Research
I study accessible research and product ecosystems with and for blind and low-vision communities. My work connects participatory UX research, multimodal interaction design, and product-relevant recommendations for inclusive systems.
Research statement. My dissertation advances epistemic equity in qualitative research infrastructure — the principle that who gets to produce and interpret qualitative knowledge should not be limited by whether the tools were designed for sighted users. Across QUARTZ, my study re-imagining knowledge-production workflows, and my digital mental health work, I pair participatory co-design with multimodal system building and mixed-methods evaluation to make the tools of qualitative inquiry accessible to blind and low-vision researchers, and to develop design theory for accessible, AI-assisted analysis more broadly.
Conference & Journal Proceedings
Multimodal system and guidelines for BLV researchers to explore qualitative visualizations independently.
[C7] Omar Khan and JooYoung Seo. 2026. QUARTZ: Qualitative Understanding via Accessible Representation and Visualization. To appear in the 28th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Porto, Portugal. ACM.
Unpacks barriers in digital mental health apps and informs inclusive DMH product design.
[C6] Omar Khan and JooYoung Seo. 2026. "I Don't Want My Mental Health App To Give Me Mental Health Barriers": Unpacking The Need For Digital Mental Health Tracking Services With And For The Blind Community. To appear in the 28th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Porto, Portugal. ACM.
Reimagines knowledge production workflows with BLV researchers as co-designers, not afterthoughts.
[C5] Omar Khan and JooYoung Seo. 2026. "I Don't Trust Any Professional Research Tool": A Re-Imagination of Knowledge Production Workflows by, with, and for Blind and Low-Vision Researchers. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Barcelona, Spain. ACM, 24 pages. [DOI] | [arXiv]
Co-designed VR boxing game built with, for, and by blind and low-vision players.
[C4] Sanchita S. Kamath, Omar Khan, Anurag Choudhary, Jan Meyerhoff-Liang, Soyoung Choi, and JooYoung Seo. 2025. PunchPulse: A Physically Demanding Virtual Reality Boxing Game Designed with, for and by Blind and Low-Vision Players. In the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Denver, CO, USA. ACM, 21 pages. [DOI]
University students with disabilities share how generative AI affects learning and access.
[C3] Alex Atcheson, Omar Khan, Brian Siemann, Anika Jain, and Karrie Karahalios. 2025. ”I'd Never Actually Realized How Big An Impact It Had Until Now”: Perspectives of University Students with Disabilities on Generative Artificial Intelligence. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Article 42, 1–22. [DOI]
Examines consent beyond disclosure in smart home contexts.
[C2] Chiang, Y.S, Khan, O., Bates, A., and Cobb, C. (2024). More than just informed: The importance of consent facets in smart homes. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, HI, USA. ACM, 21 pages. [DOI]
White Papers
National AFB report on AI benefits, risks, and aspirations from a disability lens.
[W1] A. M. Silverman, A. L. Whistler, A. Shock, C. H. Heydarian, S. J. Baguhn, W. E. Hanuschock, A. Hashimoto, Omar Khan, and M-L. Vader. 2026. The AI Quagmire: Benefits, Risks, and Aspirations Through a Disability Lens. American Foundation for the Blind. [Report]
Posters & Works in Progress
Compares non-visual modalities for BLV learners exploring histogram concepts.
[P4] Sanchita S. Kamath, Omar Khan, Aziz N. Zeidieh, and JooYoung Seo. 2025. Sensing the Shape of Data: Non-Visual Exploration of Statistical Concepts in Histograms with Blind and Low-Vision Learners. arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.14452. [arXiv]
Need-finding study on digital mental health tracking for the blind community.
[P3] Omar Khan and JooYoung Seo. 2025. "Sighted People Have Their Pick Of The Litter": Unpacking The Need For Digital Mental Health (DMH) Tracking Services With And For The Blind Community. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Article 27, 1–13. [DOI] | [arXiv]
Posters and presentations
Accessible VR table-tennis co-designed with blind and low-vision individuals.
[P2] Sanchita S. Kamath, Aziz Zeidieh, Omar Khan, Dhruv Sethi, and JooYoung Seo. 2024. Playing Without Barriers: Crafting Playful and Accessible VR Table-Tennis with and for Blind and Low-Vision Individuals. In Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. ACM, Article 88, 1–5. [DOI]
Undergraduate poster on webcam eye-tracking accessibility for ClassTranscribe.
[P1] Deep, H., Huang, J., Dembi, R., Khan, O., Angrave, L.. Webcam Eye-Tracking Based Accessibility for ClassTranscribe.Virtual poster presentation: Illinois Undergraduate Research Symposium 2021.