive technology

Timetable for Paper Submission and Conference Events Abstracts (2A4 pages): 20th October, 2008
Review Decisions due: 26th November, 2008
Full papers : 16th February, 2009
Early registration due: 16th February, 2009
Tutorial day at CVH 2009: 20th April, 2009
Conference days of CVHI’2009: 21th – 23rd April, 2009

Abstract Layout for Conference Papers
The abstract should be two A4 pages in length, one column and single line spacing. Use Arial 11pt or 12pt font type. The Author for Correspondence should be clearly identified at the top of the Abstract, and full postal, fax and email contact details given. The extended abstract should contain the following information:
• A clear statement of the contributions of the paper.
• Section headings and an outline of the contents each section
• A short list of the literature cited in the paper.
Papers will only be accepted on the condition that at least one author will attend the Conference to present the work.

Invited Session Proposals
A proposal for an invited session should consist of:
• A one A4 page abstract discussing the session aims and how the papers contribute to them.
• Extended abstracts for the five or six papers which will compose the session.

Workshop Proposals
People considering proposing workshops are invited to contact the Conference Chair via the Conference Secretariat to discuss workshop proposals before submitting them. Workshop proposals should include the following information:
• A clear statement of the workshop topic and aims
• Details of the workshop format, including any additional speakers, videos etc
• Section heading and an outline of the contents of each section or theme of the workshop.

Abstracts should be emailed to the Conference Secretariat by 20 October, 2008 as a WORD document file. The address is V.Romanes@elec.gla.ac.uk.

The file name should be author.doc, where author is the surname of the first author of the paper or author1.doc, author2.doc, if there are several papers by the same author.

Bursaries and Financial Support for Workshop
A number of full and partial bursaries will be available to young researchers and disabled researchers. Application forms (deadline 20 October 2008) are available at http://www.elec.gla.ac.uk/Events_page/CVHI/cvhi/pages/bursaries.php. There will also be some financial support for workshop organisers and organisers of invited sessions.