About

Anne Marie Piper researches human-computer interaction and accessible computing, focusing on equitable and inclusive digital experiences for people of all ages and abilities. Much of her work involves building and studying new technologies for individuals with disabilities and older adults.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Engineering
• Human–computer interaction
• Multimedia
• Public relations
• World Wide Web
• Social psychology
• Pedagogy
• Business
• Mathematics education
• Clinical psychology
• Geography
• Knowledge management
• Nursing
• Law
• Engineering ethics
• Epistemology
• Medicine
• Psychotherapist

Selected publications

• "It's trained by non-disabled people": Evaluating How Image Quality Affects Product Captioning with Vision-Language Models

  2026-04-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are increasingly used by blind and low-vision (BLV) people to identify and understand products in their everyday lives, such as food, personal care items, and household goods. Despite their prevalence, we lack an empirical understanding of how common image quality issues—such as blur, misframing, and rotation—affect the accuracy of VLM-generated captions and whether the resulting captions meet BLV people’s information needs. Based on a survey of 86 BLV participants, we develop an annotated dataset of 1,859 product images from BLV people to systematically evaluate how image quality issues affect VLM-generated captions. While the best VLM achieves 98% accuracy on images with no quality issues, accuracy drops to 75% overall when quality issues are present, worsening considerably as issues compound. We discuss the need for model evaluations that center on disabled people’s experiences throughout the process and offer concrete recommendations for HCI and ML researchers to make VLMs more reliable for BLV people.

  PublisherDOI

• Reimagining Sign Language Technologies: Analyzing Translation Work of Chinese Deaf Online Content Creators

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-02-10

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  While sign language translation systems promise to enhance deaf people's access to information and communication, they have been met with strong skepticism from deaf communities due to risks of misrepresenting and oversimplifying the richness of signed communication in technologies. This article provides empirical evidence of the complexity of translation work involved in deaf communication through interviews with 13 deaf Chinese content creators who actively produce and share sign language content on video sharing platforms with both deaf and hearing audiences. By studying this unique group of content creators, our findings highlight the nuances of sign language translation, showing how deaf creators create content with multilingualism and multiculturalism in mind, support meaning making across languages and cultures, and navigate politics involved in their translation work. Grounded in these deaf-led translation practices, we draw on the sociolinguistic concept of (trans)languaging to re-conceptualize and reimagine the design of sign language translation systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Designing for Resistance: Analyzing Data Work Among Direct Service Providers

  2026-04-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Information systems, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and case note software, increasingly support direct service providers (DSPs) in social service administration. Previous scholarship examined how these digital interventions enhance care but also create unintended consequences for DSPs and their clients. Despite broad interest in how DSPs and other frontline social service workers utilize information technology, few studies examine how they avoid digital tools, particularly when documentation stakes are high for both clients and DSPs. We report findings from interviews with 16 DSPs, who remain keenly aware that the information they document may become visible to others now and in the future. To protect themselves and their clients, they develop practices to resist recording data in digital records such as EHRs. We offer a typology of resistant data practices and design considerations grounded in the experiences and understanding of power within the roles of DSPs.

  PublisherDOI

• Reimagining Sign Language Technologies: Analyzing Translation Work of Chinese Deaf Online Content Creators

  2026-04-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  While sign language translation systems promise to enhance deaf people’s access to information and communication, they have been met with strong skepticism from deaf communities due to risks of misrepresenting and oversimplifying the richness of signed communication in technologies. This article provides empirical evidence of the complexity of translation work involved in deaf communication through interviews with 13 deaf Chinese content creators who actively produce and share sign language content on video sharing platforms with both deaf and hearing audiences. By studying this unique group of content creators, our findings highlight the nuances of sign language translation, showing how deaf creators create content with multilingualism and multiculturalism in mind, support meaning making across languages and cultures, and navigate politics involved in their translation work. Grounded in these deaf-led translation practices, we draw on the sociolinguistic concept of (trans)languaging to re-conceptualize and reimagine the design of sign language translation systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Rhetoric vs Responsibility: How Tech Companies Shape AI for Accessibility

  2026-04-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often framed as a transformative approach for improving accessibility, with major technology companies investing considerable resources into AI applications targeting disabled users. This investment in AI for accessibility has many benefits but remains relatively unquestioned. Through a critical discourse analysis of 126 public-facing blog posts and news articles by leading U.S.-based AI companies, our analysis reveals the ways in which technology companies render different modes of disabled participation, bestow agency upon AI as a competent and capable actor, reinforce their role in shaping AI futures, and legitimize the development of AI for accessibility. By examining tech companies’ AI visions alongside Critical Disability Studies scholarship, we discuss concerns with framing AI as a means to “solve” disability-related challenges while sidestepping deeper structural questions about equity, agency, and responsibility.

  PublisherDOI

• The Accessibility Paradox: How Blind and Low Vision Employees Experience and Negotiate Accessibility in the Technology Industry

  Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · 2025-10-16 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Many technology companies aim to improve access and inclusion not only by making their products accessible but also by bringing people with disabilities into the tech workforce. We know less about how accessibility is experienced and negotiated by disabled workers within these organizations. Through interviews with 20 BLV workers across various tech companies, we uncover a persistent misalignment between organizational attempts at accessibility and the current realities of these employees. We introduce the concept of the accessibility paradox, which we define as the inherent tension between the productivity- and profit-driven nature of tech companies and their desire to hire and retain disabled workers. Focusing on the experiences of BLV workers, we show how the accessibility paradox manifests in their everyday workplace interactions, including digital infrastructure, accommodations processes and policies, ability assumptions, and competing priorities. We offer recommendations for future research and practice to understand and improve workplace accessibility and inclusion.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond Accessibility: Understanding the Ease of Use and Impacts of Digital Collaboration Tools for Blind and Low Vision Workers

  2025-10-22 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Beyond Individual Accommodations: The Collaborative Practices of ADHD Students in Post-Secondary Education

  2025-10-22 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Everyday Uncertainty: How Blind People Use GenAI Tools for Information Access

  2025-04-24 · 17 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Designing Conversational AI for Aging: A Systematic Review of Older Adults' Perceptions and Needs

  2025-04-24 · 24 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Advancing Online Social Support for Older Adults with Disabilities

  NSF · $163k · 2020–2023

• EAGER: Understanding Online Communication for Older Adults with Late-Life Vision Loss

  NSF · $127k · 2015–2017

• EXP: Advancing Early STEM Learning through Haptic Feedback Displays

  NSF · $548k · 2015–2019

• CAREER: Advancing Online Social Support for Older Adults with Disabilities

  NSF · $500k · 2016–2020

Frequent coauthors

• J. Seyerlein

  65 shared

• V. Eckardt

  Max Planck Institute for Physics

  65 shared

• N. Schmitz

  University of Jammu

  63 shared

• Wolfgang Rauch

  Universität Innsbruck

  63 shared

• M. Kowalski

  62 shared

• M. Fuchs

  University of Freiburg

  58 shared

• K. Kadija

  57 shared

• P. Seyboth

  Jan Kochanowski University

  55 shared