Cynthia L. Bennett

Human Centered Design

CV

For more information e-mail me For a shorter summary, download my resume

Education

  • Ph.D; University of Washington
    • Human Centered Design and Engineering
    • GPA: 3.98
    • 9/2014 — 9/2019 (expected)
    • Advisors: Daniela Rosner and David Ribes
  • B.A; University of North Carolina Wilmington
    • Magna Cum Laude
    • Major: Psychology
    • Minors: African American Studies and Women’s Studies
    • 2008 — 2011

Awards and Honors

  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship: 7/2015 — 6/2019 ($150,000).
  • Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant: 9/2018 — 8/2019 ($25,000).
  • University of Washington Harlan Hahn Endowment Grant: 2018 ($2,300).
  • Foundation for Science and Disability Graduate Student Grant: 2018 ($1,000).
  • University of Washington Dennis Lang Disability Studies Award: 2018 ($500).
  • ASSETS Conference on Computers and Accessibility Doctoral Consortium participant: 2017.
  • UNC Wilmington Psychology Department Michael Bradley Research Award (2 given annually): 2011.
  • Collaborator on Ford College Community Challenge Grant: 2014 ($25,000).
  • Co-author on 2 Best Paper-awarded publications at the ASSETS Conference on Computers and Accessibility: 2013 and 2014.

Peer Reviewed Publications

  • Cynthia L. Bennett, Erin Brady, and Stacy M. Branham. 2018. Interdependence as a Lense for Assistive Technology Research and Design. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual ACM Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, to appear.
  • Cynthia L. Bennett, Jane L. E, Martez E. Mott, Edward Cutrell, and Meredith Ringel Morris. 2018. How Teens with Visual Impairments Take, Edit, and Share Photos on Social Media. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 76, 12 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173650
  • Cynthia L. Bennett, Keting Cen, Katherine M. Steele and Daniela K. Rosner. 2016. An Intimate Laboratory? Prostheses as a Tool for Experimenting with Identity and Normalcy. In Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1745-1756. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858564
  • Danielle Bragg, Cynthia L. Bennett, Katharina Rheinecke, and Richard E. Ladner. 2018. A Large Inclusive Study of Human Listening Rates. In _Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 444, 12 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174018
  • Meredith Ringel Morris, Jazette Johnson, Cynthia L. Bennett, and Edward Cutrell. 2018. Rich Representations of Visual Content for Screen Reader Users. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 59, 11 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173633
  • Martez E. Mott, Jane L. E, Cynthia L. Bennett, Edward Cutrell, and Meredith Ringel Morris. 2018. Understanding the Accessibility of Smartphone Photography for People with Motor Impairments. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 520, 12 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174094
  • Yuhang Zhao, Cynthia L. Bennett, Hrvoje Benko, Edward Cutrell, Christian Holz, Meredith Ringel Morris, and Mike Sinclair. 2018. Enabling People with Visual Impairments to Navigate Virtual Reality with a Haptic and Auditory Cane Simulation. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 116, 14 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173690
  • John R. Porter, Kiley Sobel, Sarah E. Fox, Cynthia L. Bennett, and Julie A. Kientz. 2017. Filtered Out: Disability Disclosure Practices in Online Dating Communities. In proceedings of the ACM Human -Computer Interaction 1, CSCW, Article 87 (December 2017), 13 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3134722
  • Lucas F. Colusso, Cynthia L. Bennett, Sean A. Munson, and Gary Hsieh. 2017. Translational Resources: Reducing the Gap between Academic Research and HCI Practice. In Proceedings of the Annual ACM Conference on the Design of Interactive Systems (DIS ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 957-968. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3064663.3064667
  • Haley MacLeod, Cynthia L. Bennett, Meredith R. Morris, and Ed Cutrell. 2017. Understanding Blind People’s Experiences with Computer-Generated Captions on Social Media Images. In Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5988-5999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025814
  • Kristen Shinohara, Cynthia L. Bennett and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2016. How Designing for People with and without Disabilities Shapes Student Design Thinking. In Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 229-237. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2982142.2982158
  • Catherine M. Baker, Lauren R. Milne, Jeffrey Scofield, Cynthia L. Bennett and Richard E. Ladner. 2014. Tactile Graphics with a Voice: Using QR Codes to Access Text in Graphics. In Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 75-82. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661366 Best Student Paper Award (top 7% of accepted papers)
  • Megan Campbell, Cynthia L. Bennett, Caitlin Bonnar and Alan Borning. 2014. Where’s My Bus Stop? Supporting Independence of Blind Transit Riders with StopInfo. In Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, (ASSETS ’14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11-18. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661378 Recipient of $25,000 Ford College Community Challenge award Gave conference talk
  • Lauren R. Milne, Cynthia L. Bennett, Shiri Azenkot and Richard E. Ladner. 2014. BraillePlay: Educational Smartphone Games for Blind Children. In Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, (ASSETS ’14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 137-144. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661377
  • Shiri Azenkot, Cynthia L. Bennett, and Richard E. Ladner. 2013. DigiTaps: Eyes-Free Number Entry with Minimal Audio Feedback on Touchscreens. In Proceedings of the Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, (UIST ’13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 85-90. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2501988.250205
  • Kotaro Hara, Shiri Azenkot, Megan Campbell, Cynthia L. Bennett, Vicki Le, Sean Pannella, Robert Moore, Kelly Minckler, Rochelle, H. Ng, and John E. Froehlich. 2013. Improving Public Transit for Blind Riders by Crowdsourcing Bus Stop Landmark Locations with Google Street View. In Proceedings of the International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, (ASSETS ’13). DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/10.1145/2717513 Best Paper Award (top 7% of accepted papers)
  • Kyle Rector, Cynthia L. Bennett, and Julie A. Kientz. 2013. Eyes-Free Yoga: An Exergame using Depth Cameras for Blind and Low Vision Exercise. In Proceedings of the International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, (ASSETS ’13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 12, 8 pages. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2513383.2513392

