Chieko Asakawa
Chieko Asakawa (浅川 智恵子, Asakawa Chieko) (b. 1958) is a blind Japanese computer scientist, known for her work at IBM Research – Tokyo in accessibility.[1] A Netscape browser plug-in she developed, the IBM Home Page Reader, became the most widely used web-to-speech system available.[2] She is the recipient of numerous industry and government awards.
Chieko Asakawa | |
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浅川 智恵子 | |
Chieko Asakawa during a field experiment in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 2017 | |
Born | Osaka, Japan |
Nationality | Japanese |
Education | Ph.D. engineering |
Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
Awards | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Computer science, Accessibility |
Education and career
Asakawa was born with normal sight, but after she injured her optic nerve when she hit her left eye on the side of a swimming pool at age 11, she began losing her sight, and by age 14 she was fully blind.[1][3] She earned a bachelor's degree in English literature at Otemon Gakuin University in Osaka in 1982 and then began a two-year computer programming course for blind people using an Optacon to translate print to tactile sensation. She joined IBM Research with a temporary position in 1984,[1] and became a permanent staff researcher there one year later.[1][4] In 2004 she earned a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Tokyo.[1]
Contributions
Asakawa's research projects have included developing a word processor for Braille documents, developing a digital library for Braille documents, developing an application to improve accessibility of streaming services,[5] developing a Netscape browser plug-in that converted text to speech and provided a more convenient web navigation mechanism for blind people, and developing a system that would allow sighted web designers to experience the web as blind people.[1][4][6] Her browser plugin became a 1997 IBM product, the IBM Home Page Reader,[6] and within five years it had become the most widely used web-to-speech system available.[2]
More recently her work has also studied accessible control of multimedia content,[7] technological and social changes that would allow elderly people to work for more years before retiring,[8][9] and the development of technology that would make the physical world more accessible to blind people.[10] Currently Asakawa is working on a lightweight suitcase robot helping blind people navigate through complicated terrain.[3]
Awards and honors
Asakawa was added to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2003.[11] She became an IBM Fellow, IBM's top honor for its employees, in 2009, becoming the fifth Japanese person and first Japanese woman with that honor.[12] In 2011 the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology gave her their Women of Vision Award.[13][14] She was a keynote speaker at the Fourth International Conference on Software Development for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAIE 2012).[9] In 2013 the Japanese government awarded her their Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon.[4] A paper she wrote in 1998 with Takashi Itoh describing their work on web user interfaces for blind people was the winner of the 2013 ACM SIGACCESS Impact Award.[15] In 2017 she was elected as a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering.[16]
References
- Strickland, Eliza (January 31, 2012), "Dream Jobs 2012: Web Guru for the Blind; IBM researcher Chieko Asakawa can't see your website, but she can make it better", IEEE Spectrum.
- Waddell, Cynthia; Regan, Bob; Henry, Shawn Lawton; Burks, Michael R.; Thatcher, Jim; Urban, Mark D.; Bohman, Paul (2003), Constructing Accessible Web Sites, Apress, p. 58, ISBN 9781430211167.
- Harrison, Virginia (2018-12-07). "A blind inventor and a suitcase that 'sees'". Retrieved 2019-03-26.
- Sciacca, Chris (April 29, 2013), "IBM Fellow Chieko Asakawa awarded Medal of Honor", IBM Research News, IBM Research.
- https://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=jp-CHIE
- Sawaji, Osamu (December 2011), "Yamato Nadeshiko: Pioneering Accessibility", Highlighting Japan, Public Relations Office, Government of Japan.
- Weiss, Todd R. (April 2, 2007), "IBM Researcher Aims to Improve Web Access for Visually Impaired", Computerworld: 19.
- Shah, Rawn (November 22, 2011), "In a Few Years Nations May Need Us to Work Years Past Retirement Age", Forbes.
- "Keynote speakers", DSAI 2012, retrieved 2015-08-14.
- Calabro, Tina (December 16, 2013), "Breaking Down Barriers: Creating a more disability-friendly city: Use of creative thinking and technology could spark new ways to improve accessibility", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- "Featured Profile: Chieko Asakawa, Group Leader, IBM Tokyo, Accessibility Research, IBM", WITI Hall of Fame, Women in Technology International.
- IBM researcher Chieko Asakawa awarded prestigious Fellow title, The Maininichi Newspapers, 2009, archived from the original on 2016-03-05, retrieved 2015-08-15.
- Schultz, Morgon Mae (June 2011), "Without Sight, a Visionary Leader: Chieko Asakawa connects disabled users to the Web", IBM Systems Magazine, archived from the original on 2017-12-13, retrieved 2015-08-15.
- "Anita Borg Institute Announces 2011 Women of Vision Award Winners", Reuters, March 7, 2011.
- Information Director (October 28, 2013), Chieko Asakawa and Takashi Itoh: 2013 Impact Award, SIGACCESS.
- Dr. Chieko Asakawa, National Academy of Engineering, retrieved 2018-01-28
External links
- IBM employee profile
- Chieko Asakawa publications indexed by Google Scholar