About

I am a Lecturer in the Information Management Group of the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, investigating ways of augmenting Web accessibility using hypermedia and reverse document engineering techniques in combination with semantics and transcoding.

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My primary research interest lies at the intersection between information and users; and addresses the problems inherent in accessing large, heterogeneous, non-linear information sources with limited, or no, vision. I am currently modelling user experience to formulate solutions which will enhance Web accessibility and the usability of small screened mobile devices. I am therefore mainly working in the Web's, so called, 'long-tail' creating novel methods of making obfuscated structure, information, and semantics more explicit.

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I've worked on the TOWEL, DANTE, and COHSE projects; am the organiser of the International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility - part of the World Wide Web Conference (2004/2005/2006); and am the Programme Chair for ACM ASSETS (2006) and Submissions Chair for the World-Wide-Web Conference (2006). I have guest edited the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia; Journal of Web Engineering; and Universal Access in the Information Society. I have served on the programme committees, doctoral consortium panels, and review panels for a number of international conferences and journals including ACM HT, WWW, ISWC, ACM ASSETS, ADDW, W4A, ACM TOCHI, JODI, NRHM, JWE, and the JWS, and have chaired various sessions at these conference. I am also a recipient of the Doug Engelbart prize for best paper at the ACM Hypertext (2000) Conference and the IBM Research prize for best paper at the Accessible Design in the Digital World Conference (2005).

Personal Note

I live happily in Manchester (UK) with my artistic Armenian fiancee. I'm an active supporter of many charities, among them Greenpeace, Amnesty, MSF, and Oxfam. I've travelled solo through Europe, Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East - and most other places on research related activities. I'm a qualified yachtsman and an avid kayaker and sub-aqua diver. And I like nothing better than a good curry and a good beer; in fact I'm an all around gastronome and Bon viveur!

Mod: S Harper on 24 Apr 2007