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.
CREATE is looking forward to working with our new Director of Education, Amy J. Ko, who starts in July 2026. The Director focuses 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:
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
Amy Ko Joins CREATE Leadership
July 7, 2026 We are happy to announce that Amy J. Ko has joined CREATE leadership as Director of Education. Dr. Ko studies equitable, liberatory learning about computing and information in schools and beyond. Her work draws from human-computer interaction, computing education, software engineering, programming languages, learning sciences, behavioral sciences, sociology, and more. Ko has…
CREATE Accessibility Hackathon, Summer 2026
The 2026 CREATE Accessibility Hackathon explored AI solutions to accessibility needs. This year, we had more community and disability and industry representation than ever before. It led to some wonderful and exciting projects that are continuing to develop through CREATE's Tinkerer Tuesdays, where students, faculty, community members, and others meet and collaborate. This event was…
Richard Ladner: SIGCSE Outstanding Contribution to CS Education Award
March 5, 2026 Richard Ladner, CREATE's Founding Director for Education Emeritus and a continuing CREATE faculty member, received the 2026 Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education Award at the ACM SIGCSE Conference. The award cited Ladner’s contributions to accessible computer science education at the K-12, college, and graduate levels and was given “in recognition of…
Blind and Low Vision Teens Join CREATE through YES2 Summer Internships
September 3, 2025 This summer, CREATE hosted three high school/undergraduate interns through a program that focuses on career preparation for young Washingtonians who are blind or visually disabled. Left to right: YES2 intern Susanna Haley, DUB Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student Kaija Frierson, YES2 intern Mohammed Al-jawadi, YES2 intern Kaleb The Washington Department of…
Community Day 2025 Recap
June 5, 2025 On May 28, CREATE student and faculty researchers gathered with industry and community partners to discuss concerns about and approaches to sustainable accessibility research. Two hybrid panel discussions covered timely topics, followed by research presentations from CREATE students and the CREATE-HuskyADAPT Research Showcase. Thank you to all who attended Community Day and…