Awards

Chieko Asakawa: Outstanding Contribution 2024

Dr. Chieko Asakawa is an IBM Fellow at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, the Chief Executive Director of The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Japan, and an IBM Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Her remarkable career has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards and honors. Among these, becoming an IBM Fellow in 2009, receiving the “Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon” from the Emperor of Japan in 2013, …

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2023 SIGACCESS ASSETS Paper Impact Award Winner

Empowering individuals with do-it-yourself assistive technology Author(s): Amy Hurst and Jasmine Tobias Description: The SIGACCESS community prides itself on directing the technology community’s understanding of disabled people and the role technology serves in their lives. Over the past decade, this community has diversified its view of assistive technologies and considered various ways that technology can serve individuals’ unique experiences of disability rather than generalizing across broad groups. Designing for the N of 1 is a unique …

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SIGACCESS Best Student Paper Award 2023

Watch Your Language: Using Smartwatches to Support Communication Author(s) Humphrey Curtis, King’s College London Timothy Neate, King’s College London Abstract With an ageing population and increased prevalence of people living with complex communication needs there is a growing need to design scalable high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) apps to support agency and social participation. For end-users it is currently difficult to regulate the prominence of most mainstream high-tech AAC devices and tablet-based apps – …

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SIGACCESS Best Paper Award 2023

VisPhoto: Photography for People with Visual Impairments via Post-Production of Omnidirectional Camera Imaging Author(s) Naoki Hirabayashi (Osaka Prefecture University), Masakazu Iwamura (Osaka Metropolitan University), Zheng Cheng (Osaka Prefecture University), Kazunori Minatani (National Center for University Entrance Examinations), and Koichi Kise (Osaka Metropolitan University) Abstract Many people with visual impairments would like to take photographs. However, they often have difficulty pointing the camera at the target. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing a …

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SIGACCESS Best Student Paper Award 2022

AAC with Automated Vocabulary from Photographs: Insights from School and Speech-Language Therapy Settings Author(s) Mauricio Fontana de Vargas School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Jiamin Dai School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Karyn Moffatt School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, karyn.moffatt@mcgill.ca Abstract Traditional symbol-based AAC devices impose meta-linguistic and memory demands on individuals with complex communication needs and hinder conversation partners from stimulating symbolic language in meaningful moments. This work …

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SIGACCESS Best Paper Award 2022

A Collaborative Approach to Support Medication Management in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Conversational Assistants (CAs) Author(s) Niharika Mathur School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia, United States Kunal Dhodapkar School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Tamara Zubatiy School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Jiachen Li Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Mr Brian D Jones …

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Clayton Lewis: Outstanding Contribution Recipient 2022

Professor Clayton Lewis received his PhD in 1978 in Experimental Psychology from the University of Michigan. After working at IBM in various capacities from 1968 to 1984, Professor Lewis joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1984, where he served as Associate Professor (1984-1992) and Professor (1992-2021), and now serves as Emeritus Professor of Computer Science. Professor Lewis has received many honors throughout his career. Professor Lewis was inducted …

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Call for Nominations: SIGACCESS Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility Award 2022

The SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility recognizes individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to the development of computing technologies that improve the accessibility of media and services to people with disabilities. Outstanding contributions through research, practice, or advocacy are recognized. Towards this goal, contributions are considered from academia, industry, as well as other professions that focus on computer users with disabilities and the application of computing technology to improve …

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2021 Best Paper

How Online Tests Contribute to the Support System for People With Cognitive and Mental Disabilities Author(s) Qisheng Li, Josephine Lee, Christina Zhang, Katharina Reinecke Institutions: University of Washington Abstract: Roughly 1 in 3 people around the world are affected by cognitive or mental disabilities at some point in their lives, yet people often face a variety of barriers when seeking support and receiving diagnosis from healthcare professionals. While prior work found that people with such disabilities assess themselves …

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2021 Best Student Paper

Aided Nonverbal Communication through Physical Expressive Objects Author(s) Stephanie Valencia, Mark Steidl, Michael Rivera, Cynthia Bennett, Jeffrey Bigham, Henny Admoni Intitutions: Carnegie Mellon University, Disability Rights Pennsylvania Abstract: Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices enable speech-based communication, but generating speech is not the only resource needed to have a successful conversation. Being able to signal one wishes to take a turn by raising a hand or providing some other cue is critical in securing a turn to speak. Experienced conversation …

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