CREATE’s education initiatives train the next generation of technology designers, engineers, and product managers to be champions of accessibility.
We support teaching students and faculty about accessible technology and about accessible teaching and learning. We support this aim through curriculum development, educational events, grants for student research, and faculty commitment to advancing the field of pedagogy and accessibility. Our new Director of Education, Mark Harniss, has focused on CREATE’s collaboration with HuskyADAPT and on exploring a minor in accessibility.
We invite graduate and undergraduate students with interests in accessibility research, education or translation-to-practice to join CREATE.
Learn about Student Membership
Student members are welcome to participate in CREATE research and activities, such as:
Contact us
Email Mark Harniss CREATE Director for Education at mharniss@uw.edu.
HuskyADAPT
HuskyADAPT students organize toy adaptation events, workshops, and community-driven design projects.
Extracurricular and experiential:
Student competitions, -fests and -thons
CREATE, HuskyADAPT, the Taskar Center, and community partners host hackfests and hackathons each year. These events are intended to be fun, challenging, and accessible opportunities to generate new research ideas, pursue solutions to accessibility problems, work with mentors and peers, and gain new skills.
Farther afield
Student teams across the Pacific Northwest and across disciplines present their innovative research projects and compete for recognition and money prizes. All teams receive invaluable experience and feedback from judges. These challenges are hosted by the UW Foster School of Business’ Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship.
- Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge – April, with start-up workshops and planning sessions in January; applications due early February.
- Environmental Innovation Challenge – early April, with start-up workshops and planning sessions in February; applications due the first half of February.
- Sacia Digital Health Innovation Workshop – Mid-November, UW Population Health Initiative co-hosts student “idea-athon” on digital solutions to pressing problems in healthcare, with preparation for springtime innovation challenges.
CREATE EDUCATION NEWS
Funding and training opportunities - Winter 2025
January 21, 2025 We've rounded up some great opportunities for accessibility research, funding, and training. Most notably, deadlines are approaching for two CREATE grants: CREATE Seed funding For projects that push boundaries and try new things, or need opportunisticfunding in response to a new student, collaboration, or flash of insight. Apply for seed funds by…
Former CREATE postdoc Sasha Portnova talks about her experiences and inspirations
November 22, 2024 Dr. Alexandra (Sasha) Portnova, who was a postdoctoral research with CREATE in 2022-24, was interviewed about those experiences as a NIDILRR-funded fellow and about her work in rehabilitation research. In the National Rehabilitation Information Center interview, Portnova spoke about the value of the CREATE ARRT fellowship in transitioning from the overwhelming life…
Mobile 3D printer can autonomously add accessibility features to a room
October 29, 2024 From accessibility upgrades to a custom cat-food bowl, a prototype mobile 3D printer is being used to change the built environment and tailor spaces for peoples’ needs or style preferences. Built on a modified consumer vacuum robot, MobiPrint can automatically measure a room and print objects onto its floor to add accessibility…
New Book: Teaching Accessible Computing
March 14, 2024 A new, free, and community-sourced online book helps Computer Science educators integrate accessibility topics into their classes. Teaching Accessibility provides the foundations of accessibility relevant to computer science teaching and then presents teaching methods for integrating those topics into course designs. The editors are Alannah Oleson, a postdoctoral scholar and co-founder at…
Augmented Reality to Support Accessibility
October 25, 2023 RASSAR – Room Accessibility and Safety Scan in Augmented Reality – is a novel smartphone-based prototype for semi-automatically identifying, categorizing, and localizing indoor accessibility and safety issues. With RASSAR, the user holds out their phone and scans a space. The tool uses LiDAR and camera data, real-time machine learning, and AR to…