CREATE Co-Director Jacob O. Wobbrock Named ACM Fellow

We congratulate CREATE Co-Director Jacob O. Wobbrock on being named an ACM Fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery for his contributions to human-computer interaction and accessible computing!

Wobbrock’s research seeks to understand and improve people’s interactions with computers and information, especially for people with disabilities. He is the primary creator of ability-based design, which scrutinizes the ability assumptions embedded in technologies in an effort to create systems better matched to what people can do.

Jacob O. Wobbrock, a 40-something white man with short hair, a beard, and glasses. He is smiling in front of a white board.

For this and his other contributions to accessible computing, he received the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award and the 2019 SIGACCESS ASSETS Paper Impact Award. He was also inducted to the ACM CHI Academy in 2019. In addition to being a CREATE founding co-director, Professor Wobbrock directs the ACE Lab and is a founding member of UW’s cross-campus DUB Group.

The ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. Its Fellows program recognizes the top 1% of members for their outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and/or outstanding service to the ACM and the larger computing community. ACM Fellows are nominated by their peers, with nominations reviewed by a distinguished selection committee.

Wobbrock, and the other 70 Fellows named in 2021 will be formally recognized at the ACM Awards Banquet in San Francisco in June.

This article is adapted from the UW Information School (iSchool) article and the ACM press release.

Year 1 Impact Report

The CREATE Year 1 Impact Report describes the major accomplishments of CREATE in Academic Year (AY) 2020-2021. It also lays out the goals for AY 2021-2022.

Front page of the accessible CREATE impact report with highlights and photos from research

In this report:

Research: papers, collaboration, hiring and awards
Education: student programs, workshops and more awards
Translation: Conversation, Google Play store, Community Day
Operations: Advisory board, leadership, membership
Fundraising: progress toward five-year, $10M goal

Go Baby Go Car Adaptation Workshop

UW Go Baby Go, co-directed by CREATE Associate Director Heather Feldner, is excited to announce its fall workshop where we will build ten Go Baby Go cars for local children with disabilities and their families!

Composite of 4 images from Go Baby Go workshops: participants modifying ride-upon toys and excited toddlers sitting in a variety of toys.

UW and CREATE students, postdocs, and faculty (especially from engineering, computer science, and rehab programs), local clinicians, and parents/caregivers are all encouraged to attend.

Saturday, November 6, 2021

* Workshop: 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
* Family car fittings and pickup: 2-4 p.m.

UW Rehab Medicine, BB tower 916 and 918
Outdoor car pickup location TBD

Each car will be custom-adapted for safety and accessibility so children can engage in self-initiated mobility, exploration, and socialization at ages equitable to their non-disabled peers. Through sponsorship and fundraising, cars are provided at no cost to families.

Volunteers needed!

To volunteer, please fill out the volunteer form and we will be in touch with all the rest of the logistics and details!

Please note that per Washington State and UW policy, all volunteers will be required to mask up throughout the build and show proof of full COVID vaccination to participate.

We will have a separate refreshment space for breaks and snacks/drinks throughout the build.

Questions

Email us at gobabygo@uw.edu.

CREATE is proud to sponsor this event.

Reimagining Mobility: Urban Accessibility – from Crowdsourcing to AI

Still image from YouTube with photo of a crowded urban street and text about mobility inequities

In December 2021, CREATE faculty Anat Caspi and Jon Froehlich discussed the innovative ways they are using AI, crowdsourcing, and translational research to reimagine urban accessibility.

Teams from the UW Makeability Lab and the UW Taskar Center for Accessible Technology have worked to develop and deploy tools like AccessMaps, OpenSidewalks, and Project Sidewalk that are transforming how we share, evaluate, and understand our urban environments.

Participants were invited to a deep dive into one of these initiatives – Project Sidewalk – to learn how to contribute to the crowd-sourcing efforts. Despite the important role of sidewalks in supporting mobility, accessibility, and public health, there is a lack of high-quality datasets and corresponding analyses on sidewalk existence and condition.

Project Sidewalk explores a twofold vision: first, to develop scalable mechanisms to locate and assess sidewalks in cities across the world using Crowd+AI approaches, and second, to use this data to support new urban analyses and mobility tools.

Project Sidewalk is currently deployed in seven cities, including two in Mexico.

