Collaboration as a Lens for Inclusive Technical Innovation

In this lecture, I show how considering the intersection of collaborative and social scenarios with other domains of computing can reveal end-user needs and result in innovative technical systems. I give examples of this approach from my work in gesture interaction, information retrieval, and accessibility, focusing particularly on the topics of creating more efficient and expressive augmentative and alternative communication technologies and of making social media more accessible to screen reader users. I close by identifying future opportunities for creating inclusive collaborative and social technologies.

Bio:
Meredith Ringel Morris is a Sr. Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Research Area Manager for Interaction, Accessibility, and Mixed Reality. She founded Microsoft Research’s Ability research group and is a member of the lab’s Leadership Team. She is also an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and in The Information School. Dr. Morris is an expert in Human-Computer Interaction; in 2020, she was inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy in recognition of her research in collaborative and social computing. Her research on collaboration and social technologies has contributed new systems, methods, and insights to diverse areas of computing including gesture interaction, information retrieval, and accessibility. Dr. Morris earned her Sc.B. in Computer Science from Brown University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.

To request accommodations for a disability please contact Emily Lawrence, emilyl@cs.princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event.