Just got back from my second time attending CSUN. More and more it’s becoming a place I see as home. It has its foibles, but overall it’s a place where I am able to connect with the larger disability community, see great presentations, find other likeminded accessibility researchers, view up and coming technology, and learn about so many things. Some highlights this week:

The first day’s highlight was the accessibility researcher’s lunch. I tried to include everyone I knew but I discovered at least two more people who were in town after it was over — the number of accessibility researchers seems to keep growing at CSUN. I hope we can make that lunch an annual event (and maybe hold it in a less noisy venue: Due to my tendency for vocal injury I was grateful to be sitting next to two friends who use ASL and were willing to deal with my imperfect knowledge of the language).

I got up early the next day to see the AI for WCAG presentation put on by TestParty. They have a great pitch, first of all, so I took avid notes on the presentation itself. But I also found the description of a 2023 Harvard study on how AI impacts knowledge workers to be an interesting take on AI. According the Michael, Half the users divided the work (“Centaurs”) and the other half integrated the AI (“Cyborgs”). Cyborg’s prompted 4-6 x more on average, and benefited more from using AI. He then compared the improvement to the steam engine and power (18-22% improvements) and argued that AI users were causing 17%-40% gains. After talking about some uses of AI for WCAG, he discussed some examples of what AI had found in TestParty’s tests, such as cases hidden in 100k lines of code, and argued that human-in-the-loop AI use was incredibly powerful for accessibility, especially at the source code level.

One thing CSUN does not do well at is providing spaces that are friendly to those of us with chronic illness, sensory overload, and other things that would benefit from a quiet room. For that reason, I chose to stay in the CSUN hotel this year instead of with a friend. I spent most afternoons resting or sleeping in my room, so this story picks up the next morning, when after having breakfast with a close friend I attended Lainey Feingold’s talk on the legal context in the US today (“Digital Accessibility Legal Update: U.S.”).

Again, I took notes on the talk as much as the content. I was particularly impressed by the care with which everyone who contributed to the talk in any domain from tech support to images was credited. Feingold reassured us that even if disability is no longer a bipartisan issue, regulations can’t be changed with a memo and private lawsuits can help to challenge actions. In fact, she argued that disability and civil rights lawyers are currently winning in the courts. Feingold also reminded us that global laws are much less at risk.Many of her points can also be found on Feingold’s blog. I especially appreciated her comments on not complying in advance, a theme in her article on how states are pushing back on anti-DEIA executive orders. and her article on joy as an approach to justice, and the importance of celebrating victories.

The rest of the conference was the usual: presentations of my own, meeting with old friends and getting to know new ones, new ideas about technologies to use in my research, and continued efforts to rest as much as possible. One of the best parts of CSUN for an academic is the inherent interest in translation. For example, our group was approached by folks who work on WCAG, ARIA and similar standards about potential implications of our work. I returned home with new ideas, connections, and excitement for our field.