Lightly Reviewed Publications

  • Cynthia L. Bennett. 2017. Disability-disclosure preferences and practices in online dating communities. XRDS 24, 2 (December 2017), 30 – 33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3155120
  • Cynthia L. Bennett, Kristen Shinohara, Brianna Blaser, Andrew Davidson and Katherine M. Steele. 2016. Using a Design Workshop to Explore Accessible Ideation. In Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 303-304. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2982142.2982209
  • Kristen Shinohara, Cynthia L. Bennett, Jacob O. Wobbrock, and Wanda Pratt. 2017. Teaching Accessibility in a Technology design Course. In Proceedings of the 12th International Society of the Learning Sciences Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL ‘17). 239-246.
  • Lauren R. Milne, Cynthia L. Bennett, and Richard E. Ladner. 2014. The Accessibility of Mobile Health Sensors for Blind Users. The Journal of Technology and Persons with Disabilities collection of articles for Center on Disabilities. 2, 16, (2014), 10 pages. http://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.3/133384
  • Lauren R. Milne, Cynthia L. Bennett, and Richard E. Ladner. 2013. VBGhost: A Braille-Based Educational Smartphone Game for Children. In Proceedings of the International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, (ASSETS ’13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 75, 2 pages. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2513383.2513396

Internships and Relevant Employment

  • Research Intern: Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, Jun. 2017 — Sept. 2017 with Ed Cutrell and Meredith Ringel Morris
    • Interactive interviewing: incorporated activities on touchscreen devices during interview protocol to learn how teens take, edit, and share photos using popular social media apps. Assisted on other projects.
    • Presented findings to researchers from two product groups and contributed to 4 peer reviewed academic publications.
  • Research Intern: Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK, Oct. 2016 — Dec. 2016 with Alex Taylor
    • Local and destination-based fieldwork to learn how people with vision impairments navigate and assist one another during every day and less familiar holiday activities.
    • Contributed to a peer reviewed academic publication.
  • UX Research Intern: Microsoft, Redmond, WA, Jun. 2016 — Sept. 2016
    • Developed and executed lab study to gage user experience to inform design of potential Windows 10 features.
    • Presented to two product groups and one managerial-level meeting. Consulted a different research project contributing to a peer reviewed academic publication.
  • Research Assistant: University of Washington Human Centered Design and Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering Departments, Seattle, WA, Oct. 2012 — present.
    • Research centering people with vision impairments to improve accessibility of user centered design process. Prior work included running various studies to inform design of and evaluate numerous smartphone apps providing accessibility and information to people with vision impairments.
    • Mixed methods: combining methods to answer research questions; experience with interactive interviewing with probe activities and technologies, lab, field observation, longitudinal, user experience quantitative metrics to evaluate usability and qualitative analysis.
    • Contributed to 12 peer reviewed academic publications. One project informed accessibility improvements for a popular public transit information app, and 2 projects have resulted in 4 published iPhone apps.
    • Managed and developed a program schedule for a two-day mentoring workshop for 18 STEM students with vision impairments. Recruited Ph.D.-level industry and academic mentors, managed application process for students, designed program schedule, and administrative duties.
