“Dr. Williams is instrumental in helping GitHub with its accessibility journey. Her work on communicating the value of integrating disability and inclusion into technology provides a constructive and approachable framework for employees to navigate the nuance of these considerations. We’re incredibly appreciative of the opportunity to work with her.”
Matthews, North Carolina, United States
Contact Info
2K followers
500+ connections
Matthews, North Carolina, United States
Contact Info
2K followers
500+ connections
About
Many people don't realize they're excluding disabled people in their digital products and…
Services
Activity
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My research around disabled drivers now has a follow-up survey. If you have a physical and/or cognitive condition that impacts your driving…
My research around disabled drivers now has a follow-up survey. If you have a physical and/or cognitive condition that impacts your driving…
Posted by Michele A. Williams, PhD
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Mark your calendars and register for Access CLT's last event of the year! On Tuesday, December 3rd, the International Day of Persons with…
Mark your calendars and register for Access CLT's last event of the year! On Tuesday, December 3rd, the International Day of Persons with…
Shared by Michele A. Williams, PhD
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Disability discrimination can show up anywhere. Today I learned about a troubling issue: developers selling accessible parking spaces to non-disabled…
Disability discrimination can show up anywhere. Today I learned about a troubling issue: developers selling accessible parking spaces to non-disabled…
Shared by Michele A. Williams, PhD
Experience & Education
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M.A.W. Consulting, LLC
View Michele A.’s full experience
See their title, tenure and more.
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Publications
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Conducting Accessibility User Research: What's Really Needed
Technica11y Podcast
See publicationComprehensive summary of what is needed to conduct user research with participants with disabilities.
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Reading, Writing, Arithmetic: Experiences of US Students with Disabilities
CSUN Assistive Technology Conference
See publicationDetails of disability's impact on the lives of college students derived from 17 student interviews. Categories and sample personas inform education stakeholders responsible for inclusion.
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The Question Still Remains: How Do I Know You Know Accessibility?
Accessing Higher Ground
People without accessible technology expertise are often the decision-makers for procurement, design and development, and hiring specialists. While many efforts are working to change this trend, this talk seeks to give practical tools for evaluating candidates, contractors, and products.
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Embracing Errors: Examining How Context of Use Impacts Blind Individuals' Acceptance of Navigation Aid Errors
ACM CHI
We present a mixed-methods study in the domain of navigation technology for visually impaired individuals. We examined how users respond to device errors made in realistic scenarios of use.
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Not All Errors are Created Equal: Factors that Impact Acceptance of an Indoor Navigation Aid for the Blind
ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)
We conducted a study to explore whether there are strategic ways designers can minimize the impact of inevitable errors on user experience. This paper summarizes an online survey of 41 blind individuals regarding their projected acceptance to three types of errors expected of these devices.
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Let's Get Lost: Exploring Social Norms In Predominately Blind Environments
ACM CHI (Extended Abstract)
We present a study of social norms in environments with predominately blind navigators and discuss how these may differ from what sighted people expect.
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Better supporting blind pedestrians and blind navigation technologies through accessible architecture
Designing Around People
Through our extensive navigation-related studies with 46 visually impaired adults we learned that architectural details and environmental designs are primarily what make navigation difficult, not one’s disability.
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What Not to Wearable: Using Participatory Workshops to Explore Wearable Device Form Factors for Blind Users
ACM Web for All Conference (W4A)
In this paper we document two participatory design workshops conducted with a team of eight visually impaired adults that explored features and form factors for a wearable navigation technology.
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SWARM: An Actuated Wearable for Mediating Affect
ACM Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI)
SWARM, a wearable affective technology designed to help a user to reflect on their own emotional state, modify their affect, and interpret the emotional states of others.
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"Just Let the Cane Hit It”: How the Blind and Sighted See Navigation Differently
ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)
Sighted people often have the best of intentions when they want to help a blind person navigate, but their well meaning is also often coupled with a lack of knowledge and understanding about how a person navigates without vision.
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Collaboratively Designing Assistive Technology
ACM Interactions Magazine
A major goal of assistive technology research is to develop technological solutions that solve problems faced by people with disabilities. Building healthy collaborations between academic researchers and individuals with disabilities is key to achieving this goal.
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Framing the Conversation: The Role of Facebook Conversations in Shopping for Eyeglasses
ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW)
In this paper, we investigate Warby Parker’s Facebook page and explore the ways customers formulate questions and conversations as they shop for new eyeglass frames.
