Keynote by Crystal Lee
Assistant Professor in Computational Media and Design
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Crip Computation and the Future of Accessible Visualization
Visualization research has often measured success by comprehension speed and recall accuracy: how quickly and correctly can a user read a chart? Accessibility research often inherits these measures, where non-visual data representations are evaluated against the visual standard. The goal is often to reach information parity (i.e., for the non-visual version of the chart to be just as “effective” at delivering information as the visual one). This talk explores what happens when we stop thinking of access as a problem of translation to a process of calibration: an ongoing tension between bodies, instruments, media, and the people who design them. This requires a deep engagement with the history of the senses and how to design for them, from flavor wheels to the US military’s attempts to create the world’s stinkiest stink bomb. Many of these efforts tie perceptual measurement with classifications of the “ideal” human body. Drawing on this work, I propose a preliminary design framework I call “crip computation,” a framework that resists technoableism and treats the senses as multiple ways of knowing. Using tactile, text-based, and sonified media, I argue for friction, redundancy, and pleasure as a set of design values for accessible visualization research.
Bio
Crystal Lee is an Assistant Professor in Computational Media and Design at MIT, with a joint appointment in the Schwarzman College of Computing and Comparative Media Studies/Writing. She is also a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where she co-leads the Ethical Tech Working Group. Lee's research sits at the intersection of human-computer interaction, science and technology studies, and disability studies, and examines how computing technologies—from data dashboards to surveillance tools—distribute power, harm, and responsibility. Her forthcoming book, The Social Life of Data Visualization, explores how charts take on different meanings in different social worlds, and how those histories shape the data-driven tools we rely on today. She also researches how information moves online, with empirical studies of platform design and internet governance. This research has been supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. She graduated with high honors from Stanford University and completed her PhD at MIT. You can find her at Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky.