Research Showcases

Accessibility from Below

Stacy Hsueh, Danielle Van Dusen, Anat Caspi, Jennifer Mankoff

An ethnographic study on how low-income and racially diverse disabled families navigate government services to access the assistive technologies they need. Through extended fieldwork at a Seattle nonprofit, we uncovered community-based strategies of care, resistance, and improvisation that families use to reclaim agency. These strategies offer practical insights for shaping community-driven accessibility research.

Accessible Digital Content Creation by Blind and Low Vision Individuals

Lotus Zhang, Gina Clepper, Zhuohao (Jerry) Zhang, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Simon Sun, Yu-Yun Tseng, Inan Xu, Abigale Stangl, Tanusree Sharma, Danna Gurari, Yang Wang, Patrick Carrington, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Leah Findlater

Application of user-centered methods, accessible design principles, and emerging technologies to support creative needs of blind and low-vision individuals to improve the accessibility of visually intensive tasks – crucial yet inaccessible components in digital content creation.

Accessible Eyedropper: Co-Designing Eyedrop Dispensing Aids for People with Motor and Visual Disabilities

Jerry Cao, Ruiqing Wang, Yuecheng Peng, Sam Wong, Jennifer Mankoff, Shwetak Patel

Using eyedrops can be challenging. Blind/Low vision users might struggle to find the right bottle and aim it correctly. People with limited mobility may find it hard to tilt their head, squeeze the bottle, or keep their hands steady. Previous attempts to help have created new problems. We are studying these challenges by working with people who have trouble using eyedrops to find ways to improve eyedroppers and make them easier to use.

Accessible Guide Dog Backpack

Sanmathi Prabakar, Darby Moore, Chelsea Hom, Justis Peppin, Samara Chacko, and Toko Kameda

Our research involves designing a practical, inclusive, and user-friendly backpack that addresses the unique needs of guide dog users. We have worked to create a backpack that is well suited for everyday activities including transportation and carrying additional items.

AltGeoViz

Chu Li, Rock Yuren Pang, Ather Sharif, Arnavi Chheda-Kothary, Jeffrey Heer, Jon E. Froehlich

Facilitating accessible geovisualization.

Arboretum: An experimental system for creating, transforming, and rendering accessible data structure representations

Ritesh Kanchi, Miya Natsuhara, Matt Wang

An experimental system for creating, transforming, and rendering accessible representations of data structures. It generates consistent semantic context across formats and structures, providing a foundation for future extensibility. Designed with both educators and students in mind, Arboretum emphasizes flexibility and accessibility throughout various workflows.

Learn more: Arboretum poster (PDF)

ArtInsight: Enabling AI-Powered Artwork Engagement for Mixed Visual-Ability Families

Arnavi Chheda-Kothary, Ritesh Kanchi, Chris Sanders, Kevin Xiao, Aditya Sengupta, Melanie Kneitmix, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Jon E. Froehlich

A novel AI-powered system to facilitate deeper engagement with child-created artwork in mixed visual-ability families. ArtInsight leverages large language models (LLMs) to craft a respectful and thorough initial description of a child’s artwork and provides: creative AI-generated descriptions for a vivid overview, audio recording of the child’s description of their artwork, and AI-generated questions to facilitate discussion between blind or low-vision (BLV) family members and their sighted children.

Audio Description Automatons: Exploring Perspectives on Personas for Generative AI Description Writing Assistants

Lucy Jiang, Amanda Zhu, Brett Oppegaard

Audio description (AD) is typically crafted by experts. To support novice describers in writing high quality descriptions, we designed and developed a GenAI-powered online tool, “Guidedogs,” featuring five dogs with unique names, images, and voices that provided immediate and varied feedback on draft descriptions. Through this work, we contribute preliminary insights on generative AI assistant personas in an accessibility context and share design considerations to guide future work.

Learn more: AD Automatons poster (PDF) | AD Automatons CHI poster content (Google doc)

CardMate

Ananya Bhat, Kaila Bulfin, Anika Yechuri, Nithya Guduri, Spriha Sahni, Aida Khalaf, Mark Fernandez

CardMate is an assistive cardholder designed to help individuals with cognitive or motor disabilities securely store and easily access essential cards for tap, swipe, and insert transactions. By enabling one-corner card holding and intuitive access, CardMate reduces the need for fine motor skills and promotes greater independence in daily activities like transportation, payments, and building entry.

