Jonathan Lazar

Professor

jlazar@umd.edu
301-405-2825
 Hornbake Building, South Wing, Room 2117-J

BIO

Dr. Jonathan Lazar is a professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland. Dr. Lazar joined the University of Maryland in 2019, after previously serving as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Towson University, where he led the information systems program. At the University of Maryland, Dr. Lazar is the executive director of the Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility and is a faculty member in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He regularly teaches courses at UMD on human-computer interaction, user-centered design, accessibility law and management, inclusive information institutions, and legal research methods.

Dr. Lazar has authored or edited 19 books, including Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction (2nd edition, co-authored with Heidi Feng and Harry Hochheiser), Human-Computer Interaction and US Law (co-authored with Fiesler, Wentz, and Kushalnagar), Foundations of Information Law (co-authored with Paul Jaeger, Ursula Gorham, and Natalie Greene Taylor), Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy (co-authored with Dan Goldstein and Anne Taylor), Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology (co-edited with Michael Stein), Accessible Technology and the Developing World (co-edited with Michael Stein), Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations, and Web Usability: A User-Centered Design Approach. He has published over 215 refereed articles in journals, conference proceedings, edited books, and magazines, and has been granted two US patents for his work on accessible web-based security features for blind users. He has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Adobe, and Google.

Dr. Lazar frequently serves as an adviser to government agencies and committees, regularly provides testimony at federal and state levels, and multiple US federal regulations cite his research publications. He has been on the Executive Board of the Friends of the Maryland Library for the Blind and Print Disabled (LBPD) since 2009, has served as the co-chair of the Cambridge University Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) since 2012, has been on the program committee of the ACM Conference on Accessible Computing (ASSETS) most years since 2006, and served on the executive committee from ACM SIGCHI from 2010-2015. Dr. Lazar was the general chair of the ASSETS 2021 conference.

Focus

Dr. Lazar is involved in research and teaching in human-computer interaction, with a focus on ICT accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technologies, and law and public policy related to accessibility and HCI.

Current Research Interests

• Born-accessible design methods
• Tools to support content creators in applying born-accessible design
• Tools that utilize AI-based suggestions for supporting accessibility
• Form and document accessibility
• AI Ethics
• Health data visualization accessibility
• Legal frameworks for accessibility
• Voting accessibility
• Dark patterns and accessibility

Education

• LL.M. (Master of Laws), University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Shutzer Fellowship, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
• Ph.D., Information Systems, University of Maryland Graduate School Baltimore (UMBC)
• M.S. in Information Systems, University of Maryland Graduate School Baltimore (UMBC)
• B.B.A. in Management Information Systems, Loyola University Maryland (Recipient of the Father Daniel McGuire, S.J. Alumni Association Award)

Affiliations outside UMD

• Advisory Board, University of Washington CREATE Research Center
• Affiliate Researcher, Harvard Law School Project on Disability
• ACM SIGACCESS
• ACM SIGCHI
• Disability Rights Bar Association

Recognition

• 2024 IAAP Accessibility Initiative Award
• Elected to the ACM SIGCHI Academy, May 2021
• ACM SIGACCESS Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility, October 2020
• Exemplary Researcher Award at the University of Maryland Research Excellence Celebration, February 2020
• Rachel Olivero Accessibility Innovation Award from the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, November 2019
• University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Research/Scholarship, April 2017
• ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award, May 2016
• AccessComputing Capacity Building Award (sponsored by the University of Washington and NSF), for advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities in computing fields, January 2015
• University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service, April 2011
• Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of the Blind, July 2010
• Fisher College of Science and Mathematics Outstanding Faculty Award, Towson University, October 2009
• Maryland Daily Record Innovator of the Year Award, October 2009
• Best Paper Award, ACM 2008 Conference on Accessible Technology (ASSETS)

Video Lectures

• Methods and Tools for Born-Accessible Design, Presentation at University College London, January 2026
• A Born-Accessible Model of Software and Digital Content Development, Keynote speech at INTERACT 2023, September 2023.
• Introducing the Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility (MIDA), UMD Disability Summit, April 2023
• Assessing Public Library Services for Accessibility, Georgia Public Library Accessibility Conference, March 2021
• Managing Digital Accessibility at Universities During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Google Tech Talk Series, February 2021
• Accessibility Research in the Pandemic: Making a Difference in the Quality of Life for People with Disabilities, ACM ASSETS Keynote Speech, October 2020.
• Translating Accessibility Research into Accessibility Practice, Google Tech Talk Series, June 2018
• Crossing Disciplines and Breaking Down Barriers, inaugural lecture of the Green and Grey Alumni Series at Loyola University Maryland, November 2017
• Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology, book talk at Harvard Law School, October 2017
• Making the Field of Computing More Inclusive, based on the March 2017 paper in Communications of the ACM
• HCI and International Public Policymaking: A Framework for Understanding and Taking Future Actions panel at the CHI 2016 conference, May 2016 in San Jose
• SIGCHI Social Impact Award Presentation from the CHI 2016 Conference, May 2016 in San Jose
• Creating Course Partnerships with Public Libraries to Improve Services for Patrons with Print Disabilities, presented at the Maryland Diversity in Library and Information Science Symposium, April 2014
• Improving Interface Design for People with Down Syndrome, February 2013 at the Computer Science Departmental Seminar at Tufts University
• Locked Out: Investigating Societal Discrimination against People with Disabilities Due to Inaccessible Websites, February 2013 at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University
• Panel on technology-related employment for adults with Down Syndrome, at the August 2012 National Down Syndrome Convention