Abstract: To realize more equitable technology futures, it’s not enough to simply adapt technology to be more inclusive or accessible after it is already made. We will also need to equip today's computing & engineering students--tomorrow's technology creators--with skills to critically reflect upon bias and exclusion throughout the entire design process. User interfaces are an illustrative site of inquiry for this purpose: Interfaces constrain interactions with technology, and by extension, who benefits from technological access and who is excluded. Enabling students to critically reflect upon the ways their design decisions impact users is a key aspect of developing inclusive computing interface design competence.

In this talk, we invite attendees to consider the overlap of inclusive design and computing education, with the goal of generating new ideas for more reflective human-computer interaction (HCI) education. I will share a selection of insights from my previous HCI education work around teaching and learning critical technology design, then, with DU colleague Laurel Taylor, describe a new project of ours focusing on the pedagogical intersections of HCI/UX design and creative literary translation. We will break into small groups to discuss and reflect upon how we might shape more ethical, critical, creative, and reflective educational spaces. 

Bio: Alannah “Al” Oleson (they/all) is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Denver. They use qualitative and community-based participatory methods to support tomorrow's computing professionals in critically reflecting upon the societal and individual impacts of technological design decisions. Alannah's work has been published in premier venues in human-computer interaction (CHI, TOCHI, CSCW/PACMHCI) and computing education research (ICER, TOCE). They have taught courses in human-computer interaction, software engineering, and introductory computing at multiple postsecondary institutions, integrating these insights into their research and practice. Alannah received their PhD and MS in information science from UW's Information School, where they were a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow and a Husky 100 awardee for excellence in scholarship, teaching, service, and mentoring. They received their Honors BS in computer science with an applied focus in HCI & psychology from Oregon State University, where they were a Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher finalist and Adobe Research Schola.

alannaholeson.com

Laurel Taylor (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Department at the University of Denver, where she teaches courses in Japanese language, translation, and popular and post-modern literature and culture. She holds a PhD in Japanese and Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa, and a BA in Japanese Studies from Middlebury College. Taylor's research focuses on digital literary production at the turn of the twenty-first century as it relates to translations of affect, professionalization, and normalization across domestic spaces within Japan and digital spaces globally. In 2020, she was awarded a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship to further her work at Waseda University in Tokyo, and portions of this study are forthcoming in publications from University of Hawai'i Press. Taylor is also a practicing literary translator and poet, with works appearing in Asymptote, Asia Literary Review, Eureka, and Monkey, among others. Her first book of poetry, Human 構造, was published in 2024 with Shichigatsudo Publishing and Printing, and her co-translation (with Hitomi Yoshio) of Kawakami Mieko's Sisters in Yellow is forthcoming from Knopf later this year.

https://liberalarts.du.edu/about/people/laurel-taylor