Researcher Dr. J. Bern Jordan and graduate assistant Nitya Jani performed user research with individuals attending the National Federation of the Blind State Convention on February 13th! Dr. Jordan created a new prototype kiosk with accessibility features, including vocal cues and dragging/swiping capabilities. The people who tested the kiosk provided vital feedback that Dr. Jordan […]
The ATiA (Assistive Technology Industry Association) conference is a huge gathering of assistive technology users, professors, parents, occupational and physical therapists, and people with disabilities. There are exhibits, seminars, and activities for people to learn all about assistive technology! Dr. Vanderheiden presented his work on the ATA3 Toolkit and as well as other free tools […]
TRACE researcher Dr. Hernisa Kacorri and her students Lining Wang and Vaishnav Kameswaran had the opportunity to present their research at the AIES (Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society) conference! Their presentation, “Toward a Taxonomy of Algorithmic Harms for Disability: A Systematic Review,” explores various research papers and prevalent harms. Check out their presentation here.
The AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) holds a symposium every year that brings together professionals in informatics and health. Dr. Amanda Lazar of the TRACE Center will be part of a panel: “Digital Ageism and Informatics Research Involving Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment” and will be discussing her research on societal biases about aging & […]
On October 9th, residents from the Knollwood Retirement Community visited the University of Maryland to participate in a special class activity led by Ph.D. candidate Ruipu Hu, supported by researchers Nupur Wagle and Sumedh Tirodkar, under the guidance of Prof. Amanda Lazar. The session was part of a research methods course where graduate students practiced […]
UbiComp is a international conference featuring research in ubiquitous, pervasive and wearable computing. At this year’s conference, TRACE affiliate Dr. Eun Kyoung Choe along with Dr. Hernisa Kacorri, Dr. Amanda Lazar, and PhD candidate Hossein Khayami presented their paper “From Verbal Reports to Personalized Activity Trackers: Understanding the Challenges of Ground Truth Data Collection with […]
ASSETS is an international conference about the design and use of technologies by people with disabilities. The TRACE Center published two papers that they will be presenting at ASSETS! The first one, Exploring Collaboration to Center the Deaf Community in Sign Language AI, was written this year by Rie Kamikubo, Abraham Glasser, Alex Lu, Hal […]
CHI is the number one international conference on Human Computer Interaction. TRACE Researchers Dr. Amanda Lazar and Dr. Hernisa Kacorri and their graduate students had the opportunity to contribute their research papers: “Surfacing Technology Routines While Studying Videoconferencing Among Older Adults with Cognitive Concerns,” “Understanding Older Adults’ (Dis)Engagement with Design Materials,” and “Tracking and its […]
HCI International is an international conference hosted every year. Researchers come together to share findings and studies in the field. Dr. Bern Jordan had the opportunity to present his talk “Evaluating Conformance of Video Safety Tools for Photosensitive Epilepsy” in Gothenburg, Sweden! You can check out his paper here, however, please note that it is […]
CSUN, California State University, Northridge, hosts an assistive technology conference every year. This conference is one of the biggest accessibility conferences in the world, and is sponsored by various well-known companies like Amazon, CVS Health, Google, Microsoft, and Walmart. Dr. Bern Jordan presented his work on accessible kiosks in a session called “Cross-Disability Access to […]
On February 14th, 2025, TRACE attended the NFB State Convention in Ocean City, Maryland. Dr. Bern Jordan designed and developed a prototype for accessible kiosks which he showcased during this convention. Kiosks are becoming more and more popular: we order food with them, check bags at the airport with them, and more. However, these kiosks […]
Autonomous vehicles are trained on datasets to detect human movement in order to prevent collisions. However, these datasets often only include the movements of sighted individuals. Blind people often use canes to feel around for curbs and bumps, and these movements may not be interpreted properly by current autonomous vehicles, leading to potential life-threatening situations […]
The ATiA (Assistive Technology Industry Association) conference is a huge gathering of assistive technology users, professors, parents, occupational and physical therapists, and people with disabilities. There are exhibits, seminars, and activities for people to learn all about assistive technology! Dr. Amanda Lazar, along with researchers from TechSAge and other organizations, presented at a pre-conference seminar: […]
Rie Kamikubo, a UMD PhD candidate successfully defended her dissertation on December 18th, 2024! Her PhD is in Information Studies with a focus on the intersection between AI and disability. Rie started with a background in interaction design, where she first learned about accessibility. Taking quickly to the field, she began her work in extending […]
The representations created in this study can help people understand the versatility of screen readers, and can inspire innovation and changes to these technologies for people with disabilities. UMD researchers J. Bern Jordan, Victoria Van Hyning, Mason A. Jones, Rachael Bradley Montgomery, Elizabeth Bottner, and Evan Tansil had the opportunity to present their research on […]
