Next Steps: People of CREATE Updates
June 11, 2025 Congratulations to students and postdocs on a productive academic year! Join us in celebrating these career steps. Graduation Congratulations to CREATE member Anant Mittal, a newly minted Ph.D., for completing his program and successfully defending his thesis! During his program, Mittal, advised by James Fogarty, worked on the design and development of…
GAAD Day 2025 Interview with CREATE Director Jennifer Mankoff
In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on May 15, Melissa Albin from UW-IT Communications sat down with CREATE Director Dr. Jennifer Mankoff, to discuss the intersection of computing, accessibility, and disability studies. She shared personal reflections, insights on culture change, and her hopes for a more inclusive future in tech and beyond. Dr. Mankoff,…
James Fogarty inducted into SIGCHI Academy
May 13, 2025 CREATE associate director James Fogarty has been inducted into the SIGCHI Academy Class of 2025. Each class of the the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction represents the principal leaders of the field, whose research has helped shape how we think of HCI. A central figure in Seattle’s human-computer interaction (HCI) community…
GazePointAR makes sense of spoken questions through eye gaze, gestures and past conversations
May 31, 2024 “What’s over there?” “How do I solve this math problem?” If you try asking a voice assistant (VA) like Siri or Alexa such questions you won’t get much information. While VAs are transforming human-computer interaction, they can’t see what you’re looking at or where you’re pointing. CREATE Ph.D. student Jaewook Lee has…
Taskar project helps pedestrians find accessible routes all over Washington state
April 9, 2025 AccessMap is an app and a collection of data sets that let pedestrians tailor routes for their accessibility needs and preferences. Coverage has been spreading across Washington state and now includes a new data set, called OS-CONNECT, for sidewalks and other paths statewide, from Forks on the Olympic Peninsula to Clarkston in…
Students: Apply for HuskyADAPT Leadership Positions
April 7, 2025 CREATE students are encouraged to join the HuskyADAPT leadership team through a variety of student chair positions. Applications are being accepted through Friday, April 18. Being on the leadership team involves approximately 5 hours per week of commitment, though this may vary based on your role and upcoming events. The HuskyADAPT chairs…
New Faculty Join CREATE in 2025
April 2, 2025 We are excited to work with two new faculty members who share CREATE's goal of advancing accessibility through technology while ensuring disabled people are full participants in shaping technological solutions. Cecilia Aragon, Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering As a faculty member with a disability, combined with technical expertise and commitment to…
"Dude, what am I gonna do with a touchscreen? It's crazy. I can't feel anything."
March 26, 2025 When mobile phones with flat touchscreens started becoming pervasive, it wasn’t clear exactly how people who were blind or low vision would use these devices. Research led by CREATE associate director Jacob O. Wobbrock may have influenced the direction that major technology companies like Apple and Google took to address this issue.…
Kim Ingraham — engineering assistive robotic devices for people with disabilities
March 25, 2025 CREATE faculty member Kim Ingraham designs personalized, adaptive control strategies for assistive robotic devices, such as exoskeletons and powered wheelchairs for people with disabilities. Her work aims to optimize and customize the technologies by making sure humans are in the device control and feedback loop. “Historically we have studied the way humans…
Community Partner Spotlight: Disability Empowerment Center
March 24, 2025 The Disability Empowerment Center is a nonprofit organization run by people with disabilities and rooted in the philosophy that people with disabilities should have the choice to live independently and thrive as important members of our community. DEC provides King County residents with free individualized services such as skills training for independent…
Student Minigrant Story: Assistive-Feeding Robot Tested in the Real World
March 17, 2025 A team of UW researchers has been working on increasing the accuracy and the finer social aspects of an assistive-feeding robot. ADA, for Assistive Dexterous Arm, consists of a robotic arm that can be affixed to a power wheelchair or other sturdy furniture and controlled by the user. Through a web app,…
CHI 2025: CREATE Papers and Presentations
March 24, 2025 Papers Presentations Workshops Student Games Papers, presentations, and workshops from CREATE researchers at CHI 2025, the ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. We appreciate your patience as we continue to update this page. The conference takes place April 26 - May 1 in Yokohama Japan. Awards and honors Congratulations…
Coffee Chat Recaps - Winter 2025
March 4, 2025 CREATE has initiated Coffee Chats – one or two opportunities per month for conversation among faculty, student, staff, and industry and community partners. Topics have included opportunities for student involvement in CREATE, how researchers can benefit from community-engaged research, and where to find funding for research. These meetings have proved useful for…
Devva Kasnitz, Champion of Accessible Technologies
February 20, 2025 CREATE, and the accessibility community, is honoring Devva Kasnitz. An adjunct professor in Disability Studies at CUNY School of Professional Studies, Kasnitz was a beloved educator, advocate, and colleague in the world of accessible technologies. She passed in January 2025. It would be difficult to understate Kasnitz’s indelible impact on the field…
Two Research Fellowships on Accessibility from UW Population Health
February 27, 2025 The UW’s Population Health Initiative announced two fellowships that may be of interest to CREATE graduate and undergraduate students. Accessibility of King County parks Graduate and undergraduate students from all UW schools and colleges are encouraged to apply for the Population Health Applied Research Fellowship on the accessibility of King County Parks. The…
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 opportunistic funding in response to a new student, collaboration, or flash of insight. Apply for seed funds…
Access Board’s Preliminary Findings on AI and People with Disabilities
January 21, 2025 This month, the United States Access Board presented its preliminary findings on the risks and benefits of AI for people with disabilities (PWD). The overall goal of these recommendations is to make AI more inclusive, transparent, and responsible, ensuring that people with disabilities are both protected and empowered in AI-driven environments. The…
Adapting toys to be accessible for local families
December 20, 2024 At HuskyADAPT's holiday toy adaptation event in November, about 80 volunteers adapted toys, ranging from a baseball pitching machine and spinning art kit to lava lamps, remote control cars and a bilingual play drum. The volunteers connected the toys to a switch that can make it easier for children with disabilities to…
Former CREATE postdoc Sasha Portnova talks about her experiences and inspirations
November 22, 2024 Dr. Alexandra (Sasha) Portnova, a postdoctoral researcher 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 as a…
Not just a wheelchair: Disability representation in AI
November 19, 2024 CREATE Ph.D. graduate Kelly Avery Mack led research that investigated how AI represented people with disabilities. Specifically, Mack's team wanted to know if AI-produced images and image descriptions perpetuated bias or showed positive portrayals of disability. The team included four research scientists from Google Research: Rida Qadri, Remi Denton, new CREATE Advisory…