About me and Public Scholarship

A full length image of Cynthia standing confidently and holding her white cane. She wears a bright crimson blouse with long sleeves, dark blue jeans, andfunky Fluevogs, which feature a unique triangular-shaped heel. She is on Walnut Street in Pittsburgh, PA's Shadyside neighborhood, and overcast sky visible behind her.Here you can learn about:

  • Mentoring
  • How I prefer to be represented
  • Publicly available media samples
  • Accessibility events I’ve facilitated
  • Some of my favorite things

Mentoring

I am not currently accepting students or long-term mentees.

I make some time for short-term mentoring and networking chats. I equitably reserve time for people who experience ableism, that is, people who have or who are coded to have disabilities, chronic illnesses, mental health or medical conditions, and people who are negatively racialized and/or gendered in ways that systemically impact their participation, success, and wellbeing in academic, research, and/or tech industry environments. Please understand that I may need to schedule a few weeks out and sometimes I cannot take meetings.

Representing Me in Writing and Speaking

Please use my preferred language when you write or talk about me.

  • Call me Cynthia Bennett in professional writing and introductions. I go by Cindy socially.
  • Use she and her pronouns in absence of my name.
  • When describing my appearance, you can use this phrase: “Cynthia is a blind, white woman.” I am comfortable if my disability, race and gender are mentioned; this is actually important for nonvisual representation. This is my preference and others may be unsafe or uncomfortable to prefer such positioning.
  • Use identity first disability language when writing or speaking about me; I am blind and disabled. I understand that articles about people with disabilities more broadly will use both person and identity first language.
  • Formally introduce me as Dr. Bennett. Do not use Ms. or Mrs. I generally do not prefer honorifics unless they are in line with the culture of the organization or if I am presenting at a large or formal event.

Media Examples

Public dissemination of knowledge is especially important to me, and I am particularly interested in connecting with people with disabilities. Check out some of my recent public engagement.

Accessibility Events I’ve Facilitated

From April 2020 through August 2021, I co-lead Access Lunch, a series of reading groups and guest speakers on accessibility and disability at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer InteractionInstitute. Here are links to four of our events that I curated and moderated.

Some of My Favorite Things

Here are photos of some things that bring me joy.

Cynthia’s hands shot from the front, reading a page of braille writing (raised tactile markings). The page rests on a dark wooden table.

Braille is extremely important to me. It is my literacy. Unfortunately, many blind and low vision children are either entirely cheated out of braille instruction or are pervasively under-supported. Many professional training programs do not expect educators of blind children to become braille literate and ableism guides the low expectations they are taught to have of blind children more generally. Promoting braille literacy is one of my most important callings, and reiterating to my peers in the tech industry that braille is irreplaceable is unfortunately part of this activism. Please be mindful of how you promote your accessibility work and please support foundational braille literacy and braille book production as you can. Photo by @MissyTimkoPhoto.

A closeup of a large, abstract butterfly painting. The butterfly is rendered in bright blocks of color, using raised paint strokes that suggest a finger painting technique. The photograph zooms in on the butterfly’s body, rendered in bold horizontal stripes of color in orange, green, and purple with black outlines. On either side of the butterfly body, there are symmetrical colored shapes that make up the wings, like dark orange semi-circles and blue, yellow, and red triangles.

I love art, but I am excluded from most artistic experiences. The rhetoric underpinning common rules around how to engage with art reenforces an ableist and narrow type of engagement, often relegating tactile exploration and joy as taboo, sensory engagement that serves to compromise or deteriorate art. In resistance, I am building a collection of art, including this tactile and colorful butterfly painting, that is meant to be touched, and which I hope brings people tactile joy. I am more generally committed to supporting disabled artists. Photo by @MissyTimkoPhoto.

Cynthia is pictured in full length with her arms reaching around a giant, tactile globe at the Perkins School for the Blind. The globe is nearly her height, and is turned to show regions of Southeast Asia and Australia in yellow, brown, and green. Cynthia is grinning, and wears a flower print blouse and blue jeans.

me hugging the globe

If I could convert my walls into giant tactile maps, I would. This might happen one day. For now, I hold happy memories of the time I explored the Perkins School for the Blind’s giant tactile globe. Constructed in the 1830’s, the globe has a circumference of 13 feet. Reflecting on the artifact’s politics, I learned that Puget Sound in the Northwest United States had not been mapped at the time the globe was made, and its preservation creates particular experiences that align with predominant global north valuing and global south subversion. Specifically, the globe is locked in place to preserve its axis. While I could walk around the globe to explore its northern hemisphere, dedicated exploration of the southern hemisphere required that I kneel and lay on the ground.

Cynthia is feeding a live giraffe, which leans its head down to eat from her hand. Cynthia is laughing out loud, and her expression is full of excitement with a hint of unease. She is surrounded by a zookeeper and a friend, who is also taking a picture of the moment. Cynthia wears giraffe socks, and her cane lies at her feet.

I got to feed Dave, a giraffe at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.