Program of Events
Keynote: Dr Vicki Hanson
Manager and Research Staff Member, Accessibility Research, IBM
Vicki Hanson manages the Accessibility Research Group at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. In addition, Vicki is the Chair of ACM's Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS). A member of the ACM SIGCHI Executive Council and Adjunct Chair for Assistive Technologies. She has chaired the ACM CUU 2003 Conference on Universal Usability and ACM Assets 2002 International Conference on Assistive Technologies among others.
The Accessibility Research group has become highly visible through its publications and media coverage, the group has enjoyed considerable success in creating software to make the Web more accessible to persons with disabilities. In particular, it has created what is known as Web Accessibility Technology (WAT). This software provides a rich package of Web content transformations through an extremely simple user interface, allowing the disabled to modify Web content on the fly to meet their needs. In 2003, WAT was named Product of the Year by the National Disabilities Council. In 2004, it received the Best new Ability Research Aware form the New Freedom Foundation, being recognised as holding extraordinary promise towards the creation of new abilities for people with disabilities.
Keynote: Professor Alan Newell OBE
Professor Newell has been researching into computer systems to assist people with disabilities for over thirty years, and has published widely in this field. He was awarded the Lloyd of Kilgerran Prize from the Foundation for Science and Technology for this research, and has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to IT and communication for people with disabilities.
Applied Computing at Dundee University contains the major academic group in the world investigating computer and communication systems for older and disabled people with over 30 researchers working in this field. A number of software systems they have developed have been marketed in Europe and America, and their Digital Media Access Group provides an accessibility audit and consultancy service for designers for the web and other digital resources. The "Queen Mother Research Centre for Information Technology to Support Older People" within Applied Computing, of which Professor Newell is the academic leader, is due to open in Summer 2005.
Professor Newell, a former Deputy Principal of the University, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the British Computer Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and an Honorary Fellow Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. He was a member of the Thematic Panel of the 1999 UK Foresight Exercise on the Ageing Population.
Keynote: Professor Chris van der Kuyl
Chris van der Kuyl is a highly experienced Chief Executive and Non-Executive Director ("NXD") whose expertise combines the start-up, development and market listed business arena in the technology, media and entertainment sectors.
Described by retail entrepreneur Tom Hunter as "one of the most talented CEOs of his generation" van der Kuyl grew his first business, VIS Entertainment plc ("VIS"), out of a bedroom in Dundee to become a global player in the creation of leading-edge entertainment property for computer, television and video games platforms worldwide.
Through the development of VIS, as CEO and President, he took the business through substantive growth by developing and delivering on an acquisition, development and ultimately merger strategy that took the business on to an international stage as a NASDAQ listed company.
This experience has equipped him in delivering successful and substantial fundraising exercises in the Private Equity and now Listed Markets. Moreover as a business builder he has an exceptional ability in developing committed employees whilst keeping an ever- watchful eye on the bottom line.
The newly formed Tayforth group has diverse interests in Video Games development, On-Line retail trading and Intellectual Property development across all entertainment sectors.
Van der Kuyl's expertise as an NXD can be exemplified in his work as Non-Executive Chairman of a Board comprising Lord MacFarlane of Bearsden, Tom Hunter and Brigitte McConnell – the 35 year old is known to the Board as 'the old fox in young clothing'.
Chris is widely recognised as one of the UK's the leading young entrepreneurs as can be seen from the various awards detailed below and is consulted widely by government on the enterprise and entrepreneurial agendas. Indeed he was asked by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown to address the Labour Party conference on this agenda underscoring his political contacts at the highest levels.
He is also a regular contributor to the 21st Century business and enterprise agenda through a variety of conference keynote speaking engagements as well as media coverage on network television, radio and national press. Chris is a member of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow Programme at the World Economic Forum and has attended the annual conference in Davos and New York.
The young entrepreneur also embraces the spirit of 'giving something back' and is fully committed to building the next generation of business people by encouraging enterprise education in Schools, Colleges and Universities. He has been Chairman of Young Enterprise Scotland for the past five years and is also a Director of Schools Enterprise Scotland and a member of the Entrepreneurial Exchange.
In his spare time Chris returns to his original career as a rock keyboard player with the entrepreneur's charity 'combo' the "Cash for Kids Band" whose last single reached No. 11 in the Scottish charts.
Keynote: Professor Helen Petrie
Helen is Professor of Human Computer Interaction at City University. She has degrees in Cognitive and Experimental Psychology and an MSc in Computer Science. She is a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
For the past decade she has conducted research on the design and evaluation of technologies for disabled and elderly people, participating in numerous national and international projects on this topic. For seven years she was at the University of Hertfordshire, as Director of the Sensory Disabilities Research Unit and the National Centre for Tactile Diagrams.
She has now moved to the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design at City University in London to be Professor of Human Computer Interaction, but continues her work on technologies for disabled and elderly people. In 2004, she led a highly influential and widely-cited research project investigating the state of play of the accessibility of UK web sites, the results of which were published as the Disability Rights Commission's Formal Investigation into Web Accessibility.