October, 2020 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….
Category: Newsfeed
Archive of posts with News category
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,…
Accessibility Do’s and Don’ts
For those designing anything, gov.uk has published best design practices for making services accessible in the form of six posters.
Richard Ladner Receives 2020 Public Service Award from National Science Board
National Science Board | August 11, 2020 Dr. Richard Ladner, CREATE’s Director for Education, has been named the 2020 recipient of the Public Service Award for an individual from the National Science Board (NSB). In recognizing Ladner, the board cited his exemplary science communication, diversity advocacy, and well-earned reputation as the “conscience of computing.” “When we think about diversity, we must include disability as part of that. The conversation about diversity should always include disability.” Richard Ladner, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering From…
Forbes’ Mindset Matters highlights CREATE as the innovation industry needs
Jonathan Kaufman, in Forbes magazine’s Mindset Matters column, calls for innovation to make workplaces inclusive and accessible. In his May 31, 2020 column, An Object Lesson For Business, And Innovation In The Age Of A Pandemic, he highlights the partnership between CREATE and Microsoft as a prime example of how we can “redefine the very nature of work and develop the tools needed to create a culture of innovation.” “It is at this moment that offers organizational leadership a means…
Q&A with Jacob Wobbrock on UW’S new accessible technology research center
iSchool news, University of Washington | May 28, 2020 Jacob O. Wobbrock, CREATE Co-Director and a professor in the UW Information School, has become one of the world’s foremost experts on accessible computing and human-computer interaction. His approach is to create interactive systems that can capitalize on the situated abilities of users, whatever they are, rather than make users contort themselves to become amenable to the ability-assumptions of rigid technologies. He calls this perspective Ability-Based Design. In the iSchool article, Wobbrock…
New UW center bankrolled by Microsoft aims to make technology more accessible to disabled people
The Seattle Times | May 28, 2020 University of Washington professor Jacob Wobbrock figures the best way to make technology more accessible to disabled people is to anticipate their needs from the very beginning. “The world we live in is built on certain assumptions,’’ Wobbrock said. “If we question those assumptions right from the start when we design things, then suddenly things are accessible.’’ The Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experience (CREATE) is launching with a nine-member,…
Microsoft invests $2.5M in CREATE, a new center for accessible tech at the University of Washington
GeekWire | May 28, 2020 Microsoft and the UW have long been aligned in a shared commitment to accessible technology and a world that is more accessible through technology. With a leadership team from six campus departments in three different colleges, CREATE will build upon the UW’s existing work in education, research and translation. Read the full GeekWire article.
UW launches new Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences with $2.5 million investment from Microsoft
UW News | May 28, 2020 The University of Washington today announced the establishment of the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE). Fueled by a $2.5 million inaugural investment from Microsoft, UW CREATE is led by an interdisciplinary team whose mission is to make technology accessible and to make the world accessible through technology. The center will build upon current projects in prioritizing and automating personalization, transitioning transportation to be accessible; augmenting abilities through wearable technologies; developing inclusive,…
$2.5 million inaugural investment from Microsoft launches CREATE
CREATE News | May 28, 2020UW president Ana Mari Cauce, with Brad Smith, Tim Shriver and Jennifer Mankoff, announced the new center and Microsoft’s investment at the Microsoft Ability Summit on May 28. With a mission to make technology accessible and to make the world accessible through technology, Microsoft’s support will build upon current projects in accessible transportation, augmenting abilities, inclusive design, and “do-it-yourself” technology. The company’s endorsement of the UW’s accessibility work promises to catalyze additional investment, which, ultimately, could…
An app for everything, but can everyone use it?
