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UW CREATE

Matching Money

CREATE supports applications for matching money from faculty who are working on accessibility related research projects.

Funding is limited to $15,000 or less, and must be no more than 30% of the total. Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis with a review timeline of about 4 weeks.

Submit Your Proposal by Email

Eligibility

  • Full-time or part-time faculty with regular or fixed-term appointments are eligible to apply as PI or Co-PI, as are professional staff. All applicants must have PI status as determined by their dean. Applicants must hold an eligible rank that is active in Workday at the time of submission.
  • Those with acting, temporary, affiliate, visiting, or postdoctoral appointments are ineligible to apply as PI or Co-PI, but may be included in the budget for the project team. Affiliate or visiting faculty may not receive salary, but can be involved on the project team, just not as PI/Co-PI.
  • At least one applicant must be a CREATE faculty member.
  • Support will not be provided merely to supplement or extend an ongoing funded research project.
  • Preference is given to PIs or co-PIs not already funded by CREATE during the current academic year.

Review criteria

Four main criteria:

  1. Importance of the problem:
    • Clearly describes need and target population
    • Advances CREATE’s mission: “to make technology accessible, and to make the world accessible through technology”?
    • Addresses a significant need of individuals with disabilities
    • Would benefit from matching money
    • Will have a beneficial impact on the target population
  2. The extent to which the research:
    • Identifies a significant need for the proposed advances to science and technology.
    • Demonstrates knowledge of the state-of-the-art.
    • Employs appropriate concepts, study methodologies, components, or systems to advance the state of the art.
    • Is feasible, given the current state of the science and the time and resources available.
    • Is shaped by the input of individuals with disabilities and other key stakeholders. For example, is there substantive involvement in the definition and execution of the proposed work; does the project include feedback from people with disabilities or a study involving disabled participants; will the project result in new information, technology, or other resources that positively impact people with disabilities.
    • Addresses any ethical concerns.
  3. Is the team suitable, engaged with CREATE, and likely to benefit from the funding? 
  4. What positive impact(s) is this likely to have on CREATE? For example, does this proposal have the potential to help lead to larger funding in the future?

Reporting requirements 

  • Any significant changes must be approved by CREATE leadership.
  • Any papers, posters, videos, etc. published from work supported by this funding, whatever the amount used, must acknowledge CREATE with the following: “This work was supported in part by the University of Washington Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE).” If space is limited, this short version is permissible, something like, “This work was supported by UW CREATE.”
  • Any students heavily involved in the work are expected to become an active CREATE member (e.g., join Slack, join CREATE mailing lists, attend CREATE events, etc.). 
  • Recipients are expected to participate in Community day/research showcase.
  • Recipients are expected to submit a short written summary of how the funds were spent a year after receiving the funding. Faculty agree to allow CREATE to use this information in fundraising, presentations, and promotional efforts. The report should include the following:
    • A short paragraph describing: (a) the problem addressed or opportunity pursued, (b) the results achieved (including any publications), (c) how the funding was helpful, (d) information about any further funding submitted or received as a result of this work, and (e) information about translation successes  (e.g., blog posts, patents, productization, adoption by others, community or industry engagements, etc.). 
    • A description of any stakeholder engagement in the project.
    • A list of students supported and whether those students are CREATE members, along with contact information so we can ensure they get on CREATE mailing lists.
    • A list of faculty involved in the project. 

Application instructions 

Proposals should be limited to 2 pages (plus references, images, and supplemental documents, as specified below). 

Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis with a review timeline of about 4 weeks.

Submit Your Proposal by Email

Formatting

Proposals must follow the following standards:

  • Submitted as a single accessible PDF or Word file (you can download a Google doc as a Word file). See UW IT’s guidance on making documents accessible.
  • Set paper size to A4 or 8.5×11″ paper with .5″ margins.
  • Use 11 pt. font, single-spaced. Smaller text in figures, graphs, diagrams and charts is acceptable as long as it is legible when the page is viewed at 100%.
  • A specific citation format is not required.

