ASSETS

ASSETS 2002 is the fifth in ACM's series of conferences sponsored by SIGCAPH. While continuing its traditional focus on assistive technologies, ASSETS 2002 extends the discussions to topics related to Universal Access. Our vision for the conference is to significantly contribute to the scientific knowledge base with an infusion of influential, ground breaking research, design, and evaluation, so that substantial advances can be made by researchers and practitioners who are committed to empowering everyone, universally, with equal access.This proceedings volume is composed of 32 technical papers, contributed by 96 different authors, representing Canada, Chile, England, Greece, Germany, Japan, Scotland, and the USA. The papers are organized into sessions on topics including blindness and vision impairments, hearing and language impairments, motor impairments, cognitive impairments, the elderly, technology access, and speech recognition. The papers were subjected to a competitive peer review process, resulting in an acceptance rate of 36 percent. Thus, the papers that comprise this proceedings volume truly represent the state-of-the-art in this field.As in the past, the conference remains an exceptional forum for researchers, practitioners, educators, and students to present their work as formal papers, as well as engage in interactive dialogue, sharing experiences, accomplishments, and diverse perspectives. In this tradition, Assets 2002 remains a single-track conference, providing meals and social events to encourage informal interactions among participants. Attendees of past ASSETS conferences agree that this format contributed to a very positive, productive conference experience.Another impressive bit of news about ASSETS 2002 - this is the first time that an ASSETS conference has been held in Europe. A quick review of author affiliations makes it clear that this change of venue has attracted many new attendees to the conference. We are confident that by attracting a group of attendees to the conference that are highly representative of this increasingly diverse community, we will realize an even more expedient infusion of new knowledge and ideas into the work that igbeing conducted in this important area.The Conference Organizers, Program Committee and Advisory Panel worked hard to make this conference accessible to all attendees. From the choice of the conference meeting space, to web design, and local arrangements, all efforts have been made to ensure that every attendee will have full access to information and events. If you have feedback about how to improve any aspect of the conference in terms of accessibility, please inform the Conference Chair.