Kristen Shinohara
I am an Associate Professor in the School of Information at the Rochester Institute of Technology where I serve as the Graduate Program Director. I am also currently Director for the Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research (CAIR) Lab. My research focuses on the design of technologies usable by people with disabilities, making design practices accessible, supporting students with disabilities in graduate school, and teaching accessibility in computing. I have NSF funded projects investigating accessibility issues and experiences for graduate students with disabilities, and facilitating teaching modules to infuse accessibility into computing courses. I received my PhD from the University of Washington Information School in 2017, where I was advised by Jacob O. Wobbrock and co-advised by Wanda Pratt.
I developed the Design for Social Accessibility (DSA) perspective, which includes consideration for social situations experienced by people with disabilities. The DSA perspective frames tenets for design and inlcudes a set of method cards to help designers engage in a design process sensitive to disabled user needs and preferences. Special thanks to Stephen Cady and Nayeri Jacobo for their help in preparing these tools for designers to download and use for free: Download DSA Method Cards Here
Design
Accessible Design
Work in these projects focus on the accessibility of different aspects of the design thinking process (including approaches such as user-centered design), toward learning what can be done to improve accessibility of design tools and techniques.
Supported by the Google Scholar Award
Teach
Teaching Accessibility in Computing
We infuse accessibility into computing courses, focusing on: increasing student awareness and learning of accessibility topics and skills, and ensuring teaching materials and content are readily usable by instructors.
Supported by NSF #2121549 and #2439818
Empower
Empower Disabled Graduate Students in STEM
We investigate how graduate students with disabilities manage inaccessibility in research. This work focuses on graduate students in STEM fields pursuing their doctoral degrees.
Supported by NSF #1926209; RIT Grant Writer's Bootcamp
Recent Papers
Ogawa, M., Mostowfi, S., Kim, J., Shinohara, K., Oprean, D., Ikehara, C., Gu, Y., Eyck, L., Crosby, M. (2025). Impact of Retrospective Confidence Prompts on Students’ Metacognitive Awareness and Skills. In: Tareq Ahram, Waldemar Karwowski and Jay Kalra (eds) Human Factors in Design, Engineering, and Computing. AHFE (2025) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 199. AHFE International, USA.
Paul Ezeamii and Kristen Shinohara. 2025. Navigating STEM Doctoral Programs with ADHD: Barriers, Workflow Challenges, and Adaptive Strategies. In Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 38, 1–13.
Laleh Nourian, Vinaya Hanumant Naikar, Kristen Shinohara, and Garreth W. Tigwell. 2025. Investigating the Intersection of Cultural Design Preferences and Web Accessibility Guidelines with Designers from the Global South. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 343, 1–19.
Catherine M. Baker, Yasmine N. Elglaly, and Kristen Shinohara. 2025. Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device Maps Assignment. In Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2 (SIGCSETS 2025). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1750.
Tlamelo Makati, Garreth W. Tigwell, and Kristen Shinohara. 2024. The Promise and Pitfalls of Web Accessibility Overlays for Blind and Low Vision Users. In Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 38, 1–12.
Emily Kuang, Minghao Li, Mingming Fan, and Kristen Shinohara. 2024. Enhancing UX Evaluation Through Collaboration with Conversational AI Assistants: Effects of Proactive Dialogue and Timing. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 3, 1–16.
Emily Kuang, Selah Bellscheidt, Di Pham, Kristen Shinohara, Catherine M Baker, and Yasmine N. Elglaly. 2024. Mapping Accessibility Assignments into Core Computer Science Topics: An Empirical Study with Interviews and Surveys of Instructors and Students. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 656, 1–16.
[Best Paper Award] Yasmine Elglaly, Catherine Baker, Anne Ross and Kristen Shinohara. 2024. Beyond HCI: The Need for Accessibility Across the CS Curriculum. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1 (SIGCSE 2024). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 324–330.