Join the Reimagining Mobility conversation

Join us for a series of conversations imagining the future of mobility. Hosted by CREATE Associate Directors Kat Steele and Heather Feldner, we connect and learn from guests who are engaged in critical mobility work – ranging from researchers to small business owners to self-advocates. We will dive deeply into conversations about mobility as a multifaceted concept, and explore how it intersects with other dimensions of access across contexts of research, education, and public policy.

Upcoming conversations

Stay tuned. 2022 series to be announced.

Past conversations

Flyer summarizing the information on Conversation Hub topics for Fall 2021 — Download the Fall 2021 flyer (PDF)

Reimagining Mobility: Collecting Data. Creating Plans. Removing Barriers?

A graphic showing the cycle of lack of access and mobility in the built environment and how that impedes community participation which feeds limited societal views of disability, which contributes to inaccessibility in the built environment. — Click to view the captioned and transcribed video on YouTube.

On November 18, 2021 Dr. Yochai Eisenberg shared successes and challenges in the pursuit of accessible pedestrian networks. We discussed community mobility as it relates to accessible pathways, use of public transportation, and modes of travel to destinations.

Dr. Eisenberg described a systematic mobility evaluation, detailed some of the findings, and shared the conclusion that communities in the U.S. do not have strong plans for building accessible pathways. He stressed that the solution includes meaningfully involving people with disabilities, so that transition plans can help cities.

Dr. Yochai Eisenberg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago and affiliated researcher at the Great Lakes ADA Center. Dr. Eisenberg studies the ways in which neighborhood environments, policies, and systems impact community mobility, health behaviors and health outcomes for people with disabilities using a blend of big data analytics, policy evaluation, and community engaged research.

Dr. Eisenberg’s research has contributed to better understanding implementation of ADA transition plans for the public rights of way in the US, rideshare use and satisfaction among people with disabilities, and accessibility of environments that support healthy, active living. Dr. Eisenberg’s interdisciplinary work reflects his training in public health (Ph.D.), urban planning (Master’s) and disability studies and is interwoven in his undergraduate course that explores the links between disability, urban planning and geography.

Join the Reimagining Mobility conversation

Upcoming conversations

Stay tuned. 2022 series to be announced.

Past conversations

Reimagining Mobility: Inclusive Architecture

Karen Braitmayer, seated in her wheelchair on the observation deck of the Space Needle, with full view of Seattle because obstructive walls were removed in a remodel — Click to view the captioned and transcribed video on YouTube

On October 13, 2021 Karen Braitmayer shared images from her experience of— and critical goals for— inclusive architecture. Noting that the best and brightest designers might come in bodies that are different than employers expect, she called for design schools to welcome students with disabilities and for design firms to hire and support the careers of designers with disabilities.

First steps for designers:

Provide options: wider seats, different height soap dispensers, etc.
Learn about building codes and regulations.
Talk to folks who have already figured out how to accommodate for their own disabilities and hack for accessibility.

Karen Braitmayer using a wheelchair in a modern building with stairs and ramps

Architect Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA, is the founding principal of Studio Pacifica, an accessibility consulting firm based in Seattle, Washington. Her “good fight” has consistently focused on supporting equity and full inclusion for persons with disabilities.

In 2019, she was chosen as the national winner of the AIA Whitney M. Young, Jr. award—a prestigious award given to an architect who “embodies social responsibility and actively addresses a relevant issue”. In the award’s 48-year history, she was the first recipient honored for their work in the area of civil rights for persons with disabilities. Braitmayer was also appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States Access Board, a position she retains today.

Join the Reimagining Mobility conversation

Upcoming conversations

Stay tuned. 2022 series to be announced.

Past conversations

Help make the WSDOT website more accessible

Anthro-Tech is looking for people who use screen readers and other assistive technology to participate in a usability study on the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) website redesign.

During a study session, the facilitator will show the participant the new website and ask them to use it to complete a few tasks.

Sessions will take place on Zoom for 60-90 minutes and participants receive a $100 check as a thank you.

Learn more and sign up at WSDOT Website Study: Call for participants.

Recruiting for Tactile Map Participants

UW researchers are seeking participants for a paid study.

Who: People who are blind or low vision who use a screen reader and are 18 years or older.
What: Participants will be asked to test 3D-printed tactile maps. Sessions are 60 minutes. For details, see the signup survey.
Where: UW Seattle campus.
When: August.
Compensation: $40 and a travel stipend.
How: Contact Kelly Mack at kmack3@cs.washington.edu or fill out the signup survey.

CREATE Research Showcase – Spring 2021

Jun 8, 2021
9:30 a.m.
Register for Zoom invitation

The CREATE Community Meeting is open to the public.

