Recent Awards and Honors in the AccessComputing Community

Please join us in congratulating members of our community who have received awards or otherwise been honored in recent months.

• AccessComputing co-PI Raja Kushalnagar (Gallaudet University) was awarded the 2024 Computing Research Association’s Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award, for his exceptional mentor, hosting research experiences for undergraduates, and encouraging students to pursue graduate studies.
• AccessComputing co-PI Elaine Schaertl Short (Tufts) received the Tufts University Lillian and Joseph Leibner Award for Excellence in Teaching and Advising of Students, which recognizes her outstanding teaching and advising .
• AccessComputing partner Anat Caspi (UW), Director of the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology received the 2023 Human Rights Educator Award from the City of Seattle’s Human Rights Commission for her work related to accessibility of sidewalks and urban infrastructure.
• AccessComputing partner Nicki Washington (Duke), PI of the Alliance for Identity Inclusive Computing Education, was awarded the National Center for Women in Information Technology’s 2024 Joanne McGrath Cohoon Service Award for her work related to making computing more inclusive of marginalized groups.
• AccessComputing Team Member Katheryn Yurechko (Washington and Lee University) received a 2024 Marshall Scholarship. Marshall Scholars purse graduate studies in the UK. Katie will be working toward an MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the University of Oxford and MSc in Computer Science at University College London.
• Multiple AccessComputing partners had best papers at SIGCSE 2024:
  • Beyond HCI: The Need for Accessibility Across the CS Curriculum - Yasmine Elglaly (Western Washington), Catie Baker (Creighton University), Annie Ross (Bucknell University), Kristen Shinohara (Rochester Institute of Technology)
  • Accessible to Whom? Bringing Accessibility to Blocks - Andreas Stefik (University of Nevada at Las Vegas),Willliam Allee (UNLV), Gabriel Contreras (UNLV), Timothy Kluthe (UNLV), Alex Hoffman (UNLV), Brianna Blaser (UW), Richard Ladner (UW)
• AccessComputing partner Jen Mankoff (UW) and team member Kate Glazko (UW) were interviewed for the Nature article ‘Without these tools, I’d be lost’: how generative AI aids in accessibility.
• AccessComputing co-PI Stacy Branham (UC Irvine) is an author on a best paper at the International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering titled Understanding the Career Mobility of Blind and Low Vision Software Professionals.

We love to celebrate the successes of our community members.  If you’ve won a recent award, please let us know by emailing accesscomp@uw.edu.