Distinguished Speaker Series Presents:
Jonathan Lazar
Tools and Methods for Born-Accessible Design
Monday, November 2, 2026
ITE 459 • Noon
RSVP for the Jonathan Lazar Presentation
The Distinguished Speaker Presentation by Dr. Jonathan Lazar continues the series of events celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Human-Centered Computing Program in the Department of Information Systems.
Abstract
Digital technologies, applications, websites, and documents are often created without considering accessibility for people with disabilities. Often, the inaccessible technologies or content are remediated for accessibility after development, remediated for accessibility only when there is a complaint from a person with a disability, or are never remediated for accessibility. Remediating technologies after-the-fact is not a cost-effective approach, and the time delay between when digital technologies and content are built and released and when they are made accessible can itself be a form of societal discrimination. For years, disability rights groups have demanded born-accessible design, and some government policies are starting to require it, yet the research literature in human-computer interaction and user experience does not yet define born-accessible design or any methods for it. This presentation will focus on describing our work on born-accessible design in two areas: tools and methods. We have been collaborating with Adobe on developing software tools with interventions to support content creators in adding accessibility markup and attributes during their workflow, leading to the creation of born-accessible content which needs no remediation. And on a broader level, we have been working with disability rights groups, technology companies, and policymakers, to build a methodological framework for implementing born-accessible design.
Bio
Jonathan Lazar, PhD, LLM is a professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, where he is the executive director of the Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility (MIDA), and is a faculty member in the Human- Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). Dr. Lazar has over 25 years of experience in research and teaching in human-computer interaction, with a focus on technology accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technologies, and law and public policy related to HCI. Dr. Lazar has authored or edited 19 books, including Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction (2nd edition, co-authored with Feng and Hochheiser), Human-Computer Interaction and US Law (co-authored with Fiesler, Wentz, and Kushalnagar), Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy (co-authored with Goldstein and Taylor), Foundations of Information Law (co-authored with Jaeger, Gorham, and Greene-Taylor), and Accessible Technology and the Developing World (co-edited with Stein). Dr. Lazar has published over 200 refereed articles in journals, conference proceedings, edited books, and magazines, and has received research funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Google, and Adobe. At the University of Maryland, he frequently teaches courses on Human-Computer Interaction, Accessibility, User-Centered Design, and Legal Research Methods. He is the recipient of the 2020 ACM SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility and the 2016 ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award, is a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy, and served as the general chair of the 2021 ACM ASSETS conference.