Welcome to A11y Lab

A11y Lab is a research group in the Department of Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics at the College of Information Science and Technology (IST), Pennsylvania State University.

Our research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), with a particular emphasis on accessible computing. The primary aim of our work is to understand how technology and human abilities interact, identify where these interactions break down, and develop strategies for recovery.

We investigate these questions through three distinct lenses: as engineers, as computer scientists, and as human-centered researchers. This multidisciplinary approach enables us to analyze problems in novel ways and often discover solutions that advance knowledge across multiple scientific domains, while making a tangible impact on the lives of people with disabilities.

A11y stands for Accessibility: there are 11 letters between the “A” and the “y”. Making technology accessible is a hard technical problem because it is layered, multidimensional, and often difficult to fully understand, articulate, and theorize.

Research Projects

Building on this perspective, our projects bring together Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Accessible Computing, Computer Systems, and Human-Centered AI to study accessibility as both a technical and human problem. We design, develop, and evaluate computing systems for people whom mainstream technology often overlooks, especially those who are blind or have low vision, those who have motor and/or communication impairments, and those who are neurodivergent. To show how these efforts connect, the project tree below organizes our work as a hierarchy of accessibility themes, moving from broad research directions to specific terminal topics; each terminal topic links directly to its corresponding paper panel.

- A11y Lab Understanding Users - Assistive Technology - Human-Centered AI - Multimodal Interaction - Assistive Technology for Sensory Impairments - Assistive Technology for Motor Impairments - Assistive Technology for Communication Impairments Assistive Technology for Neurodivergent Users Human-AI Collaborative Systems Trustworthy Large Multimodal Models Assistive Robotics Speech-Based Interaction Mid-Air Interaction with Abacus Gestures AR/VR Applications - Assistive Technology for Blind Users - Assistive Technology for Low-Vision Users Grid-Coding for Non-Visual Programming Data Sonification with Natural Sounds Accessibility APIs and Assistive Systems Remote Sighted Assistance Interaction Models and Input Devices Space-Compacting Magnification Tilt-Explore for Screen Magnifiers

Expand each panel to read the full preamble, selected outputs, and demos.