Garreth W. Tigwell

Laleh Nourian, Anisa Callis, Stephanie Patterson et al.

Moving to a new culture and adapting to a new life, as an international student, can be a stressful experience. In the US, international students face unique overlapping challenges, yet the current support ecosystem, including university support systems and informal social networks, remains largely fragmented. While conversational AI has emerged as a tool used by many (e.g., generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini), we do not have a clear understanding of how international students adopt and perceive these technologies as support tools. We conducted a survey study (n=60) to map the relationship between international students' challenges and AI adoption patterns, followed by an interview study with 14 participants to identify the underlying motivations and boundaries of use. Our findings show that AI is perceived as a first-aid tool for immediate challenges, however, there is an interest in transforming AI from a tool for short-term help into a long-term support companion. By identifying where and how AI can provide long-term support, and where it is insufficient, we contribute recommendations for creating AI-powered support tailored to the unique needs of international students.

Garreth W. Tigwell, Kristen Shinohara, Laleh Nourian

Since prior work has identified that cultural differences influence user design preferences and interaction methods, as well as emphasizing the need to reflect on the appropriateness of popular HCI principles, we believe that it is equally important to apply this inquiry to digital accessibility and how accessibility fits within the design process around the world. Our long-term plan is to build upon work in this area by investigating how digital designers in different parts of the world consider accessibility and whether current accessibility resources (often developed in the west) meet or conflict with their approach to design.

Garreth W. Tigwell, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Benjamin M. Gorman et al.

Situationally-induced impairments and disabilities (SIIDs) make it difficult for users of interactive computing systems to perform tasks due to context (e.g., listening to a phone call when in a noisy crowd) rather than a result of a congenital or acquired impairment (e.g., hearing damage). SIIDs are a great concern when considering the ubiquitousness of technology in a wide range of contexts. Considering our daily reliance on technology, and mobile technology in particular, it is increasingly important that we fully understand and model how SIIDs occur. Similarly, we must identify appropriate methods for sensing and adapting technology to reduce the effects of SIIDs. In this workshop, we will bring together researchers working on understanding, sensing, modelling, and adapting technologies to ameliorate the effects of SIIDs. This workshop will provide a venue to identify existing research gaps, new directions for future research, and opportunities for future collaboration.

Michael Mauderer, Garreth W. Tigwell, Benjamin M. Gorman et al.

We propose that accessibility research can lay the foundation for technology that can be used to augment the perception of everyone. To show how this can be achieved, we present three case studies of our research in which we demonstrate our approaches for impaired colour vision, situational visual impairments and situational hearing impairment.