ASSETS

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 9^th ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility -- ASSETS'07. As in the past, ASSETS 2007 explores the potential of computer and information technologies to support and include everyone, regardless of age or disability. ASSETS is the premier forum for presenting innovative research on the design and use of both mainstream and specialized assistive technologies by people of all ages and with different capabilities, and those around them.

The call for papers attracted 86 technical paper submissions from 18 countries spread over 5 continents. A further 33 poster and demonstration submissions were received by the poster and demonstration chairs, Anna Dickinson and Joy Goodman-Deane. All were peer-reviewed by an international program committee, in order to ensure that the accepted work truly represents the state of the art in accessibility. 27 papers and 21 posters and demonstrations were accepted.

ASSETS 2007 continues its tradition of encouraging dialog through a single-track forum with opportunities for delegates to share results, mingle and discuss their work. This year, the conference opens with a keynote speech by Jonathan Wolpaw, professor and research physician at the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health and State University of New York. His presentation describes the latest research in brain-computer interfaces for communication and control. The main conference program continues with seven technical paper sessions and two poster and demonstration sessions. These proceedings contain both the technical papers, and two-page extended abstracts for each of the poster and demonstration submissions.

This year's program continues the SIGACCESS student research competition (SRC), sponsored by Microsoft Research. The SRC, chaired by Harriet Fell, is an opportunity for both graduate and undergraduate students to present their work at the conference in poster form. Abstracts from the accepted SRC submissions are included in these proceedings. At the conference, selected entrants will give a short presentation in the main program, and a panel of judges will select one or more finalists, who will be entered into the Grand Finals of ACM's Student Research Competition.

As in previous years, the main program is preceded by a doctoral consortium, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and chaired by Clayton Lewis and Sri Kurniawan. This provides an opportunity for doctoral students in the early stages of research to present their work and receive feedback from peers and a selected pool of experts. All participants in the doctoral consortium will also present their work during one of the main conference poster sessions, and one participant, selected by the doctoral consortium committee, will give a presentation in a conference session.

Following the tradition of the ASSETS conference series, two awards will be made at the conference: the SIGACCESS Best Paper Award, and the SIGACCESS Best Student Paper Award.