Accessibility Research

Status: Ongoing Projects
Year: 2023-2024

The goal is to explore the nature and availability of technology for students with disabilities. Questions to be explored include: (a) what are the general use technologies that can assist students with different disabilities, (b) what are the technologies in the pipeline that could eventually assist student with diverse disabilities, (c) what are the uses of virtual reality, augmented reality and meta for students with diverse disabilities (d) what is the impact and evolution of the increasing accessibility of general use technologies, comprising built-in accessibility features and accessibility checkers and correctors in both desktop and mobile operating systems and apps; (e) what is the impact of  the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in mainstream technologies, including AI-based captioning and translation into various languages; and (f) developments in braille and sign language technologies, virtual reality, voice-based web searches, wearable technologies, indoor navigation, and the potential of robots in science classrooms. We will examine these new technologies and their impacts on students’ lives.

This project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).