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What's SIGACCESS ? | ||
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SIGACCESS is neither an acronym nor not an acronym. "SIG" stands for Special Interest Group; "ACCESS" stands for "Accessible Computing", which does not just mean accessible computing, but a highly qualified sort of accessible computing restricted to "research and development of computing and information technology to help persons with disabilities" ( quoted from the SIG web page ). You'll gather that I'm not fond of the new name, however well intentioned it might be. Perhaps fortunately, my preferences do not determine how the universe runs, so you can ignore them.
The group used to be SIGCAPH, which stood for "Special Interest Group on Computers And the Physically Handicapped". At least it says what it means - except I'd want to generalise the "physical" bit. End of spleen. The group is part of the ACM ( Association for Computing Machinery ). | ||
Please send stuff ! | ||
| I am always happy to receive material for the Newsletter. | ||
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If you have something that fits the criteria, please
send it along to me ! -
or, if you're not quite sure about it and would like to discuss possibilities,
let's discuss it. Do not worry about the document format, at least to begin with, as we can work that out later if we have to. I can ( I think ) read most
common formats; if I can't read yours, I'll let you know and we can try again.
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| Obviously, I can't undertake to print everything that happens to come along, and I might want to suggest changes which I think would make an article fit our criteria better. Then you might want to argue against my suggestions, and we shall have a civilised exchange of views. That said, I would wish to meddle as little as possible; I do want to get a broad range of views and experience, so I'm not going to create difficulties for the fun of it. | ||
What ARE the criteria ? | ||
| Our editorial policy is, roughly, that we're interested in anything which will fit the title. There's a notice inside the Newsletter cover which ( at this moment, but obviously likely to change soon ) reads thus : | ||
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| ( The confident reference to "January, June, and September" is the ideal; in practice, we've had a rather shaky record over the last two years or so, but we're trying to get back into the thrice-yearly rhythm. ) | ||
| It's supposed to be news, but that is to be interpreted as any sort of novelty - new ideas, new events, new facilities, new interpretations, etc. We've printed shortish papers, reports of work in progress, speculation, conference reports, notices of meetings, etc. If what you want to submit doesn't fit into those categories, we can always make a new one; the idea is to get the information out, not to worry about how it's classified. My primary concern is that the Newsletter should be interesting and informative. If you're not sure whether your work would fit in, please don't hesitate to ask me about it. | ||
| We interpret the criteria broadly. Quite possibly something else you've already done would fit, perhaps with minor modifications. That's another publication with minimal work ! - but please put in some work, unless you're sure that copyright on the original won't be an issue. Perhaps you are ( or have ) a research student with a bright idea, or a comment, or a guess; write it down and send it along. I shall be a bit fussy about stuff like grammar, spelling, and punctuation - if you want to use the Newsletter as a training ground for your students, that's all right with me. ( If the load gets overwhelming, I might have to revise that statement, but too much is better than nothing at all. ) | ||
| I shall also be a bit fussy about content. I don't want to bridle your opinions, but I do want it to make sense. This includes things like sound arguments, providing context ( previous work, other opinions, ... ), comprehensible pictures, etc. - in other words, good technical writing. I'll tell you if I'm unhappy about it, and might even suggest changes which I believe to be improvements if I can think of any. | ||
| Acceptance is by editorial review; I'll obtain a second opinion if I think it necessary. Publication is therefore fairly quick, subject to our schedule, but you don't get much academic credit for it. That's fair enough, as we aim to be interesting and informative for a fairly general readership rather than up with the forefront of research. ( Of course, if you want to send us your top-grade research, we won't say no. ) | ||
| How big ? Our issues are always 4N US Letter pages - typically 16 - in size. Unless you have something very good, we would be unenthusiastic about giving you a whole Newsletter. Use your judgment. | ||
More than you need to know ... | ||
| Here's an extra bit, which I originally did for my own interest just before I took over the editorship. It's a list of topics on which articles looking more or less like formal papers have appeared in the Newsletter. They're my interpretations of the topics, not necessarily the titles of the articles; I offer it here because the topics give some idea of the scope of acceptable material. The restriction to "papers" comes from my original purpose in making the table, and has nothing to do with their acceptability; in fact, we've published more short notes, announcements, etc. | ||
| 72 | 2003 | June ? | Computer assistance for telephone use |
| 71 | 2001 | September | Accessibility |
| 70 | 2001 | June | Accessibility ( Interact 99 workshop ) |
| 69 | 2001 | January | Accessibility ( Interact 99 workshop ) |
| 68 | 2000 | September | Brain-computer interface Web "mobility" for visually impaired people |
| 67 | 2000 | June | Facial expression recognition Mathematics teaching to visually impaired students |
| 66 | 2000 | January | Non-visual access to music notation Mathematical formulae - LATEX to Braille |
| 65 | 1999 | September | Training in technology
use Accessibility Earcons ( audible "icons" ) |
| 64 | 1999 | June | Low-vision computer users EEG/EMG computer interface |
| 63 | 1999 | January | Computers for people with disabilities at
work Rehabilitation robotics |
| 62 | 1998 | September | Workshop report : "Towards an information society for all" |
| 61 | 1998 | June | Learning tools for profoundly deaf children Improved visual interface for partially sighted people |
| 60 | 1998 | January | Database of information about rehabilitation
resources Making 2.5-dimensional solid models of graphic images |
| 59 | 1997 | September | Computers used to fit prosthetic
devices Accessibility |
| 58 | 1997 | June | System design and specification |
| 57 | 1997 | January | Audio assistance for conveying 3D information |
| 56 | 1996 | September | Presenting graphics as tactile images |
| 55 | 1996 | June | WWW access for visually impaired people Presenting graphics as tactile images |
| 54 | 1996 | January | Research and development in rehabilitation
technology User interfaces for all |
| 52, 53 | 1995 | November | Accessibility for all Computers in social integration of people with disabilities. |
| 51 | 1995 | January | Printing tactile images Adjustable user interface for wider access to software |
| 50 | 1994 | September | ( ASSETS conference announcement ) |
| 49 | 1994 | March | Access to windows environments by visually-impaired people |
| 48 | 1993 | September | Modular computer interface system for wide range of
abilities SGML used for different access modes |
| 47 | 1993 | June | Improving accessibility of software |
| 46 | 1992 | November | Musings on interface possibilities |
| 45 | 1992 | April | Impact of "Americans with disabilities" Act |
| 44 | 1992 | January | Sound spaces as interfaces for visually impaired people |
| 43 | 1990 | October | ( Conference proceedings ) |
| 42 | 1990 | June | Ethics in interface design |
| 41 | 1989 | January | Communication methods of vocally disabled
people Support for visually impaired programmers |
| 40 | 1988 | Summer | ( announcements, business ) |
| 39 | 1988 | Spring | Manual sign to speech conversion Magnified screen output |
Alan Creak,
2005 March.
Go to me ( Alan Creak, in case you've
forgotten ).