SIGACCESS Newsletter

The first article, written by Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada, Victoria Yaneva and Simon Harper is a follow-up to their award wining paper presented at W4A (Best Technical Paper). In this article, Eraslan et al. summarize their experimental results with ScanPath algorithm which shows that it is possible to detect autism with approximately 60%, highlighting future directions and its potential applications.

Aritz Sala, Myriam Arrue, J. Eduardo Pérez and Sandra M. Espín-Tello, the authors of the paper who won the Best Communication Award at W4A 2020, present their work evaluating public Spanish e-services. The work explores the barriers around online forms and discusses how to design accessible e-services.

In this article, Lynn Kirabo uses the goals of universal design, like cultural appropriateness, to understand the needs of diverse users in Kampala, Uganda, and Kigali, Rwanda in public transportation. The work seeks to bridge the knowlege gap of the interplay between universal design and interaction designs for the Global South.

Shari Trewin, Chair. Shari is a researcher in the Accessibility Leadership team at IBM Research, an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and Chair of ACM's Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS). Her research interests lie in accessibility, usability, and artificial intelligence technologies. Recently she has been working on AI Fairness for People with Disabilities, automation of accessibility test and repair, better prioritization of accessibility isses found by tools, enhancing automated captions, and an accessibility ontology for industry.

Matt Huenerfauth, Vice-Chair. Matt is a professor in the Golisano College of Computer and Information Sciences at the The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where he is a member of the faculty of the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies and the Ph.D. program in Computer and Information Sciences. Huenerfauth and his students conduct research on computer accessibility for people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, assistive technology for people with disabilities, human computer interaction, and computational linguistics.

Jinjuan Heidi Feng, Secretary Treasurer. Heidi is a professor in the Computer and Information Sciences Department and the director of the School of Emerging Technologies at Towson University. She received a Ph.D. in Information Sciences from UMBC in 2005. She conducts research in the area of Human-Computer Interaction, universal accessibility, Health-informatics, and usable and accessible Security. She works closely with national and local communities to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities through information technology.

André Rodrigues, Newsletter Editor. André Rodrigues is currently a Post-Doc researcher at the Universidade de Lisboa. His PhD research was focused on smartphone accessibility working closely with visually impaired people. He is currently interested in exploring how tecnhology can and is leveregered in accessibility, health and gaming, and how the three intersect.

Sushant Kafle, Information Director. Sushant is a Ph.D. student in Computing and Information Science at the Golisano College of Computing and Information Science, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) under the advisement of Prof. Matt Huenerfauth. His research aims to inform the evaluation and the design of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology for use in captioning for people who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH).