Doctoral Consortium

The ASSETS 2022 Doctoral Consortium (DC) is expected to be held on Sunday, October 23, 2022.

The overarching goal of the consortium is to encourage and prepare a group of promising young researchers dedicated to accessibility and assistive technology by:

• Providing PhD students with a supportive forum to submit and receive high-quality feedback about their accessibility-related dissertation work from researchers outside their own institution, including student peers, faculty, and industry professionals.
• Providing opportunities for participants to network with one another and senior members of the ASSETS community.
• Enabling the student participants to attend the ASSETS 2022 conference, to contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and conference events, and to learn of potential career paths within academia and industry.

Who Should Apply

We encourage doctoral candidates at an early-to-mid stage of their research to apply rather than students who have already made substantial progress towards their dissertation. The DC focuses on earlier-stage students because the goal is to provide feedback that can help guide and shape dissertation research agendas.

Applicants may also submit to the Student Research Competition, but the work described must be different.

Relevant Topics

Relevant topics for the Consortium are the same as for the conference as a whole. See the Call for Papers.

Important Dates and How to Apply

All deadlines are 5 P.M. Pacific Time (GMT -8:00).

Each Doctoral Consortium applicant must submit a package of application materials and also request a letter of recommendation from their advisor.

The student’s Cover Letter, the Research Project Summary, and CV should be submitted to PCS as a combined PDF document by Monday, July 11, 2022.

The Advisor’s Letter of Recommendation should be received by Monday, July 11, 2022 and sent directly from the advisor to dc-chairs-assets22@acm.org.

Notification of Acceptance: Friday, July 15, 2022

Camera ready deadline: Friday, July 29, 2022

Video presentation deadline: Monday, August 15, 2022

Applicant's Materials

Submissions are not anonymous; the applicant's name must appear on the documents.

• Cover Letter

  The cover letter should contain the following information:

  • A statement of interest in participating in the Doctoral Consortium
  • The full name of University and Department in which the candidate is earning their doctorate degree
  • The name of the primary supervisor
  • Full contact information, including address, telephone number, and email address
  • The title of the research and keywords pertinent to the research
  • The URL of the candidate's web page (if any)
  • What the candidate hopes and expects to experience at the Doctoral Consortium
• Research Project Summary

  The Research Project Summary should be 4,000 to 5,000 words, use one the following templates, and include: title, author information, abstract, keywords, thesis research summary, and references. References do not count towards word count.

  This extended abstract must clearly address:

  • The problem that the proposed research is addressing
  • The motivation behind this research, including a broad comparison with the related literature
  • The proposed solution, including a brief description of the proposed methodology to the solution
  • The stage of the candidate's program of study, including the status of the research (i.e., what has been done to date, and what still needs to be done)
  • The envisioned contributions to the accessibility field
  • Bibliographical references
• The Candidate's CV

  The candidate is required to submit a CV (maximum of 2 pages) that relates their background, relevant experience, and research accomplishments.

• Supervisor’s Letter of Recommendation

  A letter on official letterhead from the primary thesis advisor/supervisor that briefly states what the advisor/supervisor expects the student to gain from and contribute to the consortium. Letters should be received by June 29, 2022, 5 P.M. Pacific Time (GMT -8:00). The letter should be sent directly from the advisor to dc-chairs-assets22@acm.org.

How To Submit

Please upload all relevant materials to the Doctoral Consortium submission site as separate PDF documents by Monday, July 11, 2022, 5 P.M. Pacific Time (GMT -8:00).

Student Participant Selection Process

The Doctoral Consortium applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• The originality of work
• The importance of the work and potential impacts to the accessibility field
• The soundness and correctness of the proposed approach to address the problem
• Balance overall in terms of geographic areas and topics covered

Publication

Following the Doctoral Consortium, participants may be invited to submit revised and updated papers for publication in a 2023 issue of the SIGACCESS Newsletter.

Posters

Doctoral Consortium participants are invited to share their work as a poster, to be presented during the poster sessions at the conference. Presenters should follow the poster presentation accessibility guidelines outlined in the Posters and Demos category.

Sign Language Interpreting or Captioning

Upon request, sign language interpreting or captioning will be provided for the Doctoral Consortium, and all other ASSETS events. Requests for an interpreter or captioner must be indicated on the conference registration form when registering for ASSETS 2022.

Location

Given the hybrid format of the conference, the current expectation is that the Doctoral Consortium will be held hybrid at Athens and all participants will either physically or remotely present their research in Athens at the pre-conference Doctoral Consortium day. Mind please, that the event will still centre on local time in Athens. In addition, we will ask all authors to prepare prerecorded and captioned videos that will be made available to all attendees (both virtual-only attendees and on-site attendees). If you have disability or health concerns that prevent travel, please contact assets22-leadership@acm.org.

Schedule

The main event is expected to start on Sunday, October 23, 2022. The specifics of the schedule will be announced closer to the event.

Further Information

For further information or any questions regarding the event or submissions, please contact the Doctoral Consortium Chairs, Katta Spiel and Aqueasha Martin-Hammond, at dc-chairs-assets22@acm.org.

Mentors

• Cynthia Bennett
• Robin Brewer
• Kathrin Gerling