W4A 2009 - W4A 2009 6th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility Co-Located with the 18th International World Wide Web Conference

Web Accessibility for Older Users
Are We There Yet?
Co-Located with the Eighteenth International World Wide Web Conference, in Madrid, Spain. The Conference will be held on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st April 2009.
Population demographics indicate that our populations are ageing across the board. As the population ages the financial requirement to work longer is increased, but the ability to work longer is reduced because disability becomes a bar to employment. With the growth of the knowledge economy, and a move from manual work to more thought-based and communication-based activities, there is the very real possibility of older Web users being able to finding productive, fulfilling, and social empowering employment; if only technology, and specifically the Web, where available to them. An ageing but Web literate population indicates a large market for online shopping and services especially when mobility is a problem for the shopper. In this case we wonder how this new population will interact with Web based resources, and what new problems in accessibility will there be to overcome? Will the Web provide the social, employment, and health care benefits currently unavailable to older users? Will complex and highly graphical interfaces exclude ageing users from access? What problems exist, what are the upcoming problems, what solutions are required? How do the adoption patterns for Web access by older people vary across cultures? How do the adoption patterns for Web access by older people vary across cultures? Finally, what effect will an ageing user population have on the wider Web? We pose the question:
Web accessibility for older users - are we there yet?
In this case topics of interests include (but are not limited to):

Accessibility Problems of Older Users;
Web Based Employment for Older Users;
Web Based Health Care for Older Users;
Evaluation and Validation tools and techniques for Older Users;
User Experimentation looking at Social Networking and Freedom of Expression;
User Agents for Older users and User Agent Guidelines;
Web Authoring Guidelines;
Design and best practice to support Web accessibility;
Technological advances to support Web accessibility;
End user tools;
Accessibility guidelines, best practice, evaluation techniques, and tools;
Psychology of end user experiences and scenarios;
Innovative techniques to support accessibility;
Universally accessible graphical design approaches;
Design Perspectives;
Adapting existing Web content; and
Accessible graphic formats and tools for their creation.