Update: join us for UrbanAccess'24 in October 2024!
Welcome 👋,
This is the webpage for our workshop entitled "The Future of Urban Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Data Collection, Analytics, Policy, and Tools", which will be held virtually via Zoom on Mon, Oct 17th as part of the ASSETS'22 conference. You can read more about all five of the accepted ASSETS'22 workshops here.
With this workshop, our goal is to bring together leading experts in human mobility, urban design, disability, and accessible computing to discuss pressing urban access challenges across the world and brainstorm solutions. We invite contributions from practitioners, transit officials, disability advocates, and researchers.
See our Call for Participation below. Have a question? Please email us at urbanaccess2022@cs.uw.edu.
On behalf of all UrbanAccess'22 organizers,
Jon E. Froehlich, Computer Science, University of Washington
Yochai Eisenberg, Disability & Human Development, University of Illinois, Chicago
Maryam Hosseini, Urban Systems, Rutgers/NYU
Fabio Miranda, Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago
There is widespread lack of accessibility in built environments, from roads and housing to public building and spaces. Such inaccessible urban infrastructure not only contributes to and further reinforces systemic exclusion of people with disabilities but also impacts public health, physical activity, and quality of life for all. To improve the design of our cities and to enable new accessibility-infused analytic tools and interactive maps, we need new data collection techniques, data standards, policies, and planning tools focused on the quality and accessibility of pathways, transit ecosystems, and buildings.
The goal of our “The Future of Urban Accessibility” workshop is to bring together a community of scholars and practitioners across disciplines, disability identities, cultures, and geographies to discuss the state of urban accessibility and the role of interactive technologies therein.
We invite short papers (broadly construed), including experience reports, position papers, vision pieces, demonstrations, pictorials, or research summaries up to approximately 2,000 words on this topic. For the word count, you can exclude figures, tables, captions, and the reference list. As we aim for a broad representation of viewpoints, disciplines, and work practices, please choose a format that you feel best conveys your work. Please reach out to urbanaccess2022@cs.uw.edu if you have a question.
Submitted artifacts should not be anonymized and, in addition to their primary content, should include a bio of each author and rationale for attending the workshop. Please alt-text your images. Artifacts will be reviewed and selected by the co-organizers to balance topics, geographies, and communities of focus. Accepted authors will be required to register and virtually attend the workshop via Zoom on Mon, Oct 17th
Please submit your papers/artifacts here by Mon, Sept 12 at 11:59PM AoE. We are using Microsoft's Conference Management Toolkit to handle submissions.
Our overarching goal is to identify open challenges, share current work across disciplines, and spur new collaborations. As a secondary goal, we aim to synthesize and publish our discussions together in a jointly authored report perhaps to the SIGACCESS Newsletter or beyond.
Please join us. We welcome your contributions! Email questions to: urbanaccess2022@cs.uw.edu.
How do we design equitable, accessible cities? What is the role of interactive technology in supporting such diverse tasks as urban planning, accessibility-aware urban navigation, and government accountability? How can we ensure the participation and empowerment of people with disabilities not just in designing accessible cities but also in the ecosystem of interactive tools from accessible transit and restaurant recommendation apps to maps of urban access.
Below, we pose ten questions about the “future of urban accessibility” to drive discussion and provide example areas of interest for our workshop. The questions are intended to be a start, not an end. Throughout, we confront the very definition of “urban accessibility”: this is a function not just of the design of the built environment and transportation infrastructure but also our sensory, physical, and cognitive abilities.
See our workshop proposal for expanded details/context around each question.
To submit, the lead author should create an account on Microsoft CMT. Then, you can create a new submission here. On that page, click the "Create new submission" link.
The submission page will ask for the title, abstract, authors, and then a field for you to upload the PDF (one per submission). When adding an author, it will first ask for their email address—if the author is not found in the CMT system, you just need to manually add their name and affiliation (no need to ask them to create a CMT account).
You must register to attend UrbanAccess 2022. You can register here.
Our workshop is part of the ASSETS'22 conference. You do not have to register for the full conference to attend the workshop. The registration prices are set by ASSETS'22 and include accessibility services and staffing support.
