Call for Papers - Computers Helping People with Special Needs, (ICCHP), Austria 2008

ICCHP, 9-11 July 2008 Call for Papers

Special Thematic Session on Accessible Tourism

This is the call for papers for the Special Thematic Session (STS) Accessible Tourism during the 11th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP 08, http://www.icchp.org ), 9-11 July 2008, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria

Co-chairs:

• Dimitrios Buhalis, International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, Bournemouth University, UK, Email: dbuhalis [at] bournemouth.ac.uk
• Ivor Ambrose, European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), General Secretariat, Email: enat [at] accessibletourism.org
• Franz Pühretmair, Competence Network information technology to support the integration of people with disabilities, (KI-I), Austria, Email: fp [at] ki-i.at

Conference Overview
The 11th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs will be held in Linz in July 2008. Over the last decades the advancement in Assistive Technologies (AT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have significantly influenced the life of people with disabilities. According changes in awareness and understanding of disability as well as social and legal frameworks, driven by Disability Rights and Independent Living Movements led to what is known as eAccessibility, Universal Design or eInclusion.
The more ICT and AT increases the potential to enable people with disabilities to take part in almost any area of life, the more eInclusion and eAccessibility become a common responsibility of mainstream.
In 2006 ICCHP summarised this process in the equation "equality = eQuality". "Equality", equal access and therefore equal chances in society are dependant on "eQuality", the quality of systems and services in taking the needs of all users into account including those with disabilities. The progress is outstanding - in most of the industrialized countries. But eInclusion in a global economy and world should also be seen as a global challenge.
Due to this ICCHP'08 wants to give a special focus on problems of people with disabilities in countries in difficult economic and political situations. We must not neglect that people with disabilities often face the most difficult situations out of economic, political and social reasons. They do not have access to ICT, AT and the according eInclusion and emancipation.

Call for Papers
Tourism and travel experiences are still highly restricted by physical accessibility barriers, such as: transportation constraints, inaccessible accommodation and tourism sites as well as information barriers such as a general lack of information or poorly designed web sites. The tourism industry has on the one hand neglected to provide information about accessibility and on the other hand to adopt inclusive design principles. This is because of lack of enforcement of statutory building regulations, lack of knowledge and misperception about disabled and elderly customers' actual requirements, and social segregation and stereotype challenges of catering for disabled and elderly customers.
In addition the accessibility requiring market is significant in terms of size as well as spending power. It has been estimated that over 750 million people worldwide have some type of disability. The OSSATE project has estimated the number of people with accessibility requirements in Europe to almost 130 million, when including the elderly as there is a strong and positive correlation between ageing and disability. To address the accessibility requiring market and benefit from the multiplier effects generated by friends and relatives travelling with them tourism organisations and destinations should reassure accessibility in both their physical/built and on-line environments.
The Special Thematic Session on Accessible Tourism is organized to provide a forum to discuss major issues related to Accessible Tourism, to identify existing barriers as well as technologies, strategies and approaches to promote Accessible Tourism. The Accessible Tourism section of ICCHP invites papers from all aspects across a wide spectrum of Information and Communications Technologies and accessible tourism. The Special Thematic Session particularly invites tourism-hospitality-leisure related papers on usages of

• eTourism and disability
• Accessible Tourism websites and accessible Tourism Information Systems (TIS)
• Accessibility information in modern TIS
• Accessible Travel and Leisure holidays
• Accessibility information / guidelines / audits for tourism products
• Usability and user-interface studies
• Economic evaluations of Accessible Tourism
• Technologies and applications supporting Accessible Tourism
• eAccessibility
• Universal Design and usability
• eInclusion

Case studies of eTourism applications for the disabled markets, as well as the usage of technology for facilitating disabled tourists before and during their visit are particularly welcome.

Papers and Short Papers
Papers (8 pages) and short papers (4 pages) will be presented and discussed in time slots of 20 to 30 (papers) or 10 to 20 minutes (short papers). Authors are asked, in order to allow a fair review process, to submit well elaborated extended abstract not later than February 1, 2008. Authors should follow the instructions for preparing contributions ("extended abstracts") at: www.icchp.org/call/papers
Information on how to prepare the camera ready version for Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science can be found at: www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html.

Registration to the conference by one author is mandatory!

Key Dates

• Deadline for Papers / extended Abstracts February 1, 2008
• Notification of Acceptance March 1, 2008
• Preliminary Programme March 15, 2008
• Deadline for full, Camera Ready Papers April 15, 2008

We hope for interesting contributions, and look forward to meet you at ICCHP in Linz!

Visit the Conference Website at: www.icchp.org

You may download this Call text in PDF format from the right-hand panel.