Schedule

10:00 | Just Sustainable Accessibility Research – Panel

Although accessibility research is a fundamental component in reducing gaps in quality of life, health disparities, wealth disparities and digital access, many people with disabilities have had adverse experiences with researchers and accessibility professionals; consequently, communities and community members have lost trust in both the process of research and the people who conduct it. Too often, research has been conducted “on” rather than “with” people with disabilities and established communities, resulting in their being stigmatized or stereotyped. There has been increasing recognition that more comprehensive and participatory approaches to research and interventions are needed to address the complex set of determinants associated with problems that affect populations with disabilities, as well as those factors specifically associated with disparities affecting intersectional groups.

This panel aims to expose some of the tensions and problems facing people with disabilities when engaging in research. No attempts at solutions will be made.

11:00 | Welcome

11:07 | Lab fast-style presentations

CREATE labs introduce their work in 90 second segments.

11:30 | Showcase Breakout Sessions

Three breakout sessions, each lasting 17 minutes and 3 minutes between, are devoted to short presentations and Q&A about these CREATE-lab affiliated projects:

“Investigating visual semantic understanding in blind and low-vision technology users”
“Comparing muscle versus manual interface for people with and without limited movement”
“Living Disability Theory”
““That’s Frustrating” – Stakeholder perceptions: provision processes, use, and future AFO needs for people with cerebral palsy”
“Decoding Intent With Control Theory: Comparing Muscle Versus Manual Interface Performance”
“Unimpaired adults can reduce motor control complexity during walking using biofeedback”
“Gait Recovery in Adults with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury Receiving Transcutaneous Spinal Stimulation”
“Reliability of Fitts’ Law”
“Stitching Together the Experience of Disabled Knitters”
“Mobility Gets Personal: Why Google Directions and Other Trip Planners Might Be Leading Us Where We May Not Want To Go”
“Perceptions of Disability and Mobility Technology Before and After Modified Ride-On Car Use in Caregivers of Children with Disabilities”
“”I can bonk people!”: Effects of Modified Ride On Cars On Communication and Socio-Emotional Development in Children with Disabilities”
“Ready, Set, Move! Tracking Children’s Modified Ride-On Car Use with a Custom Data Logger”
“Challenging Terrain: Community-Based Early Mobility Technology Research through the Lens of Critical Disability Theory”Time

Accessible CS Education workshop focuses on inclusive experiences

Amid a global pandemic, innovative thinkers have been hard at work developing plans to improve equity in modern learning environments. The Accessible Computer Science Education Fall Workshop was held November 17-19, 2020, and jointly sponsored by Microsoft, The Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, and CREATE.

Each day of the event focused on strategies to improve classroom experiences for students and faculty with disabilities. You can watch recorded sessions where speakers provided a wide range of perspectives on computer science pedagogy and how to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in computing disciplines.

Two students work together in a lab on a computer screen using accessibility tools

Two students work together on a computer screen using accessibility tools.

The event provided an intimate environment to share work and establish new collaborations. The most visible result, for now, is five white papers and action plans taken from the break-out group reports (CREATE faculty contributors noted):

The program resulted in more than conversations; each group developed formal white papers and action plans that will guide future research and collaboration.

Throughout the workshop, participants focused on four areas:

Education for employment pathways
Making K-12 computing education accessible
Making higher education in computing accessible
Building accessible hardware and systems.

Conversations generated ideas about technologies that can boost employment and assist people with disabilities who experience barriers in various learning environments.

The committee behind the event successfully cultivated a productive and inclusive atmosphere that sponsors hope will translate to future projects. Members of the committee include Andrew Begel, Heather Dowty, Cecily Morrison, Teddy Seyed, and Roy Zimmerman from Microsoft; Anat Caspi and Richard Ladner from UW CREATE; and Clayton Lewis from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Research Workshop for Undergraduates with Disabilities

CREATE and UW AccessComputing co-sponsored a 3-day research-focused workshop for undergraduates in computing fields who have disabilities. The OurCS@AccessComputing+CREATE workshop was held virtually on January 13 – 15, 2021.

Forty-six undergraduate students from around the nation participated in the workshop along with 10 faculty mentors who work in various research areas. The keynote speakers were Dr. Elaine Short from Tufts University, Dr. Nicholas Giudice from the University of Maine, and Dr. Jeanine Cook from Sandia National Laboratory.

