Web and Aging: Challenges and Opportunities

NOTE: *updated submission dates - now papers due 1st of July*
About the UAIS Journal

The UAIS Journal solicits original research contributions addressing the accessibility, usability and acceptability of Information Society Technologies by anyone, anywhere, at anytime, and through any media and device. Universal access refers to the systematic effort to proactively apply principles, methods and tools of universal design, in order to develop Information Society Technologies which are accessible and usable by all citizens.

The Journal's unique focus is on theoretical, methodological, and empirical research, of both technological and non-technological nature, that addresses equitable access and active participation of potentially all citizens in the Information Society.

For further information, please, refer to the "Aims and scope" section on the Website of the UAIS Journal.

Aims and scope of this special issue

A significant increase of the older population has led to various studies investigating the effect of age in utilizing the Web as an information resource. A report by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2001 stated that the estimated change in the total size of the world's elderly population between July 1999 and July 2000 was more than 9.5 million people, growing at an average of 795,000 people each month. This trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Recent research shows that older adults are beginning to incorporate Web use in their daily activities, mainly because the Web presents an opportunity for them to maintain a high quality of life. As a consequence, a variety of new opportunities and challenges related to the use of the Web by older adults arise in a Universal Access perspective.

The main objective of this special issue is to bring together work by researchers, academics and practitioners from various disciplines who are interested in the interrelationships among web access, web usability and ageing. Contributions on novel methodologies, theories, products and design guidelines that address these issues, as well as on related case studies, are solicited.

Main topics

Authors of submissions should carefully explain how the work and results presented contribute to facilitating and promoting universal access.

Contributions are solicited in, but not limited to, the following topics:

· Information architecture and the older user.

· Ageing-related disabilities and accessible design of web technology.

· Empirical studies on web usability and older users.

· Analytical studies & computational modeling of the older web user.

· Social aspects of web and aging, including the effects of web use on personal well-being, as well as social determinants of successful web use (e.g. educational attainment, socio-economic status, etc.)

· Emerging applications and interaction techniques with high relevance for older web users (e.g., WAP)

· Social policy implications of web access for older users, especially including issues of public access to computing facilities, access to government services, and social/civic engagement.

· Web-based learning and training for the elderly.

Important dates (*updated dates*)

Deadline for submission of papers: July1, 2004.

Notification of acceptance: September 1, 2004.

Deadline for submission of camera-ready version of accepted papers: November 1, 2004.

Expected publication date of the special issue: second half of 2004 or early 2005.

Authors should submit their manuscripts electronically as PDF files to one of the Guest Editors of the special issue:

Panayiotis Zaphiris (e-mail: zaphiri@soi.city.ac.uk).

Sri Kurniawan (e-mail: s.kurniawan@umist.ac.uk)

R. Darin Ellis (e-mail: rdellis@wayne.edu)

The call for papers and any updates about this special issue can be found at http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~zaphiri/UAIS-Aging/

Manuscript preparation

Please, refer to the "Instructions to authors" section on the Website of the UAIS Journal.

Reviewing process

All papers will be peer reviewed by three reviewers, experts in the field, appointed by the Guest Editors of the issue in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.

Copyright information

Submission of an article implies that:

- the work described has not been published before, except in form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis;

- it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

For further information, please, refer to the "Copyright information" section on the Website of the UAIS Journal.