Stacy Branham Helps Lead $5.6M Project to Expand AccessComputing

“Technology innovation happens when people with diverse life experiences are at the table,” wrote Informatics Professor Stacy Branham in a LinkedIn post. The post was in reference to the National Science Foundation (NSF) investing $48 million to broaden participation in computing, including $5.6 million to expand the AccessComputing alliance that Branham helps lead.

“If you’ve ever used an audiobook… thank the blind and low vision community. If you’ve ever used videoconferencing or closed captions, thank the d/Deaf and hard-of hearing community,” wrote Branham, whose research in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) at UC Irvine focuses on accessible computing.

Branham is now collaborating with researchers from the University of Washington, Gallaudet University and Tufts University to help expand AccessComputing, a national program working to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields.

AccessComputing

Founded in 2006, AccessComputing supports students of all disability types working to earn a computing degree. Branham traces her involvement in this work to her role as accessibility chair of a 2019 symposium sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2019). “I kind of came to AccessComputing serendipitously,” she says, recalling a two-minute presentation she gave on the first day of the symposium.

“I talked about how we’re all collectively responsible for ensuring accessibility,” she says. “Afterward, AccessComputing founder Richard Ladner came and introduced himself.” Ladner, the child of deaf adults, kept in touch with Branham, and when he was ready to hand over AccessComputing to a new generation of leaders, she was one of several people he approached.

Banham is now helping run the program along with Maya Cakmak and Brianna Blaser of the University of Washington; Raja Kushalnagar of Gallaudet University; and Elaine Short of Tufts University. “Raja is deaf, Elaine has a mobility disability, and I have a psychosocial disability,” says Branham, “and we’re moving into year 20+ of AccessComputing and the good work it is doing thanks to this amazing five-year NSF extension.”

The NSF grant extension ensures that the program can continue its support for more than 600 disabled students across the country, partnering with over 100 academic institutions, professional organizations and companies. In particular, the grant supports the following objectives:

• engaging individuals with disabilities in computing,
• enhancing the capacity of institutions and organizations to include them,
• integrating accessibility into computing curricula, and
• fostering systemic change through collaboration.

As one of the principal investigators on the grant, Branham has taken on the task of fostering systemic change.

Systemic Change

“My role is to provide exemplars of how to make our classrooms and campuses accessible to people with disabilities, and UCI is our test bed,” says Branham. “We plan to share case studies of what works and what doesn’t with other institutions.”

For example, Branham has contributed feedback on addressing accessibility as part of UCI’s Strategic Plan for 2023-2028. She has also contributed to the establishment of a Disability Cultural Center for the roughly 20 percent of UCI students who have a disability — 27 percent in the Department of Informatics. In addition, she brought the nation-wide Data Buddies Program to the School of ICS, is launching a 2024-25 Digital Accessibility Fellows Program and an Accessing STEM High School Scholarship Program, and is helping ICS host its second annual Accessing STEM in Higher Education event.

“My job for the next few years is to document all of these projects and share lessons learned,” says Branham. “People with disabilities are in our society. They’re our neighbors, family members and colleagues, but they’re not often in the driver’s seat of making the next generation of technologies. Once they’re adequately represented in computing, the technology will work better for everyone!”

If you are a student with a disability in a computing major, sign up for AccessComputing. Educators and companies can also contact accesscomp@uw.edu to learn about becoming a partner to better support students and colleagues with disabilities.

— Shani Murray