About me
Research Staff Member
Research lab: Watson Research Center (Hawthorne)
I am a researcher in human-computer interaction (HCI), specializing in accessibility. Most of us will experience age-related changes in our abilities as we get older. Most of us will experience sensory, physical or cognitive impairment at some time. Whether permanent or temporary, this is a normal part of human experience that technology can and should accommodate. My work explores tools, interfaces and techniques that accommodate human abilities and disabilities across our life span.
I am chair of the Watson branch of IBM's HCI community, and chair of ASSETS 2009: The 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. I am a member of the editorial board of the new ACM journal, ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing. I have co-edited a series of five American National Standards on remote control of devices through generated user interfaces.
Current and recent research projects include:
- Technologies for a maturing forkforce: I am interested in how human cognition changes as we age, and what features are needed in technology tools that support workers across the life span. A current focus of this effort is memory support, including recovery from interrupts. This work has grown out of our open collaboration project with the University of Dundee School of Computing and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
- accessibilityWorks: The accessibilityWorks project is an open computing effort using Firefox. With the accessibilityWorks browser extension, users can transform web page content for easier web access. Both visual and motor adaptations are included. This software has been used with older adults and with people with a variety of disabilities.
- Accessible virtual worlds: 3D virtual worlds present a number of challenges to users with disabilities, but with appropriate design, these are not insurmountable obstacles. With Mark Laff, Vicki Hanson and Anna Cavender, I extended IBM's PowerUp virtual world game to demonstrate a core set of accessibility features. Innovative features for this game provide access for users who are blind, partially sighted, have dexterity impairment, or difficulty with reading. In this work, we collaborated with legally blind teenagers at Lighthouse International and adults with cerebral palsy at United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Suffolk. For more information, see the Accessibility of Virtual Worlds project website.
My background is in artificial intelligence and computer science, including intelligent tutoring systems and parallel programming. My Ph.D. research at the University of Edinburgh examined typing and mouse errors of people with motor impairments, and self-configuring keyboards. This work won the best student paper award at the ASSETS 1998 conference and formed the basis of IBM's Keyboard Optimizer tool for keyboard configuration support.
A native of Scotland, I enjoy windswept mountains and the climbing thereof, and (vegan) chocolate.
Last updated 1 Apr 2009