publications

2024

1. ASSETS 24

   "I Am Human, Just Like You": What Intersectional, Neurodivergent Lived Experiences Bring to Accessibility Research

   Lindy Le

   In Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, St. John’s, NL, Canada, 2024

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   The increasing prevalence of neurodivergence has led society to give greater recognition to the importance of neurodiversity. Yet societal perceptions of neurodivergence continue to be predominantly negative. Drawing on Critical Disability Studies, accessibility researchers have demonstrated how neuronormative assumptions dominate HCI. Despite their guidance, neurodivergent and disabled individuals are still marginalized in technology research. In particular, intersectional identities remain largely absent from HCI neurodivergence research. In this paper, I share my perspective as an outsider of the academic research community: I use critical autoethnography to analyze my experiences of coming to understand, accept, and value my neurodivergence within systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Using Data Feminism as an accessible and practical guide to intersectionality, I derive three tenets for reconceptualizing neurodivergence to be more inclusive of intersectional experiences: (1) neurodivergence is a functional difference, not a deficit; (2) neurodivergent disability is a moment of friction, not a static label; and (3) neurodivergence accessibility is a collaborative practice, not a one-sided solution. Then, I discuss the tenets in the context of existing HCI research, applying the same intersectional lens. Finally, I offer three suggestions for how accessibility research can apply these tenets in future work, to bridge the gap between accessibility theory and practice in HCI neurodivergence research.

2. CHI 24

   DISCERN: Designing Decision Support Interfaces to Investigate the Complexities of Workplace Social Decision-Making With Line Managers

   Pranav Khadpe, Lindy Le, Kate Nowak, Shamsi T Iqbal, and Jina Suh

   In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, HI, USA, 2024

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   Line managers form the first level of management in organizations, and must make complex decisions, while maintaining relationships with those impacted by their decisions. Amidst growing interest in technology-supported decision-making at work, their needs remain understudied. Further, most existing design knowledge for supporting social decision-making comes from domains where decision-makers are more socially detached from those they decide for. We conducted iterative design research with line managers within a technology organization, investigating decision-making practices, and opportunities for technological support. Through formative research, development of a decision-representation tool—DISCERN—and user enactments, we identify their communication and analysis needs that lack adequate support. We found they preferred tools for externalizing reasoning rather than tools that replace interpersonal interactions, and they wanted tools to support a range of intuitive and calculative decision-making. We discuss how design of social decision-making supports, especially in the workplace, can more explicitly support highly interactional social decision-making.

3. ACM TiiS

   “I Want It That Way”: Enabling Interactive Decision Support Using Large Language Models and Constraint Programming

   Connor Lawless, Jakob Schoeffer, Lindy Le, Kael Rowan, Shilad Sen, Cristina St. Hill, Jina Suh , and Bahareh Sarrafzadeh

   ACM Trans. Interact. Intell. Syst., Sep 2024

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   A critical factor in the success of many decision support systems is the accurate modeling of user preferences. Psychology research has demonstrated that users often develop their preferences during the elicitation process, highlighting the pivotal role of system-user interaction in developing personalized systems. This paper introduces a novel approach, combining Large Language Models (LLMs) with Constraint Programming to facilitate interactive decision support. We study this hybrid framework through the lens of meeting scheduling, a time-consuming daily activity faced by a multitude of information workers. We conduct three studies to evaluate the novel framework, including a diary study to characterize contextual scheduling preferences, a quantitative evaluation of the system’s performance, and a user study to elicit insights with a technology probe that encapsulates our framework. Our work highlights the potential for a hybrid LLM and optimization approach for iterative preference elicitation, and suggests design considerations for building systems that support human-system collaborative decision-making processes.

2022

1. US Patent

   Detection of Layout Table(s) by a Screen Reader

   Mariah Moon, Cullen Sauls, Madhuri Vanguri, Matt Campbell, Carolina Hernandez, Wes Witt, Ravi Gupta, Jeff Bishop, and Lindy Le

   Dec 2022

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   Described herein is a system and method for detecting a layout table by a screen reader. Information regarding a document being displayed by an application is received from an application programming interface of a user interface automation system that provides information regarding user interface elements of application and/or the application. The information includes an indication that the document comprises a table. A determination is made as to whether the table is a data table or a layout table based upon the received information using a rule-based heuristic. When it is determined that the table is a layout table, presentation information associated with the layout table can be skipped over, and, cell data content within the layout table provided. Thus, for a determined layout table, the system and method allow the screen reader to act as if the containing table doesn’t exist, but still read the content.