  • Research Assistant: UNC Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, 01/2010—05/2011.
    • Research regarding women, drugs and alcohol and sexual decision making.
    • Recruited participants, ran lab and survey-based studies, collated and entered data, record management, literature reviews.

Guest Lectures and Invited Talks

  • History of Disability in the US and Connecting Disability Studies with Inclusive Design Practice, Apr. 2018: A two-guest lecture series for Ph.D.-level Inclusive Design course in the University of Washington Human Centered Design and Engineering department.
  • Connecting disability Studies with Inclusive Design Practice, Jan. 2018: Guest lecture for University of Washington Human Centered Design and Engineering masters-level Inclusive Design course. Lecture and curated readings overviewed Disability Studies scholarship with connections to design practice. Group activity challenged students to identify access barriers during their user centered design with a user with disabilities and brainstorm how to alleviate them.
  • How can Disability Studies inform accessibility research? Jul. 2016: Invited talk at the Microsoft Research Summer Institute on Expanding Accessibility Research.
  • Empowering Blind STEM Students: A Workshop, co-presented with Richard E. Ladner, Jun. 2015: Invited talk at the Engineering4Society Conference.

Teaching Assistant Experience

  • Disability Studies and Science and Technology Studies Reading Group, Oct. 2017 — Dec. 2017.
    • Co-curated a reading list and led weekly discussions.
  • Feminist Theory and Critical Disability Studies Reading Group, 4/2016—6/2016.
    • Co-curated a reading list and alternated weeks leading discussions.
  • Intro to Human Centered Design and Engineering, Oct. 2015 — Dec. 2015
    • Worked during the course’s first offering, collaborating with the instructors to develop course objectives and original content.
    • Taught two sections — 50 students.
    • Grading and student support.

Service

University of Washington Human Centered Design and Engineering department

  • 2017 — 2018: Student representative on Ph.D. Program Oversight Committee of mostly faculty which reviews Ph.D. student progress and updates curriculum and milestone requirements.
  • 2016 — Present: Review applicants for admittance in to our Bachelor major.

Research-Related

  • Workshop co-organizer for a CHI Human-Computer Interaction Conference session on Inclusive Educational Technologies: Emerging Opportunities for People with Visual Impairments, 2018: Reviewed workshop applicants and assisted with program schedule.
  • University of Washington, 2017 — 2018: Received a grant to fund meetings for a group of graduate students with disability studies-focused research. Monthly meetings discuss readings, workshop projects, and social networking. 2017 — 2018.
  • Peer reviewing papers for academic conferences including CHI, CSCW, and DIS. 2014 — Present.

Professional Development and Advocacy for Blind People

  • Washington State School for the Blind. 2013 — 2018: WA governor-appointed representative on the Board of Trustees. including serving on a search committee to select school’s next superintendent.
  • National Federation of the Blind. 2015 and 2016: Member of the Scholarship Committee annually awarding merit and service-based scholarships to 30 blind students
  • Learning Ally. 2015: Mentored blind college students weekly and wrote content for a resource bank of strategies for college success.
  • National Federation of the Blind of WA. 2007 — 2016: Treasurer with other offices previously held. Duties include managing finances and lobbying to US and WA congresses for blindness-related legislation.