Design and Deployment of a Sensor-Based System for Assessing Powered Mobility Usage in Young Children with Disabilities in Clinical Settings

Mia Onodera, Kim Ingraham

Powered mobility technology fosters exploration, social engagement, and cognitive growth for young children with disabilities. Early access to these devices is critical, yet many children lack access during key developmental stages. In this study, we design a clinician-facing interface and develop a data-driven algorithm to assess powered mobility learning phases, to support early intervention during critical stages of development.

Learn more: Sensor-based system poster (PDF)

Designing Trustworthy Cues in AI Embedded Health Portals for People Living with Dementia

Jazette Johnson

An exploration of how to design features within AI-embedded systems patient health portals that promote trust, confidence, clarity, and independence for adult participants and participants with cognitive disabilities.

Exploring How People with Motor Limitations Position Interactive Screens

Maya Cakmak, Tamanna Motahar, Vaishnavi Vidyasagar, Denby Frank

People with upper body motor limitations have difficulty holding portable screen-based devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and interacting with their screens through assistive technologies such as eye trackers or switches. Often, a caregiver needs to reposition the screen based on the needs and preferences of the user. We envision a robotic screen positioning system (likely wheelchair mounted) that can be directly controlled by the user and adjusted to the user’s context-dependent preferences.

Generative AI Design Tools

Kate Glazko, Czarin Isabelle Dela Cruz, Emily Chi, Gordon Huang, Maahnum Zaheer, Madhumitha Gandhi, Tashfia Sharmin, Jennifer Mankoff, Adriana Schulz

Consumer-grade fabrication tools, like 3D printers and laser cutters, are widely available. But designing useful, accessible items is difficult because the tools are complicated to learn. Our project is a system that coordinates multiple fabrication-specific agents (automated systems) to generate custom, constrained design tools that integrate diverse domain knowledge.

How Does Clinical Presentation Impact Gameplay in Early Intervention?

Alisha Bose, Mia E. Hoffman, Kate Bokowy, Riley Bernas, Heather A. Feldner, Katherine M. Steele

Play is important for all children, but many toys aren’t accessible to those with physical disabilities. We created the Switch Kit to make play more inclusive by offering a low-cost, customizable set of accessible tools and games. Our research with early intervention providers showed that children’s needs affect how they interact with the kit, highlighting the importance of designing for different abilities.

Learn more: DS Play Mobility Aids poster (PDF) | DS Play Mobility Aids flyer (PDF) | Hoffman project web page

Interaction Design of a Robotic Screen Positioning System for People with Motor Limitations

Tamanna Motahar, Alvin Le, Shreya Pandey, Kenneth Ton, John Lu

We are designing a low-cost robotic arm for the task of positioning a mobile phone for people with motor limitations.

iOSPointMapper: Real-time Pedestrian and Accessibility Mapping with Mobile AI

Himanshu Naidu, Ricky Yuxiang Zhang, Sachin Mehta, Anat Caspi

An iOS app that helps in sidewalk and accessibility mapping by translating mobile camera images to standardized pedestrian path data in realtime. iOSPointMapper uses a device’s camera and LiDAR sensor to record the surrounding environment, which is then used to identify points that either facilitate or hinder accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Users can quickly validate the inferred map data before it is transmitted to an open data-sharing platform for sidewalk mapping.

Kicking it off: Do toddlers with disabilities activate leg muscles when driving with a joystick?

Madeleine E McCreary,Kimberly A. Ingraham, Heather A. Felder, Katherine M. Steele

Powered mobility devices let children with disabilities move around on their own. We studied leg muscle activation and patterns of activation in thirteen children with disabilities to inform interventions and to support play, development, and inclusion.

Learn more: Kicking it off poster (PDF)

Low-Cost Accessible Switch System

Laura Oliveira, Katherine Escoto Licona, Katelyn Doan, Catherine Darma, Catherine Ton, Omar Ahmad

A website that provides open source information about accessible switches. The website accounts for different prices budgets and needs by having multiple different switch types and ways to acquire them. This includes direct purchase links, to DIY tutorials from different creators, with various expertise levels, along with our recreations of them.

