Fowler Engineering Presents: Rethinking Design for Accessibility

Speaker: Dr. Anne Marie Piper

Abstract: Approximately 61 million Americans, or one in four U.S. adults, have a disability that affects daily life. Despite the prevalence of disability across the lifespan, accessibility is typically an afterthought in technology design. Discussions of accessibility often center on checklists of requirements and whether or not a system has particular features. In this talk, I will argue for a view of accessibility that is collaboratively negotiated, situated, and enacted through sociomaterial relations. Grounded in extensive field work, I will present three cases of design for accessibility that shift how we think about building systems with and for individuals with disabilities. These projects detail new systems for collaborative meaning-making in the context of dementia, online social advocacy among blind and visually impaired older adults, and ability-diverse group work and design. Collectively, these projects reveal the interactive nature of accessibility that is often missing in individualistic system design and call attention to the importance of the social and political dimensions of accessibility alongside the technological.

Bio: Dr. Anne Marie Piper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics at The University of California, Irvine. Her research in human-computer interaction and accessible computing aims to create more equitable and inclusive digital experiences for people of all ages and abilities. Anne Marie's prior and ongoing work focuses on designing new technologies for collaborative work among ability-diverse teams of professionals and academics; developing accessible content production tools for blind artists, writers, and musicians; and leveraging the arts as a form of expression and resource for designing alongside people with dementia or speech-language impairments. Her research and teaching have been recognized with an NSF CAREER Award, UC-Irvine, Alumnae of Northwestern Award for Curriculum Development, Best Paper Awards and Nominations at ACM CHI, CSCW, DIS, and ASSETS, and a UC-San Diego Interdisciplinary Scholar Award. Anne Marie received her PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego, MA in Education from Stanford University, and BS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. Prior to joining UC-Irvine, she was a tenured faculty member at Northwestern University.