LANS Seminar

Seminar Title: Accessibility of Science Beyond Content Accessibility
Speaker: JooYoung Seo, Assistant Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Date/Time: September 29, 2021 / 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Location: See meeting URL on the cels-seminars website (requires Argonne login)

Description: This talk covers accessibility of science pipelines beyond content accessibility. Although much has been discussed on how to make digital content accessible for people with disabilities as end-users, little has been known about how to make science itself accessible from and to all abilities. Whereas the former approach frames accessibility as an ad hoc extension for consumers with disabilities, the latter opens the whole doors for knowledge producers of all abilities.

As an open-source contributor and scientist who is just blind, I will talk about accessibility as a part of scientific pipelines. I will share my experience and discuss the current status of science accessibility in three areas: computer programming; Math; and data science.

At the end of this talk, you will have the following takeaways: First, better understanding of accessible approaches to the three areas; second, paradigm shift from “accessibility for disabilities” to “accessibility for all abilities”; and third, the relationship between accessibility and reproducibility.

Bio: JooYoung Seo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Seo is also an RStudio double-certified data science instructor and accessibility expert certified by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). His research topics involve accessible computing, universal design, inclusive data science, and equitable healthcare technologies.

As a learning scientist, data scientist, and engineer, his research focuses particularly on how to make computational literacy more accessible to people with dis/abilities using multi-modal data representation. He has worked on various research and development projects on accessible computing and assistive technologies. His research projects have involved not just web accessibility, but also human-centered design and development studies including inclusive makerspaces, tangible block-based programming, tablet-based haptic feedback of knowledge structure, accessible data science (e.g., data tactualization, sonification, and verbalization), and accessible/reproducible scientific writing tools for people with and without dis/abilities.