CSCW 2021 is committed to providing an inclusive environment and we will do our best to accommodate requests for assistance. This page describes the accessibility features of CSCW 2021, to help you make an informed decision about whether the conference will be accessible to you. Please contact us if your question is not answered here, or if the conference arrangements as described are not enough to allow you to attend. We will work with you to the best of our ability, to make the conference accessible.
Communicating accessibility needs with organizers
The Equity & Accessibility Chairs for CSCW 2021 are Jean Hardy and Kate Ringland, whose goal is to ensure the conference is accessible to everyone. When you register for the conference, there will be a registration question that asks, “Do you have a disability or special need that impacts your access to ACM conferences, special interest groups, publications, or digital resources?” If you select yes, you will have an open-ended text box to provide your accommodation needs. Please write-in anything that will help make the conference accessible to you. The Equity & Accessibility chairs will follow up to discuss your needs in more detail. You can contact them directly at any time by emailing equity2021@cscw.acm.org.
Please be aware that some accommodations may be difficult to provide at short notice, and we may not be able to accommodate every request.
During the conference, the best people to address your accessibility concerns will be the Equity & Accessibility chairs (equity2021@cscw.acm.org) or the Student Volunteers who will be running the help desk. The help desk will be available starting Monday morning of the conference.
Conference technology and accessibility
CSCW 2021 will be fully virtual. The conference will be using Midspace (formerly Clowdr) as its primary conference technology. According to the Midspace website:
Midspace is fully keyboard navigable, screen reader accessible, colour-contrast compliant (and assists organisers and attendees with choosing contrasting colours when customising the design), and does not rely on colour as the sole means of communicating purpose...We are close to WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, and are working on AAA compliance.
Video presentations and live Q&A sessions for papers and other programs will be streamed using Midspace unless otherwise mentioned. Pre-recorded video presentations will have author-provided captions. CART will be provided for keynotes, plenaries, Town Hall, and all panels. The Q&A portion of the parallel sessions (i.e., the paper panels) will not have automatic captions. Recommendations provided below for browser-side captions.
Captioning
Captioning will be provided in many, but not all, parts of CSCW. CART will be provided during the conference opening and closing sessions (including keynote), during the Town Hall, and during all three panel sessions. Video presentations in parallel sessions will be accompanied by author-provided captions. Other elements of paper sessions and the poster sessions will unfortunately not have captions available. For those sessions, we recommend that attendees use Google Chrome’s built-in live captioning feature [link] or a third-party app such as Web Captioner.
Early access to Midspace
If you would like early access to Midspace the weekend before the conference (Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24) so you can familiarize yourself with the platform, please reach out to the Equity & Accessibility Chairs at equity2021@cscw.acm.org. There will be opportunities to walk through the platform with a Student Volunteer.
Other accessibility concerns or considerations
If you have any other questions or concerns about accessibility, please contact the Equity & Accessibility Chairs at equity2021@cscw.acm.org.
—
This FAQ is based on the CHI 2021 Accessibility FAQ.