The ability to use software with ease is important for everyone, especially for approximately 15% of the world population with disabilities. Even the simplest operations, taken for granted by non-disabled users, can be daunting tasks for disabled users. In this talk, I will delve into the pervasive nature of software accessibility issues, specifically within the realm of mobile apps, shedding light on the limitations of current solutions in identifying these issues. Subsequently, I will explore a range of cutting-edge techniques designed to enhance the precision and coverage of detecting accessibility issues, which can lay the foundation for automatically fixing them. This discussion will feature key experimental insights gleaned from our research, along with valuable lessons learned through collaborative studies with individuals with disabilities. The talk will conclude with reflections on our work and a glimpse into the promising avenues for future research.

Biography:

Sam Malek is a Professor in the Informatics Department within the School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He is also the Director of the Software Engineering and Analysis Laboratory. From 2018 to 2022, he was the Director of the Institute for Software Research. Malek’s general research interests are in the field of software engineering, and to date his focus has spanned the areas of software analysis and testing, mobile computing, security, software architecture, and accessible computing. The underlying theme of his research has been to devise techniques and tools that aid with the construction, analysis, and maintenance of large-scale software systems.

Malek received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and his B.S. degree in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine. He has received numerous awards for his research contributions, including the ACM SIGSOFT test-of-time award (2020), National Science Foundation CAREER award (2013), GMU Emerging Researcher/Scholar/Creator award (2013), and GMU Computer Science Department Outstanding Faculty Research Award (2011). Malek is currently on the editorial board of the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems, and Springer Journal of Computing . He has testified on multiple occasions as a software expert witness in intellectual property litigation matters. Malek is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).