About Us

The Makeability Lab is an advanced research lab in Human-AI directed by Professor Jon E. Froehlich in the Allen School of Computer Science at the University of Washington. We specialize in Human-Computer Interaction and applied machine learning for high-impact problems in accessibility, computational urban science, and augmented reality. To learn more, see our recent projects below and read our lab handbook.

Interested in working with us? If you are a current UW undergrad, UW MS student, or local Seattle high school student, please apply here. If you are a prospective PhD student, apply to the UW CSE PhD program and mention Professor Froehlich. Before applying, please read our lab handbook.

Recent Projects

This is the thumbnail image for the project Project Sidewalk

Project Sidewalk

2012 – Present

This is the thumbnail image for the project Engaging with Children's Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families

Engaging with Children's Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families

2023 – Present

This is the thumbnail image for the project Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment

Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment

2016 – Present

This is the thumbnail image for the project RAIS: Robotic Accessibility Indoor Scanner

RAIS: Robotic Accessibility Indoor Scanner

2023 – Present

This is the thumbnail image for the project SonifyAR: Context-Aware Sound Generation in Augmented Reality

SonifyAR: Context-Aware Sound Generation in Augmented Reality

2023 – Present

An example CookAR assistive vision overlay showing the graspable handle of the knife, the hazardous blade, and the intersection area with the target object

CookAR

2023 – Present

This is the thumbnail image for the project MobiPrint

MobiPrint

2022 – Present

This is the thumbnail image for the project AltGeoViz

AltGeoViz

2024 – Present

See All Projects >

Recent Papers

Accessibility for Whom? Perceptions of Mobility Barriers Across Disability Groups and Implications for Designing Personalized Maps

CHI 2025 To Appear

Chu Li, Rock Pang, Delphine Labbé, Yochai Eisenberg, Maryam Hosseini, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

ArtInsight: Enabling AI-Powered Artwork Engagement for Mixed Visual-Ability Families

IUI 2025

Arnavi Chheda-Kothary, Ritesh Kanchi, Chris Sanders, Kevin Xiao, Aditya Sengupta, Melanie Kneisel, Jacob Wobbrock, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | doi | Citation | Code | Engaging with Children's Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families

Towards Rapid Fabrication of Custom Tactile Surface Indicators for Indoor Navigation

ASSETS 2024

Daniel Campos Zamora, Liang He, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | doi | Citation

Towards Fine-Grained Sidewalk Accessibility Assessment with Deep Learning: Initial Benchmarks and an Open Dataset

ASSETS 2024

Alex Liu, Kevin Wu, Minchu Kulkarni, Mikey Saugstad, Peyton Rapo, Jeremy Freiburger, Maryam Hosseini, Chu Li, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | doi | Citation | Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment • Project Sidewalk

RAIS: Towards A Robotic Mapping and Assessment Tool for Indoor Accessibility Using Commodity Hardware

ASSETS 2024

Xia Su, Daniel Campos Zamora, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | doi | Citation | RAIS: Robotic Accessibility Indoor Scanner

Engaging with Children’s Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families

ASSETS 2024 | Best Paper Award

Arnavi Chheda-Kothary, Jacob Wobbrock, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | doi | Citation | Engaging with Children's Artwork in Mixed Visual-Ability Families

See All Papers >

Recent Videos

RAIS: Towards A Robotic Mapping and Assessment Tool for Indoor Accessibility Using Commodity Hardware

YouTube | RAIS: Robotic Accessibility Indoor Scanner

Towards AI-Powered AR for Enhancing Sports Playability for People with Low Vision: An Exploration of ARSports

YouTube | Paper

A Demo of DIAM: Drone-based Indoor Accessibility Mapping

YouTube | Paper | DIAM: Drone-based Indoor Accessibility Mapping

Recent Talks

CookAR: Affordance Augmentations in Wearable AR to Support Kitchen Tool Interactions for People with Low Vision

Oct. 13, 2024 | UIST

Pittsburgh, PA

PDF | PPTX Paper | CookAR

AltGeoViz: Facilitating Accessible Geovisualization

Oct. 13, 2024 | IEEE VIS

St. Pete Beach, Florida

PDF | PPTX Paper | AltGeoViz

SonifyAR: Context-Aware Sound Generation in Augmented Reality

Oct. 13, 2024 | UIST

Pittsburgh, PA

PDF | PPTX Paper | SonifyAR: Context-Aware Sound Generation in Augmented Reality

MobiPrint: A Mobile 3D Printer for Environment-Scale Design and Fabrication

Oct. 13, 2024 | UIST

Pittsburgh, PA

Daniel Campos Zamora, Liang He, Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | PPTX Paper | MobiPrint

AI-Powered AR Accessibility

Aug. 8, 2024 | Apple's HCML Workshop

Cupertino, CA

Jon E. Froehlich

PDF | PPTX | CookAR • DIAM: Drone-based Indoor Accessibility Mapping • RASSAR • ARTennis • GazePointAR

RASSAR: Room Accessibility and Safety Scanning in Augmented Reality

May 15, 2024 | CHI 2024

Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

PDF | PPTX | RASSAR

GazePointAR: A Context-Aware Multimodal Voice Assistant for Pronoun Disambiguation in Wearable Augmented Reality

May 15, 2024 | CHI

Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

PDF | PPTX | GazePointAR

LabelAId: Just-in-time AI Interventions for Improving Human Labeling Quality and Domain Knowledge in Crowdsourcing Systems

May 14, 2024 | CHI 2024

Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

PDF | PPTX | LabelAId

Sponsors

Makeability Lab research is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors. Our research findings, opinions, and/or recommendations may not reflect their views.

We design, build, and evaluate new interactive tools and techniques to address pressing societal challenges. Makeability refers both to how our technological innovations make new abilities possible for humans as well as our educational mission to help students gain new abilities as they learn and grow through research, invention, and human-centered design.