From the W3C News page
http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2003/03/call-collaboration.html
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2003/03/call-collaboration.html>

Call for Position Papers:
Teleconference on Making Collaboration Technologies
Accessible for Persons with Disabilities
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Research and
Development Interest Group announces a call for the first in a series of
teleconferences focusing on research issues in the area of accessibility and
web-related technologies.
Introduction
The web is bringing together individuals and enabling them
to collaborate in new and innovative ways. Today, diverse communities of
people can come together in virtual spaces for meetings and working
sessions. This is particularly important as travel to face to face meetings
can be difficult for budgetary or security reasons.
Examples of such communities include standards development,
engineering, knowledge management, software/content development,
accessibility, scientific research, government/international rules and
regulations, and education. Diverse, international groups currently use a
variety of tools, such as instant messaging, IRC, shared desktops, and
teleconferencing for real time interaction, as well as email, mailing lists,
weblogs and proprietary format documents for asynchronous interaction.
Collaboration, for example, on a design specification, is
typically accomplished by using several of the aforementioned technologies,
with little real integration between the different tools. Participants in
the collaboration may not all have equal access in the process, for reasons
of disability, bandwidth, firewalls, language, etc.
Promising research is underway around the world, exploring
innovative technologies and user interfaces for collaboration.
We are seeking position papers from researchers and
practitioners (academia, industry, government, consulting) on state of the
art work in document collaboration. In particular, we are looking for
research which can address requirements expressed in the following use
cases.
Scenario: An international Open Source
Software Project consists of software developers from the US, Japan, Sweden,
Thailand, Malaysia, China, and India. Several developers have disabilities,
including visual impairments, deafness, mobility impairment, and deaf blind.
The project is in its planning stage and developers need to meet virtually
to design and create the software specification. Regular face to face
meetings are not possible.
The goal is the shared development of a
web-based specification document, with flow charts, diagrams, and screen
layouts. Weekly teleconferences involve collaborative review and editing of
the specification and its elements. Individuals must be able create and read
annotations in a modality appropriate to their needs. For example, graphical
annotations or notes (a circled word and added note), need to be visible to
all participants.
Additional use cases can be found at the RDIG web site
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2003/03/use-cases.html> .
Your position paper should describe your research and
indicate whether it can address some aspect of the scenarios presented in
the use cases above, addresses other aspects of collaboration, or submit
your own use case. If you are uncertain as to how your work can meet
specific use case requirements, it is acceptable to pose this as a question
in your position paper.
Who should participate
Researchers and practitioners active in any aspect of
Collaboration Technologies, Human Computer Interaction, Assistive
Technologies, Disability Studies, Web Accessibility, or related fields.
Goals of the Teleconference
Participants in this conference can expect to gain an
improved, synergistic understanding of research being done in accessible
collaboration technologies for the internet and to develop contacts with
others performing such research.
The mission of the Research and Development Interest Group
(RDIG) is to increase the number of Web-related researchers who incorporate
accessibility into their research design, and to identify projects
researching Web accessibility, and suggest techniques that may contribute to
new projects. The desired outcome of more research in Web accessibility and
awareness of accessibility in mainstream Web-related research should
decrease the number of potential barriers in future Web-related
technologies.
Proceedings of the Teleconference will be web-published by
the Research and Development Interest Group.
Event Information
Tentative date for the first event is Monday, 14 April,
2003. The format of the event is a teleconference, augmented by web-based
presentation material, and IRC.
A position paper is not required for participation in the
teleconference. Registration will be required for participation.
Registration information and further event details will be announced by
March 14, 2003. Consult the RDIG home page for the latest information.
The format of the teleconference will consist of 30-45
minutes for introductions and presentations, and 45-60 minutes for
discussion. Questions for discussion may be submitted in advance by email to
the chair. Follow on discussion by the presenters and participants is
encouraged.
Submission Information
Position papers are due by 21 March 2003 and should be sent
to the chair ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ) and W3C
staff contact ([log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
). The papers should be short (limited to one page) and be submitted in HTML
or plain text format. Papers in other formats will be returned.
All relevant position papers submitted will be published on
the RDIG web site. The RDIG Planning Group
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/planning.html>  will invite the authors of select
position papers to make a short presentation at the event to foster
discussion. Authors of papers not selected for presentation are invited to
contribute to the discussion portion of the teleconference.
The invited presentations are to be approximately 15 minutes
in length and should include slides or other presentation materials. Authors
are also required to make the slides of their presentation available on the
event Web site.
Position papers will be published on the public Web pages
for the event and must be available for public dissemination. Submitting a
position paper comprises a default recognition of these terms for
publication.
Information shared in RDIG meetings and proceedings is
publicly visible. W3C reminds presenters and participants to disclose, where
known, the IPR status of information that they share in RDIG meetings and
materials, in accordance with Section 2.2, Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR) Policy <http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process-20010719/policies.html> ,
of the W3C Process Document. Please also refer to the "Intellectual Property
Rights" section of the RDIG Charter
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/charter-200201.html> .


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