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"Pray Before You Step Out": Describing Personal and Situational Blind Navigation Behaviors
ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)
Personal navigation tools have greatly impacted the lives of people with vision impairments. As people with vision impairments often have different requirements for technology, it is important to understand users' ever-changing needs.
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Preliminary Investigation of the Limitations Fashion Presents to Those with Vision Impairments
Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry
We investigate this question through interviews and a diary study with legally blind individuals to gather their point of view on beauty in clothing and their fashion experiences.
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Crowdsourcing Subjective Fashion Advice Using VizWiz: Challenges and Opportunities
ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)
We describe our findings of a diary study with people with vision impairments that revealed the many accessibility barriers fashion presents, and how an online survey revealed that clothing decisions are often made collaboratively, regardless of visual ability.
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Fashion for the blind: a study of perspectives
ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)
See publicationFindings on the major aspects of clothing’s appeal to blind wearers as well as the challenges with lack of access and assistive technology.
Patents
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Modular wearable device for conveying affective state
Issued US 14/534,581
A wearable device conveys information to a user. The device includes a master soft circuit cell and a plurality of actuation soft circuit cells. These cells are physically interconnected to form a garment that is worn by a user and each of these cells includes an electrically non-conductive fabric covering. Each of the actuation cells is electrically connected to and operates under the control of the master cell. The master cell is configured to wirelessly receive actuation instructions and…
A wearable device conveys information to a user. The device includes a master soft circuit cell and a plurality of actuation soft circuit cells. These cells are physically interconnected to form a garment that is worn by a user and each of these cells includes an electrically non-conductive fabric covering. Each of the actuation cells is electrically connected to and operates under the control of the master cell. The master cell is configured to wirelessly receive actuation instructions and activate a combination of the actuation cells based on the received actuation instructions. Each of the actuation cells is configured to generate a particular actuation that is perceived by one or more senses of the user whenever the actuation cell is activated by the master cell. A system also conveys affective state information to a user.
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Projects
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Nel: Spoken Language Physics Tutor
Master's Thesis Project: An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that included a conversational speech interface and animated agent (“Nel”) to better emulate human interaction (that is, “Nel” spoke the problems to the students and they in turn spoke their answers). Nel was designed after working closely with Dr. Nels Madsen of Auburn University’s Physics Department (the inspiration and catalyst for the project). Ultimately the ITS attempted to provide an alternative means of gaining assistance…
Master's Thesis Project: An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that included a conversational speech interface and animated agent (“Nel”) to better emulate human interaction (that is, “Nel” spoke the problems to the students and they in turn spoke their answers). Nel was designed after working closely with Dr. Nels Madsen of Auburn University’s Physics Department (the inspiration and catalyst for the project). Ultimately the ITS attempted to provide an alternative means of gaining assistance with homework assignments when the professor or tutors were not available.
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SWARM: An Actuated Wearable for Mediating Affect
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SWARM (Sensing Whether Affect Requires Mediation) is a modular wearable smart scarf meant to aid wearers with identifying and mediating emotions, particularly wearers with visual or hearing impairments or Autism Spectrum Disorder that may hinder emotion detection.
Media Coverage includes interview with MIT Technology Review and coverage in several online magazines (search "SWARM Microsoft scarf").Other creators -
Recommendations received
5 people have recommended Michele A.
Join now to viewMore activity by Michele A.
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October is filled with important U.S. observances, including Hispanic Heritage Month, Indigenous People's Day, and National Disability Employment…
October is filled with important U.S. observances, including Hispanic Heritage Month, Indigenous People's Day, and National Disability Employment…
Shared by Michele A. Williams, PhD
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🗣 #HispanicHeritageMonth is yet another great opportunity to highlight the universality of disability identity and disability pride. For instance…
🗣 #HispanicHeritageMonth is yet another great opportunity to highlight the universality of disability identity and disability pride. For instance…
Shared by Michele A. Williams, PhD
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( ❗ Note: this testing is complete - but there will be a follow-up survey soon!) Paid research: Drivers with physical and/or cognitive disabilities…
( ❗ Note: this testing is complete - but there will be a follow-up survey soon!) Paid research: Drivers with physical and/or cognitive disabilities…
Posted by Michele A. Williams, PhD
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