Join us at CREATE Community Day
Wednesday, June 8!
The half-day event includes a research showcase and two panel discussions including, "Poor reach of assistive technology among students with disabilities disproportionately impacts BIPOC and immigrant communities."
Community Day brings together CREATE partners, students, researchers and leadership. Check out last year's program and research showcase videos.
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If you're new to CREATE's mission, co-directors Jacob O. Wobbrock and Jennifer Mankoff summarized the center's research, translation, and education efforts in Expanding the Pipeline, recently published in Computing Research News. For the latest CREATE news, the May issue of the Digest has updates on research, awards, new partners, graduating students, and an excerpt of an essay on how employers benefit from hiring people with disabilities.
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CREATE NEWS
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New partner: Meta
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CREATE is pleased to announce that Meta has become a partner and supporter of the center. Meta is committed to ensuring that the future of human communication and connection is an accessible one.
Specifically, Meta has donated $25,000 to support projects within the center that focus on the accessibility of virtual reality (VR) environments, devices, and interactions.
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Jen Mankoff receives SIGCHI Social Impact Award
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Congratulations to CREATE Co-Director Jennifer Mankoff! She has been awarded a 2022 Social Impact Award by SIGCHI, the special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for professionals, academics and students interested in human-technology and human-computer interaction (HCI). Mankoff was cited for research focused on accessibility to give people the voice, tools and agency to advocate for themselves.
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"She strives to make change at both structural and individual levels. For example, her recent work on fabrication of accessible technologies considers not only innovative tools that can enable individual makers, but also the larger clinical and sociological challenges to disseminating and sharing designs."
The award also noted Mankoff's work at the intersection of mental health and discrimination that uses sensed data and self-reports to explore how external risks and pressures interact with people’s responses to challenging moments such as discrimination experiences, or classroom access. Within SIGCHI, Mankoff spent many years working with and leading, AccessSIGCHI, increasing the inclusiveness of numerous SIGCHI conferences and leading to the creation of an Adjunct Chair for Accessibility on the SIGCHI Executive Committee.
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FEATURED RESEARCH
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Urban accessibility is a key focus in CREATE's research efforts. We've rounded up recent news coverage on two projects that focus on mobility in our cities.
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Sidewalk Equity: The overlooked urban infrastructure
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Research by CREATE's Director for Translation Anat Caspi and CREATE Associate Director Jon Froehlich was featured in an article from the UW College of Engineering. Noting that "nearly every journey in a city, whether by bus, bike, car, on foot, or using a wheelchair, at some point depends on... a sidewalk," the articled highlighted Caspi's and Froehlich's research that seeks to make cities friendlier to those with mobility limitations. Also noted, the benefits to "seniors, pregnant people, caregivers of young children who use strollers, first responders, and even perhaps delivery robots one day."
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World Bank interviews Jon Froehlich in Sustainable Cities series
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In their Sustainable Cities blog series, The World Bank interviewed CREATE Associate Director Jon Froehlich on Project Sidewalk's efforts. Inclusive development is a key priority for the World Bank and Froehlich noted accessible sidewalks are vital in cities "where people come together to chase their dreams, connect with loved ones, and access vital services -- regardless of their disability, age, income, or other constraints.
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Project Sidewalk launched in Amsterdam
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Working with World Enabled and the City of Amsterdam, Project Sidewalk launched their mobility tool in Amsterdam. Participants are asked to note bicycle racks in sidewalks, ramps on sidewalks, and other features that can allow or impede mobility. Amsterdam joins Seattle, Columbus OH, Newberg OR, Oradel NJ, Pittsburgh PA, San Pedro Garza Garcia MX, and Mexico City in building mobility maps.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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DUB+CREATE Seminar: Robust Intelligence for Assistive Robots
May 11, 2022 at 12:00 p.m.
Full abstract
Zoom meeting link
Speaker Elaine Schaertl Short, Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Tufts University, presents her research seeking to improve the computational foundations of human-robot interaction. Her team designs new algorithms that succeed in contexts where other algorithms’ assumptions frequently fail, such as in child-robot interaction, in minimally-supervised public space deployments, and in assistive interactions.
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Why I Never Tell People With Disabilities to "Just Work Harder"
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Haben Girma found not being able to see could be an advantage during one summer job in her college years. In an essay published on popsugar.com, she shared the frustration of greater-than-average obstacles in finding work and that when employers break down access barriers and avoid assumptions about what people with disabilities can't do, they develop a stronger workforce. Now a Harvard Law graduate, author and public speaker, Girma argues that "People with disabilities drive innovation, sparking the creation of many of the technologies we use today."
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Barbara Greenberg Endowed Scholarship
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Established this year to celebrate the life of Barbara Greenberg, who graduated from the University of Washington in 2011 as the first Bachelor of Arts in Disability Studies, the Barbara Greenberg Endowed Scholarship provides monetary support to undergraduate students who are pursuing specialized coursework in Disability Studies. Donors have a preference for students enrolled in the Disability Studies major or minor. Disabled students are strongly encouraged to apply.
Applications are due May 31, 2022, before 11:59 p.m.
For more information, visit the website or contact: Mark Harniss, Associate Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine and Director of the Disability Studies Program.
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Congratulations to our graduating students!
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- Liang He, Ph.D.in Computer Science with a focus on interactive fabrication tools and techniques. Accepted professorship at Purdue. Jon Froehlich, advisor.
- Megan Hofmann, Ph.D. in Computer Science. Will join Northeastern as faculty in the fall. Jennifer Mankoff and Scott Hudson (CMU), advisors.
- Manaswi Saha, Ph.D. in Computer Science with a focus on urban accessibility data collection and visualization tools. Jon Froehlich, advisor.
- Momona Yamagami, Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dissertation defense on Zoom on May 4 at noon: Modeling and Enhancing Human-Machine Interaction for Accessibility and Health. Kat Steele (Mechanical Engineering) and Sam Burden (ECE) co-advisors. Will be joining Jennifer Mankoff as a CREATE Postdoctoral Fellow in Summer 2022.
- Taylor Gotfrid, MS in Computer Science. Jennifer Mankoff, advisor.
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CREATE’s mission is to make technology accessible, and to make the world accessible through technology.
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Copyright 2022, Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences, University of Washington
Contact us: create-contact@uw.edu
Any UW student or faculty researcher working on accessibility of or through technology can join UW CREATE. We "converse" through Slack (uwcreate.slack.com, visible to UW emails), share news through email messages and the CREATE website, and are active on Twitter: @uwcreate.
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