Content of proposal

The proposal should include:

  • Header – Title; name and department of PIs; amount of money being proposed to CREATE; and to matching organization.
  • Goal (1 paragraph): What is the goal of your work and why is it important?
  • Justification for matching money (1 paragraph): Why is matching money important for this project?  How does this project relate to the money you are requesting from the matching organization?
  • Approach (~3 paragraphs) – What will you do? If this work is successful, what impact will it have on people with disabilities, disability advocacy, disability rights, disability justice, and/or disability communities? How will you evaluate this? 
  • Stakeholder engagement (1-2 paragraphs): How will you engage with people with disabilities in doing this work? Do you plan to work with community partners? At what stage(s) of the work? 
  • Ethical analysis (0-2 paragraphs) – If relevant, provide a disability-centered critical analysis (e.g. using Disability Studies, Disability Justice– and/or DisCrit as a lens) of the proposed work, highlighting any potential ethical concerns, if relevant. Things to consider addressing: How will this advance agency, independence and control for people with disabilities? If there is legitimate and foreseeable harm possible, how will you address it? 
  • Project workplan and timeline (1-2 paragraphs) – What is the expected work plan for this project? The work plan should Include key activities and their expected durations. A Gantt chart is encouraged but not required.

Supplemental documents

  • Project budget and brief justification (up to ½ page) – What is the total amount being sought from CREATE plus the matching organization and how will it be used? Neither indirect costs nor alcohol will be allowed. Please include, depending on what’s relevant:
    • Salaries and wages (including benefits)
    • User study fees and contractual services
    • Supplies and equipment
    • Tuition
    • Other (specify)
  • Original proposal. Attach a copy of the proposal submitted to the matching organization. 
  • References (no page limit).
  • Project team. append a 1- to 2-page CV, resume, or biosketch for each PI or person requesting salary and a current and pending document for each PI.
  • Prior CREATE funding for this project (0-2 paragraphs) – Has this project in any form been previously submitted for CREATE funding? If so, how many times? When? Was it funded? Explain how this submission is different from before, and why you are seeking CREATE funding for this project again. 
  • Other prior CREATE funding (attach reports) – Have any personnel on the project team received other CREATE funding previously? If so, attach the project report for that prior funding.  
  • Suggested reviewers: Optional
Submit Your Proposal by Email

Projects funded through Matching Money

Postdoctoral Training in Physical Computing and Fabrication to Support Innovations for Community Living and Participation

Postdoctoral fellows who have benefitted from this ARRT include:

  • Alexandra Portnova, 2022-2024: Improving assessment of hand function in individuals with disabilities using a combination of wearable and video-based technologies and machine learning algorithms.
  • Stacy Hsueh, 2023-2024: Investigation of the intersections of accessibility research, digital fabrication, and sustainable computing.
  • Momona Yamagami, 2022-2023: Designing and predicting personalized full-body gesture interfaces with and for people with upper-body motor disabilities.
  • Maitraye Das, 2022-2023: Research projects on 1) cultivating inclusive play and maker mindset among neurodiverse children in a preschool classroom and 2) accessibility in collaborative ideation.

This Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training Center was funded, and aims to train five-six postdoctoral fellows in harnessing advances in physical computing and fabrication as it relates to rehabilitation research. Selected postdoctoral fellows participate in a 12- or 24-month training program which builds their expertise in physical computing, fabrication, and disability studies.

Sidewalk Accessibility in the US and Mexico: Policies, Tools, and a Preliminary Case Study

The proposal focused on supporting our urban accessibility work with Liga Peatonal—an NGO focused on pedestrian safety and accessibility in Latin America. In Mexico, 55% of school commuters and 23% of workers travel by foot or wheelchair; however, 44% of traffic-related deaths are pedestrian—often due to poor or non-existent pedestrian infrastructure.

Prior to funding, PI Froehlich and Liga Peatonal worked together to deploy Project Sidewalk into two initial areas in Mexico City and San Pedro Garza García. In a pre-funded pilot, over 700 users mapped 130.2 km of sidewalks and identified 20,126 sidewalk accessibility problems. With GIF and CREATE support, we were able to expand our pilot to a third city, La Piedad, Mexico. Now, nearly 3,000 users have participated in mapping and assessing over 2500 km of sidewalks in Mexico, resulting in 162,000 labels and 72,000 validations. This work resulted in a publication featured in the United Nations Habitat program and a paper entitled Sidewalk Accessibility in the US and Mexico: Policies, Tools, and a Preliminary Case Study published at a CSCW workshop on civic technology.