Reimagining Access: Inclusive Technology Design for Archives and Special Collections

PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Crystal Lee is a PhD candidate at MIT and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. She studies the political and social implications of data visualization. Her work shows how mapping data is an embodied practice that encodes arguments about gender, ability, and modernity in the user interface.

photo credit: Stephan Risi

Professor of Art and Design History and head of the MA Program in Art History at the State University of New York, Purchase College

Elizabeth Guffey is Professor of Art and Design History and head of the MA Program in Art History at the State University of New York, Purchase College. She is the author of Retro: The Culture of Revival (Reaktion, 2006) and Posters: A Global History (Reaktion, 2015). She is also co-editor of Making Disability Modern (with Bess Williamson, Bloomsbury, 2020), and author of Designing Disability (Bloomsbury, 2018). She is also the Founding Editor of the peer-review journal Design and Culture (Routledge). Her scholarly work has appeared in a variety of venues, including Design and Culture, Design Issues, and the Journal of Visual Culture. As part of her efforts to bring design and disability studies to broad publics, she has also authored essays in a number of range of publications, including The New York Times and The Nation.

photo credit: Matt Ferranto

Digital scholarship librarian, Temple University

Jasmine Clark is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at Temple University. Her primary areas of research are accessibility and metadata in emerging technology and emerging technology centers. Currently, she is co-leading The Virtual Blockson, a project to recreate and gamify the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection in virtual reality, while also doing research in 3D metadata and the development of Section 508 compliant guidelines for virtual reality experiences. She is also the chair of the DLF Digital Accessibility Working Group, as well as a Co-Chair of the DLF Committee for Equity and Inclusion.

photo credit: Temple University

Director of the Undergraduate Food Science Program and the liaison to the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University

Dr. Jeffrey Swada is the Director of the Undergraduate Food Science Program and the liaison to the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University. As a member of the Accommodating Technology Committee, he works closely with the university to test technological platforms for accessibility issues before they are launched across campus. Being legally blind, he has a first-hand perspective on using assistive technology to access physical and digital materials. He lost his vision when he was a child, giving him a unique perspective of viewing the world with and without “normal” vision. As a self-advocate, he values the opportunity to share his experiences and promote accessibility awareness especially in a scientific realm.

photo credit: Lydia Tang

Assistant professor, ArtCenter College of Design

Josh Halstead is a Senior Designer who translates business strategy into clear-cut branding, marketing, and design that awakes overlooked universal insight through material and emotional resonance. Drawing on experience from top-to-bottom across B2B and B2C industries—with clients ranging from juggernauts to start-ups—he understands what drives decisions and crafts bespoke systems that claim markets, unite stakeholders, and deepen customer relationships. Josh has created magnetic experiences that spur action and cement equity for clients in the technology, financial services, consumer electronics, professional services, energy, and nonprofit sectors.
He holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design and teaches graphic and user experience design at UC Berkeley Extension and CCA Extension. Josh is a published writer on the creative process, lectures on the economic and social value of rebranding disability through design, and is pursuing an MA in Disability Studies at CUNY.

photo credit: Ben Conde

Archivist of the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections at Michigan State University

A knowledgeable and versatile archivist working at Michigan State University Libraries' Stephen O. Murray and Keelong Hong Special Collections. Particular areas of expertise include music and performing arts archives, physical and digital accessibility, and intellectual property relating to archives. Experience supervising, mentoring, and supporting a diverse team of archival processing assistants. Society of American Archivists' Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award 2020 recipient.

photo credit: Shelby Kroske

Chair, Interaction Design and Graduate Media Design Practices, ArtCenter College of Design

Maggie Hendrie (Chair of Interaction Design and Graduate Media Design Practices, ArtCenter) is the co-project director for Reimagining Access: Inclusive Technology Design for Archives and Special Collections. Hendrie has more than 20 years of experience in new interactive product/service strategy, digital product design, project management, user-centered design, usability and user experience testing, strategy and organizational Planning. She previously held director positions within companies such as: Sony Pictures Entertainment, US; Whittman-Hart/MarchFIRST, Inc.; Caresoft Inc.; and Manifest Digital. In addition, Hendrie consults for numerous clients including Toyota, Kaiser and Accenture.

photo credit: Juan Posada

Archivist at History Factory

Michelle is a mid-career archivist who has been active in the SAA since she was new to the field. She has been a mentor for over twelve years and served on a number of task forces, steering committees, and appointed positions. She adheres to a primary goal of providing opportunities for her peers to contribute and lead. She has piloted a number of Section-based programs including a webinar series and a leadership training model for the A&D Section. Her motto has always been: no archive is complete unless all voices are heard; DEI is all about recognizing that not everyone moves through the world like I do and the right thing to do is to allow people to move through the world in a way that works for them.

photo credit: Michelle Ganz

Director, Archives and Special Collections, ArtCenter College of Design

Robert Dirig (Director of Archives and Special Collections, ArtCenter) is the co-project director for Reimagining Access: Inclusive Technology Design for Archives and Special Collections. Dirig manages the College’s institutional archives and special collections. He holds an MLIS from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a member of the Society of American Archivists. He has been project director for other grant projects, including an IMLS project Future Pasts, exploring the collaboration between archivists and designers, and the NEH-funded American Innovation: Preserving and Providing Access to 80 Years of Industrial Design History, which piloted methods for digital preservation and access with the goal of improving access to industrial design collections.

photo credit: Gail Howland

Artist, design researcher, writer and professor at Olin College of Engineering

Sara Hendren is a humanist in tech—an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering outside Boston. Her book What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World explores the unexpected places where disability is at the heart of everyday design, and uncovers the lessons available in all the ways our bodies connect with the material world: household objects, architecture, urban planning, and more. Her work has been widely exhibited in museum exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections at MoMA and the Cooper Hewitt, and her writing and design work have been featured on NPR, Fast Company, and in the New York Times. She is a former fellow at the New America think tank and the Carey Institute for Global Good. She lives in Boston with her family.

photo credit: Freddie Hendren Funck

Disability rights activist and archivist

Sara White co-chaired the 2018-2019 SAA Task Force to Revise Best Practices on Accessibility. In February 2019, SAA approved the revised Guidelines for Accessible Archives for People with Disabilities. The Task Force also stimulated the establishment of the SAA Accessibility and Disability Section, which she served on the steering committee. An active SAA member since graduate school, she earned her MA in library and information studies with an archives concentration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and BA in history from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.