Participants also heard a panel of senior students and recently finished graduate students with disabilities talk about their own experiences in graduate school. Each of the mentors led a short course on research in their area of expertise and were available to network with students.

Two student participants at the 2019 OurCS workshop use virtual reality goggles and hand controllers — Participants use VR at the 2019 OurCS workshop.

Eddith Figueroa, a student at the University of Texas at Austin appreciated hearing about the panelists’ experiences. “I really enjoyed the panel of people who were in grad school. It gave me a lot of perspective into what it would be like to try and go to grad school with a disability,” Figueroa said. Cameron Cassidy from Texas A&M University highlighted the information about graduate school, saying, “Professors Milne and Ladner shared a lot of good information about graduate school, which made me more comfortable in my decision to pursue an advanced degree.”

And Nayha Auradkar of the University of Washington found the networking opportunities valuable. “I learned a lot through networking with research leaders and engaging in the interactive research workshops,” Auradkar said.

“I really enjoyed the panel of people who were in grad school. It gave me a lot of perspective into what it would be like to try and go to grad school with a disability,”

Eddith Figueroa, University of Texas at Austin student

Funding for this workshop was provided by Google Explore CSR with additional support from AccessComputing and the UW Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE).

AccessComputing is a valued partner of CREATE, helping CREATE in its objective to help “create pathways for more individuals with disabilities to
pursue careers in technology innovation.”

CREATE Board Members Honored by SIGCHI

Two UW CREATE board members were honored by SIGCHI, the international society for professionals, academics and students who are interested in human-technology and human-computer interaction (HCI). The awards identify and honor leaders and shapers of the field of human-computer interaction within SIGCHI.

Juan E. Gilbert received 2021 Social Impact Award

Juan E. Gilbert received a 2021 SIGCHI Social Impact Award for research that “examines both HCI and AI through his examinations of Bias in AI, Advanced Learning Technologies, Culturally Aware Computing, and attention to people with a wide variety of disabilities and formative experiences.”

Dr. Gilbert’s work in Advanced Learning Technologies increases access to technology for those with limited educational opportunities, particularly by providing personalized and culturally relevant instruction for those in under-resourced schools. Dr. Gilbert is using his research in AI to understand how clustering algorithms might better process admissions applications in ways that actually serve to increase holistic diversity rather than select for majority dominant groups as traditional algorithmic approaches have done. In pilot studies with several universities, Dr. Gilbert’s patented AI algorithm for admissions called Applications Quest has resulted in greater diversity in a fraction of the time it takes the admissions committee while yielding the same academic achievement levels as the committee. In short, Dr. Gilbert’s research has made substantial impact in areas of educational technology and learning support not only in terms of basic HCI and AI research but also in applying this work for great impact to address the systemic barriers to high quality education.

Jonathan Lazar joins the CHI Academy

Jonathan Lazar, with a big smile and wearing a suit and multi-colored tie.

Jonathan Lazar was inducted into the CHI Academy, for his research on interface accessibility for users with disabilities. His work has provided an empirically based understanding of how people with disabilities interact with technologies, influencing researchers and developers, changing interface guidelines, and setting new standards for research methods involving people with disabilities.

For instance, his research has provided a foundation for understanding how Blind users interact with menu structures, security features, and frustrating situations, among others. Jonathan Lazar also performed the first HCI research focusing on users with Down syndrome. A hallmark of his research has been his ongoing partnership with disability advocacy groups, including the National Federation of the Blind, the National Down Syndrome Congress, and the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ICT) at the United Nations.

Both award descriptions were excerpted from the SIGCHI Awards pages. Read the full article.

UW Disability Equity Project Seeks Focus Group Participants

UW students, staff, and faculty who have a disability, physical or mental health condition, a chronic illness, or are d/Deaf are invited to contribute to a research project on disability, equity, and inclusion. A research team from the Disability Studies Program, The D Center, and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine will conduct online focus groups where participants will be asked to share their experiences of ableism or discrimination as well as allyship and community in academic and healthcare situations.

The details:

Learn more on the UW Disability Equity Project website
60-90-minute virtual focus group
Participants will be compensated with a $30 electronic gift card

Information from the focus groups will be used to develop a disability allyship training curriculum that is rooted in lived experiences and can be implemented in the education and training of healthcare professionals and others across UW to improve our inclusive campus culture. All research information will be de-identified.

For questions or to express interest in the study, please contact the research team at uwdisabilityequity@uw.edu.

