Special Thematic Sessions (STS) intend to give a comprehensive overview to a very specific topic. Conferences and especially proceedings of conferences often lack such harmonized articles helping the reader to get information at one stop. STS therefore will enhance the quality of presentations for those who are not specialists in the field themselves.
ICCHP 2004 offers the opportunity to organise Special Thematic Sessions to present a detailed comprehensive view to specific fields. An introduction by the chair as a free publication in the proceedings will recognize these efforts.

The STS chapters in the proceedings are intended to be very well suitable as introductions and summaries for teaching purposes. The collection of STS in the long run should provide a valuable, balanced and harmonised discussion of ICT for people with disabilities and might be the starting point for wirting a book, doing a project, etc.

STS chairs and authors are also invited to consider new forms of presenting their papers and how to entertain their audience: panel presentations, moderated paper discussions, etc.

Special Thematic Sessions must be proposed not later than December 14, 2003.
The Rules and Guidelines for Special Thematic Sessions can be found in the download section.

• Awareness raising in HCI & Usability for people with special needs: "From the human interface to the humane interface"
  Chaired by:
  Andreas Holzinger, andreas.holzinger@uni-graz.at
  Medical University Graz, Austria



• Accessible Tourism
  Chaired by:
  Franz Pühretmair, fp@ki-i.at
  KI-I - Kompetenznetzwerk Informationstechnologie zur Förderung der Integration von Menschen mit Behinderungen, Austria



• Smart Environments for all
  Chaired by:
  Gerhard Nussbaum, gn@ki-i.at
  KI-I - Kompetenznetzwerk Informationstechnologie zur Förderung der Integration von Menschen mit Behinderungen, Austria



• Accessibility and the next Generation of Web Development Tools
  Chaired by:
  Carlos A. Velasco, carlos.velasco@fit.fraunhofer.de
  Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, Germany



• Computer and telematics technology for the blind, deafblind and partially sighted
  Chaired by:
  Rodolfo Cattani, inter@uiciechi.it
  Italian Union of the Blind, Italy



• ICT access for all through open and public centres
  Chaired by:
  Davis Banes, davidb@abilitynet.org.uk
  AbilityNet, United Kingdom



• Usability and Accessibility
  Chaired by:
  Janice Nall, janice.nall@gsa.gov
  General Services Administration, USA



• Accessible Digital Media
  Chaired by:
  Deborah Fels, dfels@ryerson.ca
  Ryerson University, Canada



• Making music accessible
  Chaired by:
  David Crombie, dcrombie@fnb.nl
  FNB, Netherlands
  Ben Challis, b.challis@lmu.ac.uk
  Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom



• Personalization of interactive systems
  Chaired by:
  Helen Petrie, h.l.petrie@city.ac.uk
  City University London, United Kingdom
  Gerhard Weber, gweber@hs-harz.de
  University of Kiel, Germany



• Mathematics for blind people
  Chaired by:
  Arthur Karshmer, arthur@lklnd.usf.edu
  University of South Florida, USA



• Design for All in IST - Cooperation in Europe
  Chaired by:
  Christian Bühler, cb@ftb-volmarstein.de
  FTB (Forschungsinstitut Technologie Behindertenhilfe), Germany



• Higher Education Reform Network (HERN) - Universal Access to International Studies
  Chaired by:
  Andrea Petz, andrea.petz@jku.at
  Institute "integrated study", Austria