Medium | May 26, 2020 For most of us, the day seems to revolve around our phones: check email, read the news, pay bills, and get directions to the store. Mobile apps are essential in day-to-day life. Unfortunately, many apps fail to be fully accessible to people with disabilities or those who rely on assistive technologies. As one blind app user noted, using an inaccessible app is “a constant feeling of being devalued. It doesn’t matter about the stupid button that…
UW Disability Studies, D Center win UW Medicine CLIME Grant
UW faculty and staff affiliated with CREATE, UW Disability Studies and the UW D Center have received a grant from the Center for Leadership and Innovation in Medical Education (CLIME) to explore what it means to be an ally to people with disabilities. “This is an integral issue informing professional education in the medical fields as well as in design and engineering, says PI Heather Feldner. “I am most excited that this project has the potential to further the conversation about how an…
Kat Steele honored by students with FACET award
April 2020. Kat Steele, CREATE Associate Director and the Albert S. Kobayashi Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering, received a 2020 Faculty Appreciation for Career Education & Training (FACET) award from appreciative students. Presented by the Career Center @ Engineering, the award recognizes faculty members who have positively impacted their career and professional development.
Four CREATE faculty receive Google Research Awards
UW News | March 16, 2020 Four UW CREATE faculty have been named recipients of Google Faculty Research Awards. The grants, among 150 Google recently announced, support world-class technical research in computer science, engineering and related fields. Each award provides funding to support one graduate student for a year. The recipients are Jennifer Mankoff, James Fogarty and Jon Froelich of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and Leah Findlater of the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. The goal of the awards is “to identify and strengthen…
ASSETS Paper Impact Award
Jacob Wobbrock honored for improving touch-screen accessibility Congratulations to Jacob O. Wobbrock, a founding co-director of CREATE, for his work with Shaun Kane, PhD ’11 and Jeffrey Bigham, PhD ’09 improving the accessibility of mobile technology. The team received the 2019 SIGACCESS ASSETS Paper Impact Award for their 2008 paper, “Slide Rule: Making mobile touch screens accessible to blind people using multi-touch techniques.” The award is given biennially by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing and recognizes…
Designing for the fullness of human experience
Anat Caspi and Taskar Center featured on King 5’s New Day Northwest A familiar face joined Margaret Larson on New Day NW this morning. Anat Caspi, Director of the Taskar Center and Director of Translation for the UW Accessibility Center, shared recent innovations from robotics to smart, sensing environments. Technology design has taken this stance about designing for the “average” person. And in many cases that is a big design mismatch to the needs and preferences of people who are…
CREATE presence at Tapia
Many members of CREATE were in attendance at the 2019 Tapia Conference. Jennifer Mankoff gave a plenary speech (CMD-IT Interview). Accessibility played a big role at TAPIA, and AccessComputing, a partner of CREATE, had a big presence.
With AI and other tech, Anat Caspi focuses on helping people with disabilities
CREATE Director for Translation Anat Caspi shares her research goals and inspiration, including the value of her first programming class and her perspective as a parent. In her role as the director of the University of Washington’s Taskar Center for Accessible Technology, Caspi creates technology focused on people with disabilities such as motor limitations, in many instances applying artificial intelligence (AI). “It’s really about treating people as humans with different needs and preferences,” she says. She sees the mapping of pedestrian…
With AI and other tech, Anat Caspi focuses on helping people with disabilities
The Seattle Times | August 4, 2019 In her role as the director of the University of Washington’s Taskar Center for Accessible Technology, Caspi creates technology focused on people with disabilities such as motor limitations, in many instances applying artificial intelligence (AI). “It’s really about treating people as humans with different needs and preferences,” she said as a cyclist passing by rang a bell. She sees the mapping of pedestrian infrastructure — walkways, sidewalks, overpasses, underpasses and trails — as a necessary…
UW students join Teach Access Study Away program
May 25, 2019 Five University of Washington students, joining a group of 25 students from 7 different universities, traveled to Silicon Valley in May 2019 to participate in the Teach Access program Study Away Silicon Valley (SASV). Professor Ladner served as one of six faculty mentors for the small group projects that participating students completed during the five days of SASV. The students visited the accessibility teams at Walmart, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Verizon Media Group (Yahoo!), and Facebook, where they learned how each of…