This study is being funded by Center for Leadership and Innovation in Medical Education (CLIME).

Scholars who use screen readers sought for user study

The Semantic Scholar Research Team at the Allen Institute for AI is conducting an experiment to evaluate the screen reader accessibility of scientific papers. We are looking for participants who are age 18 or older, who identify as blind or low vision, and who have experience using screen readers to interact with scientific papers.

The details:

Complete the eligibility form to determine eligibility
Study is all online (Zoom)
Takes approximately 75 minutes
Participants receive a $150 Amazon gift card

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. If you do decide to participate, your individual data will be kept strictly confidential and will be stored without personal identifiers. The study involves an informational interview to better understand screen reader needs around scientific papers. Each participant will also be asked to interact with papers on a web interface developed by the team.

Please contact Jonathan Bragg (jbragg@allenai.org) or Lucy Lu Wang (lucyw@allenai.org) if you have any questions or concerns about this study. Thank you in advance for your time! Please help us spread the word by forwarding as appropriate.

Black Disability Art History 101: From Back in the Day to Today

The Inclusion Project, a youth led project, with the Center for Disability Leadership is hosting this workshop led by Leroy F. Moore Jr., founder of Krip-Hop Nation.

Wed, October 21, 2020
3:30 – 5:00 p.m. PDT

Learn more and register to attend

Black disabled and Deaf artists have always existed. They were on the street corners down South singing the Blues, spray painting on New York subways, and bringing sign language to the big screen. Today, young Black disabled artists are finding their own way to the stage and studio, some with a paintbrush in hands and on the big screen like Kei’Arie “Cookie” Tatum, and some with a drumstick in their hands, like Vita E. Cleveland.

January 8, 2021: Sara Hendren – What Can a Body Do?

The CREATE Conversation Hub hosts a live Q&A with Sara Hendren on the future of mobility and lessons she learned through writing her new book, What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World.

Sara Hendren: Future visions of mobility and lessons learned through writing What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World

January 8, 2021 at 11 a.m. Pacific time (2 p.m. Eastern time)

Sign up for Reimagining Mobility Conversations

Sara Hendren is an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering. Her work spans collaborative public art and social design that engages the human body, technology, and the politics of disability — such as a lectern for short stature or a ramp for wheelchair dancing. She also co-founded the Accessible Icon Project.

Read more about Hendren’s book, What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World? in the New Yorker Review and on https://sarahendren.com/.

Sara Hendren in a green jacket with brown hair pulled back, standing oustide in front of fence with ivy.

Cover of Sara Hendren's book, "What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World" with a bright yellow background

New CREATE Conversation Hub: Reimagining Mobility

Mobility is a central part of accessibility and this new Conversation Hub, hosted by CREATE Associate Directors Kat Steele and Heather Feldner, provides a way to connect and learn from guests who are engaged in critical mobility work — ranging from researchers to small business owners to self-advocates.

We will dive deeply into conversations about mobility as a multifaceted concept, and explore how it intersects with other dimensions of access across contexts of research, education, and public policy.

Learn more & Sign-up

Upcoming conversations

Advancement of women with disabilities in STEM careers gets $1 million NSF award

The CREATE team applauds and congratulates AccessADVANCE, a new project that was recently awarded $1 million by the National Science Foundation. AccessADVANCE seeks to increase the participation and advancement of women with disabilities in academic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

There are relatively few women who currently hold faculty positions in STEM fields and even fewer with disabilities. This effort has the potential to impact both — women in general, because any faculty member may at some point become disabled, permanently or temporarily and women with disabilities who are trying to advance into STEM careers.

“To effectively support female STEM faculty, attention to disability issues must be woven into the entire sociotechnical ecosystem of STEM departments,” said Cecilia Aragon, a professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and AccessADVANCE co-principal investigator. “Many diversity efforts, even those that aim to take an intersectional approach with regard to race and gender, do not address disability.”

Aragon and co-principal investigator Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler, founder and director of CREATE partner organizations DO-IT Center and UW Access Technology Center, will develop and expand an online Knowledge Base and other resources to share Q&As, case studies, and promising practices regarding institutional practices.

Elks National Foundation Scholarship: deadline Nov. 2

The 2020 Elks National Foundation Scholarship Program is currently open for the children of deceased or disabled and applicants. Students attending an accredited U.S. university or college full-time can apply for a $500 scholarship.

Application Deadline: November 2, 2020
2020 Elks National Foundation Scholarship