ASSETS is an ACM conference. ACM stands for the the Association for Computing Machinery and is the largest scientific and educational computing society in the world. If you are not yet an ACM member, but publish at ACM venues, it often makes financial sense to become one. See ACM’s membership options here.
| ACM/SIG Member | Non-member | Student | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $30 | $35 | $20 |
Below, our schedule for Mon, Oct 17th. Our goal is to maximize interactivity and discussion together and to help build connections and forge collaborations. The workshop is roughly six hours and includes over three hours dedicated to breakout sessions and full group discussions (along with ~1 hr for breaks).
The workshop will take place virtually on Mon, Oct 17th at 7AM-1PM Pacific (GMT-7) / 4PM-10PM CEST (GMT+2) via Zoom. Scheduling a synchronous international workshop across timezones is challenging. We selected the best time that maximizes everyone’s availability (based on Google Form responses).
Here's the workshop timing across selected timezones:
Here's the full schedule with 00:00 marking the beginning of the workshop:
| Time | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00-00:05 | Opening remarks 👋 5 mins Starts at 07:00 PDT | 10:00 EDT | 16:00 CEST | 01:00 AED |
Talk |
| 00:05-00:25 | Ice breaker 🧊 20 mins |
Interactive |
| 00:25-00:45 | 1st breakout discussions 💬 20 mins |
Breakout |
| 00:45-01:00 | Full group shareout + synthesis 15 mins |
Interactive |
| 01:00-01:30 | Keynote speaker:
Karen Tamley 📢 20 min talk + 10 min Q/A Starts at 08:00 PDT | 11:00 EDT | 17:00 CEST | 02:00 AED |
Talk + Q/A |
| 01:30-01:40 | 1st break ☕ 10 mins |
Break |
| 01:40-02:25 |
1st talk session: Policy, Outreach, & Engagement 🎤
|
Talk |
| 02:25-02:55 | 2nd breakout discussions 💬 30 mins |
Breakout |
| 02:55-03:10 | Full group shareout + synthesis 15 mins Starts at 09:55 PDT | 12:55 EDT | 18:55 CEST | 03:55 AED |
Interactive |
| 03:10-03:45 |
2nd talk session: Data Acquisition & Validation 🎤
|
Talk |
| 03:45-04:25 | Longer break 🍕🍔🍜 40 mins Starts at 10:45 PDT | 13:45 EDT | 19:45 CEST | 04:45 AED |
Break |
| 04:25-05:00 |
3rd talk session: Mobility Perceptions & Behavior 🎤
|
Talk |
| 05:00-05:30 | 3rd breakout discussions 💬 30 mins Starts at 12:00 PDT | 15:00 EDT | 21:00 CEST | 06:00 AED |
Breakout |
| 05:30-05:55 | Full group shareout + final synthesis 25 mins |
Interactive |
| 05:55-06:00 | Closing thoughts 👋 5 mins Starts at 12:55 PDT | 15:55 EDT | 21:55 CEST | 06:55 AED |
Interactive |
We are honored to have Karen Tamley as the UrbanAccess 2022 Keynote Speaker. Karen is the President and CEO of Access Living, a Chicago-based service and advocacy non-profit for people with disabilities.
Karen previously served three Chicago Mayors as Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. As Commissioner, Karen advanced accessibility and disability inclusion in the areas of transportation, city infrastructure, technology, emergency planning, education, and employment and oversaw the delivery of direct services to thousands of Chicago’s disabled youth and adults.
In 2015, Karen received the Motorola Solutions Excellence in Public Service Award from the Civic Federation, which recognizes a non-elected government official for having an extraordinary impact on the quality of state and local government services in Illinois. In 2016, President Obama appointed Karen to serve on the United States Access Board, which develops national accessibility guidelines and standards, and she was elected as Chair in 2019. Most recently, Karen was appointed to the Obama Foundation Inclusion Council in 2020, and she served as a member of the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition team.
