Shiri Azenkot (@shiriazenkot) presents Enhancing Ability: A Discussion of Recent Work on Improving Access to Information for People with Vision Disabilities.

In this talk, Azenkot discusses several projects that show how we can leverage mainstream technology to enable people with disabilities to be more independent and productive. She begins with a discussion of her dissertation work about eyes-free text entry on mobile devices, showing how blind people can use touchscreens effectively, and continues by discussing work conducted with students at Cornell Tech on two emerging mainstream technologies: 3D printing and smart glasses. Her group at Cornell Tech worked on improving access to education for blind students via 3D printing and enabling people with low vision to access information in their environment with smart glasses.

Shiri Azenkot is an Assistant Professor of Information Science at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, Cornell University. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Computer Science Department at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in accessibility and interaction on new platforms. Shiri frequently publishes at top HCI and accessibility conferences, including CHI, ASSETS, UIST, and UbiComp. Currently, her research is funded by the NSF, AOL, Verizon, and Facebook. Before arriving at Cornell Tech, she was a PhD student in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where she was advised by Richard Ladner and Jacob Wobbrock. Shiri has received the UW graduate medal (awarded to just one PhD candidate at the university each year), a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and an AT&T Labs Graduate Fellowship.

About Databites
Data & Society’s “Databites” speaker series presents timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation.