CREATE is the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences. Our mission is to make technology accessible and to make the world accessible through technology. Our vision is a world where people with disabilities are full participants in shaping tomorrow’s world.
CREATE is a community of faculty, students, and partners who share a commitment to building accessible futures
Our researchers, educators, developers, and innovators recognize that emerging technologies can pose new barriers to people with disabilities, and that they hold promise to remove older barriers. By bringing together researchers across multiple UW schools and departments, CREATE harnesses the diverse expertise necessary to realize a more just and equitable technological future, one that overcomes existing barriers and ensures new ones do not arise.
We are committed to centering disabled perspectives in our work so that our innovations meet the needs of disabled people in our communities and beyond
The commitment to ensure that research, innovation, and discussions draw from disabled people’s experiences extends from our Center leadership (50% disabled) to our community partners program, which fosters collaboration between students and local, regional, and national disability-serving nonprofits.
A nexus for advocacy for people with disabilities across the university
With our experts and campus partners in wide-ranging fields, we also focus on re-shaping STEM education, with two aims: making sure STEM education is accessible to students with disabilities; ensuring that our graduates enter the workforce fully educated in accessible technology.Policy and advocacy
As researchers at the forefront of accessible technology, CREATE leaders are called to advise policy and are eager to share their education, experience, and perspectives regarding the needs of and resources for people living with disabilities.
CREATE’s policy efforts have directly impacted federal rulemaking including citing a CREATE article about work on mobile app accessibility in the recently released Department of Justice Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the ADA’s application to digital technology and resources, “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities.” CREATE developed a reviewer’s guide to encourage comment submissions.
Want to get involved?
There are multiple ways to support our efforts. First and foremost, CREATE is about people. As an individual, we encourage you to get involved and help us achieve our mission. Doing so is as easy as subscribing to one of our email lists.
Join a CREATE Mailing ListSecond, the center employs a consortium model for academic, industry, and community partners. We aim to create the technology and innovation models that support our partners to be leaders and trendsetters in the deployment of accessible technology and inclusive communities. Our goal is to deeply engage with our partners to develop and share transformation technology, as well as a workforce that can help improve the accessibility of technology. Join our partnership program!
Partner with CREATECREATE was founded in the summer of 2019 when a group of accessibility researchers from around campus came together to discuss common interests. Inaugural gift funding was provided thanks to the generosity of Microsoft. With the diversity of interests and common goals represented around the table, it became clear that a broader organizing body would help to amplify what each individual was doing.
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