Karen is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Kevin Irvine, and their teenage daughter. All three have disabilities themselves and are actively involved in disability advocacy locally and nationally.
| Person | Position | Discipline | Affiliation | Country | Area of Interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marc Adams | Professor | Behavioral Sciences and Epidemiology | ASU | US | Interaction between walkability and interventions for physical activity |
| Anat Caspi | Principal Scientist | Computer Science | UW | US | Data equity in transportation through data standardization, automated collection, performance metrics and analytic tools. Co-founder of OpenSidewalks and AccessMap.io |
| Holger Dieterich | NGO | Activism | Sozialhelden e.V | Germany | Accessibility, inclusion, geodata, standards, disability mainstreaming. Co-founder of wheelmap.org |
| Heather Feldner | Professor | Rehabilitation Medicine | UW | US | Mobility rights, access and environments of use for pediatric mobility technology, geospatial mapping for children and families who use mobility tech |
| Jon E. Froehlich | Professor | Computer Science | UW | US | Urban accessibility data collection, analytics, and visualization. Sidewalk equity. Mobility rights. Co-founder of Project Sidewalk. |
| Aldo González Barrera | NGO | Urban Planning | Liga Peatonal | Mexico | Architect, urban planner, activist. Participatory design for public spaces |
| Claudina de Gyves | NGO | Activism/Urban Planning | Liga Peatonal | Mexico | Urban planning, mobility, pedestrian rights, citizen advocacy |
| Joy Hammel | Professor | Disability and Human Development; Rehabilitation Sciences | UIC | US | Accessibility, participation, equity and inclusion, environmental interventions, disparities analyses |
| Maryam Hosseini | Research Scientist | Urban Systems | Rutgers/NYU | US | Computer vision, pedestrian infrastructure assessment, accessibility, walkability, active design |
| Reuben Kirkham | Professor | Human-Centered Computing | Monash Univ. | Australia | Navigation around barriers; documentation of barriers; disability human rights considerations |
| Melanie Kneisel | Engineer | Computer Science | Microsoft | US | Accessibility, inclusive navigation, spatial audio |
| Delphine Labbé | Professor | Disability and Human Development | UIC | US | Urban planning and policy for disability inclusive cities, lived experience and usability of technology |
| Fabio Miranda | Professor | Computer Science | UIC | US | Visualization, urban analytics |
| Stephen J. Mooney | Professor | Epidemiology | UW | US | Social and contextual influences on physical activity and injury |
| Victor Pineda | Activist/Scholar | Urban Planning | World Enabled | US | Disability rights expert, urbanist, founder of WorldEnabled.org |
| Cláudia Fonseca Pinhão | City Government | User Experience Design | Gemeeente Amsterdam | Netherlands | Equitable urban planning, walkable/rollable sustainable cities |
| Ana Rodríguez | NGO | Activism | Liga Peatonal | Mexico | Participation, implementation, walkability |
| Manaswi Saha | PhD Candidate | Computer Science | UW | US | Urban scale decision-making, data visualization, advocacy, tech for non-technical users |
| Michael Saugstad | Research Scientist | Computer Science | UW | US | Urban accessibility, data collection, tool building |
| Judy Shanley | NGO | Disability and Human Services | Easterseals | US | Urban accessibility, data collection, tool building |
| Ather Sharif | PhD Student | Computer Science | UW | US | Mapping accessibility of urban rail transit |
| Qing Shen | Professor | Urban Design and Planning | UW | US | Efficient, equitable, and environmentally responsible urban transportation |
| Cláudio T. Silva | Professor | Computer Science | UW | US | Urban sensing, analytics, and visualization. Co-founder of the Center for Data Science (CDS) and the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) |
| Maarten Sukel | City Government | AI | Gemeeente Amsterdam | Netherlands | Crowd+AI tools for urban assessments, equitable urban planning |
| Eric K. Tokuda | Postdoc | Math Institute | Oxford | UK | Urban mobility, graphs, computer vision |
| Sebastian Felix Zappe | NGO | Activism | Sozialhelden e.V | Germany | Open accessibility data, public transit, routing |
| Anna Zivarts | NGO | Activism | Disability Rights Washington | US | Disability rights, Director of the Disability Mobility Initiative |
