overview

My research explores the relationship between accessibility and social technologies. In particular, I am interested in how interaction design can have a positive impact on people with disabilities by making it easier for them to connect with others in social and professional contexts. I am also interested in how interaction traces from social technologies (e.g., "big data") can provide insight into the activities, challenges, and successes surrounding technology use by people with disabilities, and/or provide early warning signs of health concerns.

teaching & service

Together with Richard Ladner, I co-organized a joint University of Washington + Microsoft Research seminar series on the topic of "Computers & Disabilities" (CS590W) during the Fall 2010 academic quarter. I served as a faculty panelist for the 2012 ACM ASSETS doctoral symposium, and I am the local arrangements chair for the 2013 ASSETS conference.

research projects

Touchscreen Accessibility

• touch interactions for blind users [UIST 2011 paper]

Friendsourcing Q&A for the blind

• survey of blind people's use of social networking sites, and experiment comparing their use of friendsourcing vs. crowdsourcing for Q&A [ CSCW 2013 paper ]
• analysis of visual challenges facing blind people based on questions posted to a friend/crowdsourcing service [ CHI 2013 paper ]

Social technologies for children on the autism spectrum

• SIDES: a tabletop game for social skills development aimed at youth with Asperger's syndrome [ CSCW 2006 paper ]