Deaf Travel Autoethnography

Quick Info

Project Date June 15, 2018 - Aug. 1, 2019
Sponsors: NSF
Keywords: accessibility, hard of hearing, longitudinal study, assistive technology, deaf and hard of hearing

News

Two ASSETS'19 Papers Nominated for Best Paper

Oct 28, 2019 | Jon

Both of our ASSETS'19 papers were nominated for 'Best Paper' at ASSETS'19: Weld, G., Jang, E., Li, A., Zeng, A., Heimerl, K., Froehlich, J. E. (2019). Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery. Proceedings of ASSETS 2019. Jain, D., Desjardins, A., Findlater, L., Froehlich, J. E. (2019). Autoethnography of a Hard of Hearing Traveler. Proceedings of ASSETS 2019. Congrats to all authors!

Two Papers Accepted to ASSETS'19

Jun 28, 2019 | Jon

We were honored that both of our papers submitted to ASSETS'19 were accepted for publication: Autoethnography of a Hard of Hearing Traveler led by UW CSE PhD student, Dhruv Jain, and co-authored by Jain, Audrey Desjardins (School of Art + Art History + Design), Leah Findlater (HCDE), and Jon Froehlich Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery led by UW CSE PhD students, Galen Weld and Esther Jang, and co-authored by Weld, Jang, Anthony Li (UMD ugrad), Aileen Zeng (UW CSE ugrad), Kurtis Heimerl (UW CSE prof), and Jon Froehlich. Congrats also to Manaswi Saha for having her first-authored paper from her MSR internship accepted as well.

About

Deaf Travel Autoethnography

Our first author, Dhruv Jain, interaction with his scuba diving instructor during his one year backpacking tour.

Travel experiences offer a diverse view into an individual’s interactions with different cultures, societies, and places. In this paper, we present a 2.5-year autoethnographic travel account of a hard of hearing individual—Jain. Through retrospective journals and field notes, we reveal the tensions and nuances in his travel, including the magnified difficulty of social conversations, issues with navigating unfamiliar environments and cultural contexts, and changes in the relationship to personal assistive technologies. By exploring the longitudinal travel experiences of a single individual, we uncover evocative and personal insights rarely available through participant-based research methods. Based on these lived experiences and post hoc reflections, we present two design explorations of personalized technology the autoethnographer created for aiding his travel. Finally, we offer reflections for customized travel technologies for deaf and hard of hearing users, and methodological guidelines for performing first-person research in the context of disability.