Universal access is an important goal of technology. This talk examines several evolving voting technologies and their impact on persons with cognitive and physical disabilities. The research described will show how many of the accessibility opportunities for people of age could actually improve the performance of the voting population as a whole.
We will start with the premise that technology’s goal is to create access. In this context, access should be contrasted with assistance. Technology should facilitate anyone legally permitted to vote to do so without help from another person. To the extent that we can remove the barriers to allow people to vote independently—so that their intentions can be recorded, recognized, and understood—we will reduce the need for and complications involved with having another person in the voting booth or penning an absentee ballot for the voter.
Biography:
Ted Selker directs Research on Accessible Voting at University of California Berkeley. Dr. Selker spent 5 years as director of Considerate Systems research at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley. He was also responsible for developing the campus’s research mission, teaching HCI, Android product design, and research in voting with disabilities.
Before that, he spent ten years as an associate Professor at the MIT Media Laboratory where he created the Context Aware Computing group, co-directed the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, and directed the CIDI Kitchen of the future/ product design of the future project. His work is noted for creating demonstrations of a more considerate world in which intentions are recognized and respected in complex domains.
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Live broadcast at http://video.citris.berkeley.edu/playlists/webcast. Ask questions live on Twitter: #CITRISRE. All talks may be viewed on our YouTube channel
The schedule for the semester can be found on the CITRIS site.
Webviewing:
UC Davis: 1065 Kemper Hall
UC Merced: COB 322-Willow
UC Santa Cruz: SOE E2 Building, Room 595B
Registration through eventbrite is required for lunch at UC Berkley:
https://ted-selker-citrisre.eventbrite.com
