6 March 2013

Professor Vicki Hanson honoured in 'woman of vision' awards

Picture of Professor Hanson

Vicki Hanson, Professor of Inclusive Technologies at the University of Dundee, has been named one of 2013's 'Women of Vision' by the US-based Anita Borg Institute.

The Women of Vision Awards honor women leaders contributing to significant change in high technology fields. The award winners were chosen from among highly qualified candidates for their consistent and significant contributions to technology innovation, dedication to effecting positive changes to the way technology serves society, and for their meaningful leadership in the technology industry which extends beyond the workplace.

The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) is a non-profit organisation focused on the advancement of women in computer science and engineering. The awards will be presented at the 2013 Women of Vision Awards Banquet in California on May 9.

Professor Hanson, who is also a Research Staff Member Emeritus at IBM Research, has been recognised for social impact, particularly for her focus on groups who experience barriers to technology use, including older and disabled users.

"I am very grateful to have received this distinguished honour and would like to thank the Anita Borg Institute for recognising my work in this field," said Professor Hanson. "At a time when we continue to see great advances in digital technology which are having a great social impact, I think it is vitally important that we ensure older and disabled users are able to share in the many benefits these can bring."

She has been working on issues of inclusion for older and disabled people throughout her career, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Professor Hanson joined the IBM Research Division in 1986 where she founded and managed the Accessibility Research group. Her research examines the changing nature of technologies and the motivations and barriers to their use by populations in danger of digital exclusion, focusing on issues related to aging, cognition, and language. Applications she created have received multiple awards from organisations representing older and disabled users.

She is Past Chair of the ACM SIG Governing Board, Past Chair of ACM's Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS), and is the founder and co-Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing.

Professor Hanson is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and was named ACM Fellow in 2004 for contributions to computing technologies for people with disabilities. In 2008, she received the ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award for the application of HCI research to pressing social needs. She currently is the ACM Secretary/Treasurer.

Other winners named this year are:

• In the category of leadership, Genevieve Bell is recognised for her work leading the Interaction and Experience team in Intel Labs and her vital role in shaping Intel's principles for product research and development.
• Maja Matari? is recognised in the category of innovation for her cutting-edge work in robotics, focusing on the high-impact field of socially assistive robotics.

The Women of Vision Awards and the Top Company for Technical Woman Award will be presented at ABI's 8th annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet on May 9 in Santa Clara, CA. The banquet will also feature a keynote address from Diane M. Bryant, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group for Intel Corporation.

For more on the Anita Borg Institute see: http://anitaborg.org/.

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