Workshop on Designing Accessible Financial Technology

About

Financial technology (fintech) has a growing impact on economic and social participation due to the increasing adoption of online banking and digital payments in everyday life. As fintech interests emerge in academic and industry work across the globe, critical needs and opportunities arise for ASSETS communities to lead and shape the discourse on accessible fintech.

The Designing Accessible Financial Technology (accessFinTech) workshop will bring together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners interested in developing a research agenda on designing accessible and inclusive fintech. We will take a timely step towards building a community to support continued discussion on the complex cultural and social contexts around fintech.

Call for Participation

The workshop welcomes participants, including non-researchers, with experience or interests in fintech-related domains. We invite the following submissions:

• Position papers: including work in progress, pictorials, and artifacts. Up to two pages in ACM two-column format. Submit your position paper via email to accessfintechworkshop@gmail.com
• Statement of Interest: if workshop space allows. Submit your statement of interest through this web form. You will be asked about your motivation and goals (up to 500 words); completed/ongoing work in related areas and intended contribution to the workshop (up to 500 words).

Prospective participants can submit any of the above two formats. Priority may be given to position papers. A group of researchers can submit one position paper, but at least one author of each accepted paper must attend the workshop. All participants must register for the workshop.

If you require any special accommodations for taking part in the workshop, please email accessfintechworkshop@gmail.com after submitting to inform the organising team, so that we can make the necessary arrangements.

Activities and Tentative Schedule

The workshop will be held virtually, with activities spread across the week of October 21-25. It will include ~5 hours of live sessions over multiple days, with additional time for asynchronous participation.

Pre-Workshop

Participants will be invited to create a slide about themselves and their interests. These slides will be used during the first live session and shared with everyone. Participants can also join our Discord channel for icebreakers and discussion prompts.

During the Workshop

The main goal is to develop a research agenda. The workshop will be divided into two phases: divergent and convergent. In the divergent phase, participants brainstorm ideas based on guiding questions. In the convergent phase, they refine and prioritize these ideas for further development.

To accommodate accessibility, participants will work through text-based discussions and paired activities. Contributions will be organized into thematic clusters to guide further discussion.

Tentative Schedule

Day 1 (Monday)

• Introduction and Goal Setting (60 min, Live): Facilitators introduce the workshop goals, and participants introduce themselves using a one-slide explainer. Prompts for the divergent ideation activity will be shared.
• Divergent Ideation (90 min, Live): Participants brainstorm ideas in small groups based on the provided prompts.
• Divergent Ideation (Asynchronous): Participants review ideas from all groups and add comments or new ideas.

Day 2 (Wednesday)

• Convergent Ideation (90 min, Live): Small groups refine the ideas from Day 1 and discuss prioritization.
• Convergent Ideation (Asynchronous): Participants review the work from all groups and add comments or ideas.

Day 3 (Friday)

• Synthesis and Next Steps (60 min, Live): The full group comes together to review the work, synthesize findings, and outline next steps.

Registration

Registration Information for accessFinTech 2024

To attend accessFinTech 2024, you need to register here. However, please read the following information first:

Workshop Registration

This workshop is part of the ASSETS'24 conference. You only need to register for the workshop and do not have to register for the entire conference.

Registration Fees

The registration fees are determined by the ASSETS'24 organizers. These fees cover accessibility services and staffing support.

Member Type	Cost
ACM/SIG Member	$55
Non-member	$65
ACM Student Member	$40
Student Non-member	$55

About ASSETS

ASSETS is an ACM conference. ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest scientific and educational computing society. If you frequently publish in ACM venues and are not yet an ACM member, it may be beneficial to join. For more information on ACM membership, please see their membership options.