The Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing brings together computing students, faculty, and professionals for networking, mentoring, and learning. One of the things that I enjoy most about the Tapia Celebration is the chance to connect with AccessComputing community members old and new. Held September 18-21 in San Diego, this year’s Tapia Celebration allowed us the opportunity to do so. AccessComputing funded travel and participation for over 30 Team Members to attend.
Highlights of Tapia 2024 featured these AccessComputing-sponsored events:
- Richard Ladner and I led a Birds of a Feather session titled Diversity and Disability. Participants had the opportunity to connect with others with similar interests in disability inclusion and accessibility
- A reception for AccessComputing community members that brought together AccessComputing leadership, partners, and team members
- A day-long workshop, Accessibility in Computer Science, that served as a crash course on accessibility, exposed attendees to research projects related to accessibility, and offered ways to build skills after the workshop ended
The topics of disability and accessibility continue to grow in importance at Tapia, as illustrated by the number of other disability-related seasons on the schedule, which included:
Thursday, Sept. 19
Fostering a Disability-Inclusive Research Culture with Dynamic Mutual Micro-Accommodations (DyMMAs)
Dr. Shiri Dori-Hacohen, University of Connecticut
Dr. Fabricio Murai, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Creating an Accessible Web Application
Dr. Obianuju Okafor, Microsoft & University of Texas at Austin
Friday, Sept. 20
Empowering Designer-Developer Collaboration through Annotating for Accessibility
Jennifer Patterson, BNY Mellon
Neurodiversity and Inclusivity - a dialogue on EY’s approach to developing a model of support for neurodivergent candidates and employees
Sean Baker, EY
Cindy Lazard-Hunt, EY
Disabled In Computing - a New Community for Faculty and Graduate Students with Disabilities
Dr. Shiri Dori-Hacohen, University of Connecticut
Dr. Fabricio Murai, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Mark your calendars now for Tapia 2025 to be held September 10-12, 2025 in Dallas, TX. We hope to see you there!