This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering (CFDA 47.041) will fund research to advance accessible collaboration tools for visually impaired information workers. The $943,192 award to Northwestern University will: Develop a taxonomy of accessibility barriers and design guidelines for AI-powered collaboration tools to support ability-diverse team communication, coordination, and knowledge sharing. Create an accessible infrastructure of new...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project award of $222,489 aims to develop an accessibility interface technology to improve software usability for the approximately 61 million Americans living with disabilities. The proposed solution will enable end-users to access up to 80% of commercially-available software, while also providing software distributors a low-cost method to fulfill accessibility mandates and increase product usage and...
This $400,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CFDA 47.070) program supports research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop new methods and systems that enable blind and low-vision (BLV) users to create rich, customized multisensory data representations. The goal is to empower BLV people to engage in data analysis through interactive visualizations that incorporate text, audio, and tactile...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.070 - Computer and Information Science and Engineering program) to the University of Maine System provides $1,126,197 to develop a multisensory navigation assistance tool to aid individuals with visual impairments. The three-year project aims to: Identify information access requirements and optimize delivery via multisensory smartphone interfaces to support indoor navigation for blind and visually impaired individuals. Create...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Information and Intelligent Systems supports research to improve collaborative practices for enhancing software accessibility for people with disabilities. The $174,607 award to Bucknell University, a private university, aims to study the software development process, identify best practices, and provide guidance to improve tools and organizational structures to promote software accessibility. The research involves...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $200,000 Project Grant under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to San Francisco State University (SFSU), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, to develop an AI-driven sensory augmentation system for visually impaired individuals. The goal of this 2-year research project is to improve the independence, accessibility, and well-being of visually impaired persons by leveraging natural representative sound and AI technology. The project aims to enhance...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) Project Grant, awarded to Lehigh University with a total funding of $219,642, aims to develop a community-driven framework and prototypes for digital accessibility mapping of indoor environments. The key products to be delivered include: An accessibility metadata schema and backend mapping database server for indoor maps. A robotic system for semi-autonomous exploration and baseline accessibility data...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $698,161 project grant under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships federal grant program (CFDA 47.084) to the University of Southern California on December 15, 2022. The grant will support the development of multimodal accessibility tools to facilitate programming education and workforce readiness for individuals with physical disabilities. Specifically, the University of Southern California will develop prototypes of speech, eye tracking, and...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $275,000 Project Grant to Alchemie Solutions, Inc. under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to develop a system for generating alternative text descriptions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diagrams. The system will produce machine-readable configurations of diagram components and spatial relationships, and generate layered, text-based descriptions matched to a context-driven lexicon. The...
This $1,000,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) will enable Alchemie Solutions, Inc., a woman-owned small business, to develop an expandable system for generating detailed and standardized descriptions of STEM diagrams in interactive media. The goal is to provide real-time alternative text (alt text) generation for screen reader users and create an inclusive communication...
This $749,685 National Science Foundation project grant under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) will fund the development of an Automated, Integrated, Multimodal Software (AIMS) system to improve inclusive access to information for persons with disabilities. Saint Louis University leads a consortium that includes software companies Vital, Unar Labs, and Viewplus Technologies to build a unified framework for authoring, converting, and delivering accessible content across digital and physical platforms in varied formats and contexts. The framework's proof-of-concept prototype for individuals with blindness or visual impairments will generate both digital multimodal and physical embossed renderings. It will be evaluated with educational stakeholders. If successful, the partnership aims to scale the system for the broader disabled community in a second phase, integrating it within existing accessibility software and hardware. The sub-awardees will contribute software tools, technical guidance, and expertise to support framework integration and prototype development testing.