ACM Chief Executive Officer
In many ways, technology has been transformative in providing access to information and services for people with sensory, physical, or cognitive impairments. We can't be complacent about these accomplishments, however, given that digital technologies change rapidly. Each new application that is released and each new technological shift has the potential to create barriers to access. This talk will examine some recent technology changes and consider public policy measures that might facilitate positive change.
Vicki Hanson is a past President of ACM and currently serves as ACM’s Chief Executive Officer.
After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, she went on to become a Research Staff Member and Manager at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center in New York, founding their Accessibility Research Group in 2000. Following that, she held a personal chair of Inclusive Technologies at the University of Dundee in Scotland and was a Distinguished Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the US.
Vicki’s research focus is on the accessibility of technology and related research ethics. For her work, she has been recognized both by industry and professional organizations, including an IBM Corporate Award, a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, the
Social Impact Award from AnitaB.org, the
ACM SIGACCESS Award for Contributions to Computing and Accessibility
, election to the ACM CHI Academy, and more recently her election to the
National Academy Engineering
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the British Computer Society, and a Fellow of the ACM. In 2017 Vicki was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Newcastle University in the UK.