Chieko Asakawa
| Chieko Asakawa | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 浅川 智恵子 |
| Born | Osaka, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Fields | Computer science, Accessibility |
| Education | Ph.D. engineering |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
| Notable awards |
Women in Technology International Hall of Fame IBM Fellow Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award Japanese Medal of Honor |
Chieko Asakawa (浅川 智恵子 Asakawa Chieko) is a blind Japanese computer scientist, known for her work at IBM Research – Tokyo in accessibility.[1] A Netscape browser plug-in which 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.
Education and career
Asakawa was born with normal sight, but after she injured her optic nerve in a swimming accident at age 11, she began losing her sight, and by age 14 she was fully blind.[1] 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][3] 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 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][3][4] Her browser plugin became a 1997 IBM product, the IBM Home Page Reader,[4] 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,[5] technological and social changes that would allow elderly people to work for more years before retiring,[6][7] and the development of technology that would make the physical world more accessible to blind people.[8]
Awards and honors
Asakawa was added to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2003.[9] 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.[10][11] In 2011 the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology gave her their Women of Vision Award.[12][13] She was a keynote speaker at the Fourth International Conference on Software Development for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAIE 2012).[7] In 2013 the Japanese government awarded her their Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon.[3] 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.[14]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 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.
- 1 2 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.
- 1 2 3 Sciacca, Chris (April 29, 2013), "IBM Fellow Chieko Asakawa awarded Medal of Honor", IBM Research News (IBM Research).
- 1 2 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.
- 1 2 "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).
- ↑ Blind Japanese woman receives IBM's top award, phys.org, June 5, 2009.
- ↑ IBM researcher Chieko Asakawa awarded prestigious Fellow title, The Maininichi Newspapers, 2009.
- ↑ Schultz, Morgon Mae (June 2011), "Without Sight, a Visionary Leader: Chieko Asakawa connects disabled users to the Web", IBM Systems Magazine.
- ↑ 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.