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…
News
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…
Accessibility
We strive to make our events as accessible as possible, including using video conferencing with automated captions, supporting people in using text or voice to join the conversations, and working with disability services to address any other accommodations. We welcome any ongoing feedback on how best to create an accessible experience.
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…
Jennifer Mankoff, Founding Co-Director
My research focuses on accessibility and 3D printing. I have led the effort to better understand both clinical and DIY stakeholders in this process, and developed better, more usable tools for production. Together, these can enhance the capabilities and participation of all users in today’s manufacturing revolution. Affiliations: Richard E. Ladner Professor, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Director, Make4all Lab Contact Mankoff faculty page jmankoff@cs.uw.edu Google Scholar Research highlights Better data sets that capture the varied…
Jacob O. Wobbrock, Founding Co-Director
My research seeks to scientifically understand people’s experiences of computers and information, and to improve those experiences through design and engineering, especially for people with disabilities. My specific research topics include input & interaction techniques, human performance measurement & modeling, HCI research & design methods, mobile computing, and accessible computing. Affiliations: Professor, The Information School Adjunct Professor, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Director, ACE Lab Contact Wobbrock faculty page wobbrock@uw.edu 206-616-2541 Google Scholar Research highlights Slide…
Anat Caspi, Director for Translation
I am interested in exploring ways in which collaborative commons and cooperation can challenge and transform the current economics of assistive technology and incentivize rapid development and deployment of ethically built accessible technologies. My research focuses on engineering machine intelligent solutions for customizable real-time, responsive technologies in the context of work, play and urban street environments. Affiliations: Affiliate Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering Director and co-founder, Taskar Center for Accessible Technology Contact Caspi faculty page uwtcat@uw.edu Research highlights Equity…
Richard Ladner, Director for Education
I am interested in accessibility technology research, especially technology for deaf, deaf-blind, hard-of-hearing, and blind people. Active in promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in computing fields, I am the Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation funded AccessComputing and AccessCSforAll. Affiliations: Professor Emeritus, Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Principal Investigator, AccessComputing Principal Investigator, AccessCSforAll Contact Ladner faculty page ladner@cs.washington.edu 206-543-9347 Google Scholar Research highlights ASL-STEM Forum ASL-STEM Forum is a website for scientists who know American…
Leah Findlater, Associate Director
I am interested in how to create technologies that adapt to accommodate individual user needs and preferences, whether to improve basic interactions such as touchscreen text entry or more complex tasks such as working with machine learning models. My research goal is to ensure that the next generation of computing technologies are designed to meet the needs of the broadest range of users. Affiliations: Associate Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering Adjunct Associate Professor, Allen School of Computer Science &…
James Fogarty, Associate Director
My broad research interests are in Human-Computer Interaction, User Interface Software and Technology, and Ubiquitous Computing. My focus is on developing, deploying, and evaluating new approaches to the human obstacles surrounding widespread everyday adoption of ubiquitous sensing and intelligent computing technologies. Affiliations: Professor, Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Contact Fogarty faculty page jfogarty@cs.uw.edu 206-685-8081 Google Scholar Research highlights Large-Scale Android Accessibility Analyses Fogarty’s research group is leading the largest-known open analyses of the accessibility of Android apps, thus…
Jon Froehlich, Associate Director
My research focuses on designing, building, and evaluating interactive technology that addresses high value social issues such as environmental sustainability, computer accessibility, and personalized health and wellness. Affiliations: Associate Professor, Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Contact Froehlich faculty page jonf@cs.washington.edu Google Scholar Research highlights Real-time captioning and sound awareness support With advances in wearable computing and machine learning, Leah Findlater and I have been investigating new opportunities for real-time captioning and sound awareness support for people who are…
Kat Steele, Associate Director
My research focuses upon using novel computational and experimental tools to understand human movement and improve treatment and quality of life of individuals with cerebral palsy, stroke, and other neurological disorders. My research strives to connect engineering and medicine to create solutions that can advance our understanding of human ability, but also translate research results to the clinic and daily life. Affiliations Albert S. Kobayashi Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering Neuromechanics & Mobility Lab AMP Lab HuskyADAPT and AccessEngineering Contact Steele faculty…