Keynote Speaker

Jacob O. Wobbrock, a man with short brown hair, a beard, and glasses, wearing a blue collared shirt and looking slightly to the side against a light blue background.

Jacob O. Wobbrock

Professor, University of Washington

Title

Twenty-Five Years, Five Projects, and Five Reflections on Accessible Computing

Abstract

I began working on accessible computing in 2001 at the start of my doctoral program by developing word prediction software for Palm PDA devices [4]. Today, 25 years later, accessibility has remained a core focus of my work and the work of my students in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). In this keynote, I will share five projects that have significantly shaped my work, along with five reflections that continue to inform my perspective. My goal is to convey ideas from which I would have benefitted 25 years ago as a junior researcher starting in accessible computing. My five projects are EdgeWrite [9], Slide Rule [3], enhanced area cursors [1] and, in particular, the Pointing Magnifier [2], ability-based design [7,8], and the epidemiological model of mobile app accessibility [5,6]. My five reflections concern prioritizing depth, the power of participant-driven prototyping, the opportunities and obligations of field deployments, the importance of conceptual contributions, and the value of cross-disciplinary deep-dives. I conclude by addressing some of the promises and pitfalls of artificial intelligence for accessibility, drawing on these reflections to light our way.

References

  1. Leah Findlater, Alex Jansen, Kristen Shinohara, Morgan Dixon, Peter Kamb, Joshua Rakita, and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2010. Enhanced area cursors: Reducing fine-pointing demands for people with motor impairments. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’10). New York, NY: ACM Press, 153–162.
  2. Alex Jansen, Leah Findlater, and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2011. From the lab to the world: Lessons from extending a pointing technique for real-world use. In Extended Abstracts of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’11). New York, NY: ACM Press, 1867–1872.
  3. Shaun K. Kane, Jeffrey P. Bigham, and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2008. Slide Rule: Making mobile touch screens accessible to blind people using multi-touch interaction techniques. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’08). New York, NY: ACM Press, 73–80.
  4. Brad A. Myers, Jacob O. Wobbrock, S. Yang, B. Yeung, J. Nichols, and R. Miller. 2002. Using handhelds to help people with motor impairments. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCAPH Conference on Assistive Technologies (ASSETS ’02). New York, NY: ACM Press, 89–96.
  5. Anne Spencer Ross, Xiaoyi Zhang, James Fogarty, and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2017. Epidemiology as a framework for large-scale mobile application accessibility assessment. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’17). New York, NY: ACM Press, 2–11.
  6. Anne Spencer Ross, Xiaoyi Zhang, James Fogarty, and Jacob O. Wobbrock. An epidemiology-inspired large-scale analysis of Android app accessibility. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 13 (1). Article No. 4.
  7. Jacob O. Wobbrock, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Shaun K. Kane, and Gregg C. Vanderheiden. 2018. Ability-based design. Communications of the ACM 61 (6), 62–71.
  8. Jacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Susumu Harada, and Jon Froehlich. 2011. Ability-based design: Concept, principles, and examples. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 3 (3). Article No. 9.
  9. Jacob O. Wobbrock, Brad A. Myers, and John A. Kembel. 2003. EdgeWrite: A stylus-based text entry method designed for high accuracy and stability of motion. In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’03). New York, NY: ACM Press, 61–70.

Bio

Jacob O. Wobbrock is a Professor of Information and, by courtesy, Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. His field is human-computer interaction (HCI) with a focus on mobile and accessible computing. He is a co-founder of the cross-campus DUB Group and the MHCI+D degree. He also directs the ACE Lab and is an Associate Director and founding Co-Director Emeritus of the CREATE research center.

He seeks to scientifically understand people’s experiences with interactive technologies, and to design, build, and evaluate better interaction techniques and systems, especially for people with disabilities. His work has included text entry, pointing, touch, and gesture; human performance measurement and modeling; HCI research and design methods; virtual reality; mobile computing; accessible computing; and human-centered A.I.

In 2010, he received an NSF CAREER award. In 2017, he was awarded the SIGCHI Social Impact Award. In 2019, he was inducted into the CHI Academy. In 2021, he was named an ACM Fellow for “contributions to human-computer interaction and accessible computing.” In 2026, he received the SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility, a lifetime achievement award. He has also received four 10-year lasting impact awards from ASSETS 2019, ICMI 2022, UIST 2024, and ASSETS 2025.

He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and his B.S. in Symbolic Systems (1998) and M.S. in Computer Science (2000) from Stanford University.