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Cynthia Bennett

Human-Computer Interaction Researcher

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About Cynthia

Cynthia stands next to a wall painted with purple dots looking at the camera and smiling

Welcome! I split my time as a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute and as a researcher at Apple, supervised by Jeffrey Bigham. My research sits at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, accessibility, and Disability Studies. My work spans from the critique and development of HCI theory and methods to designing emergent accessible interactions with technology. Irrespective of the project, my aim is to inform what I do as much as possible with the lived experiences and creativity of people with disabilities.

My doctoral research was conducted in the department of Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE). at the University of Washington, and was advised by Daniela Rosner and David Ribes, and I have also collaborated extensively with Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) professor, Richard Ladner. My doctoral research was supported by a Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

My most recent project offers an activity called biographical prototypes, which scaffolds the creation and sharing of stories of design by people with disabilities materialized through prototyping practices. prompted by research demonstrating how people with disabilities are assumed users in design professions, biographical prototypes instead show how people with disabilities have always meaningfully contributed work which often goes under-recognized. In so doing, these stories also articulate wider structural forms of ableism in which they are situated. In response, we argue that recognition is an important but partial step toward reworking design to dismantle rather than perpetuate discrimination.

Learn more about this and my other projects here.

Contact

  • Email [email protected]
  • Follow me, @clb5590 on Twitter.
  • Connect with me on LinkedIn.
  • Read my Google Scholar page.

This website is not endorsed by any entity; it is a personal account of my professional activities.

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