Learn more: Accessible Switches web page | Accessible Swtiches GitHub repository

Mobility aids to support independent play for young children with Down Syndrome

Mia E. Hoffman, Spencer Hensley, Katie Belen Leija, Shariphine Agoalikum, Aislinn Knight, Aly Clarke, Heather A. Feldner, Katherine M. Steele

Children with Down Syndrome often experience motor delays compared to their peers. Mobility aids can help children move around independently and at a similar pace to their peers. This research focuses on evaluating the initial interactions of children with Down Syndrome with two specific mobility aids: the Permobil Explorer Mini powered wheelchair and the PUMA partial bodyweight support system.

Learn more: Mobility Aids poster (PDF) | Mobility Aids flyer (PDF) | Mobility Aids project website

Modeling Accessibility: Characterizing What We Mean by “Accessible”

Kelly Avery Mack, Jesse J. Martinez, Aaleyah Lewis, Jennifer Mankoff, James Fogarty, Leah Findlater, Heather D. Evans, Cynthia Bennett, Emma J. McDonnell

Accessibility research’s broad mandate — to use technology to make the world more accessible to disabled people — lacks a clear characterization of what “accessibility” is, who it’s for. Grounded in the lived experiences of a diverse group of 25 disabled people, we developed a process for modeling accessibility. We studied individuals’ assessments of inaccess, types of barriers, technology tools and skills, contextual factors, and how they weigh available options.

New Heights – Height Adjustable Walker

Sam Hui, TJ Morrow, Katina Nguyen, Advaii Srivastava, Amelie Bosnjak, Gabriel Calva

Our team has adapted a walker to fit the needs of users at a local paralysis clinic. The walker is height-adjustable, and has padding for patients to practice standing.

SmartPath: A Modular System for GTFS-Pathways Mapping and Robotic Validation

Harshavardhan Reddy Gajarla, Dr. Anat Caspi, The Tasker Center for Accessible Technology

Our research focuses on developing a modular system for mapping and validating transit station pathways using the GTFS-Pathways schema. We combine an iOS-based mobile application for on-site data collection with a TurtleBot-based system for immediate verification and validation. This decoupled architecture enables flexible deployment, allowing transit agencies to use the mobile application independently or alongside robotic validation for improved accuracy and accessibility compliance.

SpectrAble

Trisha Pawar, Neelesh Azad

SpectrAble is an innovative digital platform revolutionizing at-home care for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), addressing the critical gap between clinical interventions and daily life support. Our mission is to provide comprehensive, personalized care that extends far beyond traditional therapy sessions.

Switch-Accessible Tablet App: Empowering Inclusive Play and Learning

James Tran, Mishti Dhawan, Arshita Misra, Helen Liu, Sneha Birru, Ella Cao

This project addresses the lack of accessible and engaging tools for children with disabilities, focusing on how to provide inclusive play opportunities to develop motor and cognitive skills. Through collaboration with educators and occupational therapists, the designed solution is a switch-accessible tablet app that includes various games, targeting key learning goals such as cause-and-effect, critical thinking, discovery, and creativity.

Learn more: Switch-Accessible Tablet App poster (PDF)

Toward Language Justice: Exploring Multilingual Captioning for Accessibility

Aashaka Desai, Rahaf Alharbi, Stacy Hsueh, Richard E. Ladner, Jennifer Mankoff

Explores the needs of people who are multilingual (i.e., understand or express themselves in more than one language) and who use captions for accessibility (e.g., d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing, neurodivergent, other disabled individuals) in different language contexts.

Wheels for Wonder

Johren Carpenter, Jorryn Decker Clement, Rowan Newell, Darius Khaleghi, Saadgi Garg, Rutvi Pota

Children with severe cerebral palsy need a lightweight, collapsible, rolling chair that allows them to achieve greater independence and easily connect with loved ones and other children their age. This design prioritizes both comfort and functionality, including neck support, safety features like locking wheels, and practical accessories. Ultimately, this device supports inclusion, independence, and meaningful interactions, supporting the child’s physical therapy goals while easing the caregiving burden.

Learn more: Wheels for Wonder poster (PDF)