We encourage doctoral candidates at an early-to-mid stage of their research to apply rather than students who have already made substantial progress toward their dissertations. 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. See the Call for Papers.

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 Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
• The Advisor’s Letter of Recommendation should be received by Wednesday, July 10, 2024, and sent directly from the advisor to dc-chairs-assets24@acm.org.
• Notification of Acceptance: Wednesday, August 7, 2024
• Video presentation deadline: Wednesday, August 28, 2024

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 the 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. The Summary should include: title, author information, abstract, keywords, thesis research summary, and references. Document format should be: single column, 1.5 spaced, 12pt sans serif font. References do not count toward 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 to 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. The letter should be sent directly from the advisor to dc-chairs-assets24@acm.org.

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

• The originality of the work
• The importance of the work and potential impacts on 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

Following the Doctoral Consortium, participants may be invited to submit revised and updated papers for publication in a 2025 issue of the SIGACCESS Newsletter.

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.

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 2024.

The main event is expected to start on Sunday, October 27, 2024. The specifics of the schedule will be announced closer to the event.

For further information or questions regarding the event or submissions, please contact the Doctoral Consortium Chairs, Kristen Shinohara and Shari Trewin, at dc-chairs-assets24@acm.org.