CHAI Plenary Talk: Raja Kushalnagar PhD, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
CHAI Spring 2025 Seminar Series Plenary Research Talk
Refreshments will be served
DATE: Monday, March 24, 2025, 12:00-1:00 PM
SPEAKER: Raja Kushalnagar PhD, Deaf Professor and Director of the B.S. in Information Technology program and M.S. in Accessible Human-Centered Computing program at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
TITLE: Multimedia Accessibility for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
IN PERSON: Golisano Hall (070), Room CYB-1710/1720
HOST: Cecilia O. Alm, PhD, Associate Director, CHAI; Professor, Department of Psychology; Joint Program Director, MS Program in Artificial Information, School of Information; Director, AWARE-AI NSF Research Traineeship Program; Director, Computational Linguistics and Speech Processing Lab
ABSTRACT: Dr. Kushalnagar’s presentation focuses on how deaf or hard of hearing people consume multimedia, and how technology can provide functional equivalency for multimedia that is optimized for hearing consumers. First, we show how deaf and hard of hearing people consume multimedia. We illustrate this through eye-tracking demonstrations of aural information represented through sign language or captions. We then discuss ways to optimize visual representations of aural environments, and then discuss how the differences between seeing and hearing influence aural-to-visual or visual-to-aural representations. Second, we discuss how to optimize aural-to-visual or visual-to-aural information for deaf or hard of hearing consumers and show how accessible technology can help provide functional equivalency for them compared with their hearing peers.
BIO: Dr. Raja Kushalnagar is a Deaf Professor and Director of the B.S. in Information Technology program and M.S. in Accessible Human-Centered Computing program at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. With over twenty years of experience in the accessible technology field, he brings a wealth of lived experience and research to the field. He focuses on strategic planning, local industry, alumni relations, and faculty support. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Master of Laws (LLM) in Intellectual Property and Information Law from the University of Houston in 2010 and Juris Doctor (JD) from Texas Southern University in 2008. Raja brings consumers, industry, and policymakers together on accessibility issues with focus on a deaf/hard of hearing perspective and evidence-based research. In the accessible computing field, he investigates information and communication differences between hearing and deaf people. He advocates for laws and regulations to incorporate accessible computing advances such as automatic captioning/subtitling. He has mentored over 130 undergraduate and graduate students including over 60 who are deaf or hard of hearing. He has received $5 million in grants and has published over 100 articles. Raja focuses on increasing the numbers of deaf and hard of hearing in the computing pipeline. He serves on the NSF-funded AccessComputing Leadership Corps, as a board member for the New York School for the Deaf, on Computing Research Association Widening Participation (CRA-WP), and on a collaborative grant with RIT about Visual Prosody Annotation in a Sign Language Corpus
NOTE: ASL English interpreting services have been requested for this event.
Event Snapshot
When and Where
Who
Open to the Public
| Cost | FREE |
Interpreter Requested?
Yes