Quick Info
Project Date
Jan. 15, 2018 - Present
PIs:
Leah Findlater (PI)
Jon E. Froehlich (Co-PI)
Sponsors:
NSF
Keywords:
accessibility,
deaf,
deaf and hard of hearing,
smarthome
News
Huge congratulations to recently graduated Makeability Lab PhD student—now Michigan professor—Dhruv Jain on being recognized with the William Chan Dissertation Award. The Allen School has a lovely writeup, which quotes some of my thoughts worth repeating here. “Dhruv’s dissertation research makes fundamental advances in the design of sound sensing and feedback systems for people who are deaf or hard of hearing,” Froehlich said. “Throughout his dissertation work, Dhruv has worked closely with the DHH community to understand diverse needs and evaluate his systems, including through large online surveys, interviews and field deployments.” Jain’s own experiences as a DHH individual informed his research and helped shape his focus on the user experience. “Dhruv’s dissertation not only exemplifies the human-centered design process in the creation of accessible technologies but also makes transformative technical innovations in integrating AI and HCI to improve information access,” Froehlich added. “As a testament to its impact, his work has received multiple paper awards and a Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, and SoundWatch has been released and downloaded by over 2,000 Android watch users worldwide.” As rather surreal twist, I was honored with the same award a decade ago. It is both humbling and even more fulfilling to have one of my own students receive the award. Congrats Dhruv!

Aug 18, 2021 | Jon
Congratulations to Dhruv Jain who was selected for the prestigious Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant for his work on “Sound Sensing and Feedback Techniques for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users.” The MSR Dissertationg Grant aims to "increase the pipeline of diverse talent receiving advanced degrees in computing-related fields by providing a research funding opportunity for doctoral students who are underrepresented in the field of computing." Read more on the Allen School news page.
Congratulations to Dhruv Jain who was selected for the Google-CMD-IT LEAP Alliance Fellowship. CMD-IT stands for the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT and is dedicated to "promoting innovation that enriches, enhances, and enables our target communities, such that more equitable and sustainable contributions are possible by all communities."
About

Smarthome sound awareness prototype
One of the three smarthome sound awareness prototypes we explored via a wizard-of-oz study
Publications
Talks
March 12, 2021 | Carnegie Mellon University, HCII Lecture
Virtual
PDF | PPTX | HoloSound | HomeSound | SoundWatch
Feb. 18, 2021 | UW Speech and Hearing Center
Virtual
PDF | PPTX | HoloSound | HomeSound | SoundWatch
Dec. 11, 2020 | UW General exam
Virtual
Nov. 13, 2019 | UW Qualifying exams
University of Washington
May 10, 2019 | CHI 2019
Glasgow, UK
Project Members

Leah Findlater
May 2018 - Present
Associate Professor
HCDE
University of Washington
HandSight | SoundWatch | Touchscreen Accessibility


Dhruv Jain
Sep 2018 - Present
PhD Student
Computer Science
University of Washington
SoundWatch | AR Captioning | Accessibility Literature Survey

Kelly Mack
Aug 2019 - Present
PhD Student
Computer Science
University of Washington
Accessibility Literature Survey | HomeSound