Andrew Begel

About

Andrew Begel is a tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Software and Societal Systems Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is also affiliated with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Additionally, he serves as an Affiliate Professor at the Information School at the University of Washington. Prior to his academic appointments, he was a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research from 2006 to 2022. He leads the VariAbility Lab, which focuses on creating inclusive workplaces that enable success for all individuals, especially those with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions, without discrimination. His current research projects include developing accommodative physical work environments, collaboration tools that facilitate communication between people with differing abilities, and educational programs aimed at improving communication skills and social relationships within teams. Begel's research combines human aspects of software engineering with human-computer interaction methods to enhance communication and working relationships among people with differing abilities and cognitive neurotypes, such as autistic and non-autistic individuals or those with visual impairments alongside sighted colleagues. His projects include using AI to detect verbal and non-verbal cues to address miscommunication, teaching virtual coding camps for autistic high school students, developing AI-based tools to adapt instructional materials for neurodivergent…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Software engineering
• Sociology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Operating system
• Knowledge management
• Systems engineering
• Human–computer interaction
• Medicine

Selected publications

• CodeWalk: Facilitating Shared Awareness in Mixed-Ability Collaborative Software Development

  2022 · 36 citations

  COVID-19 accelerated the trend toward remote software development, increasing the need for tightly-coupled synchronous collaboration. Existing tools and practices impose high coordination overhead on blind or visually impaired (BVI) developers, impeding their abilities to collaborate effectively, compromising their agency, and limiting their contribution. To make remote collaboration more accessible, we created CodeWalk, a set of features added to Microsoft’s Live Share VS Code extension, for sy…

  PublisherDOI

• From Autonomy to Sovereignty - A New Telos for Socially Assistive Technology

  Open MIND · 2026-03-08

  preprintSenior author

  Social accessibility research faces a persistent tension: assistive technologies (AT) predominantly pursue independence, yet disabled people's experiences reveal rich preferences for interdependence. Our analysis of 90 papers from 2011-2025 uncovered that this stems from a deeper issue - which crystallized through dialogue with three bodies of theories: (1) self-determination theory (SDT), (2) symbolic interactionism, and (3) posthumanist perspectives and crip technoscience. SDT illuminates indi…

  DOI

• The Three Praxes Framework - A Thematic Review and Map of Social Accessibility Research

  Open MIND · 2026-03-08

  preprintSenior author

  Research in social accessibility aims to improve the lives of disabled people across diverse abilities and experiences by assisting with communication, relationships, and ecosystems of access. We seek to understand this intersectional body of work through analyzing social accessibility research from 2011 to 2025. Through constructivist grounded theory analysis of 90 papers (curated from 605), we develop the Three Praxes Framework: three sites of practice Artifact (constructive), Ecosystem (relat…

  DOI

• Inclusive Interpersonal Communication Education for Technology Professionals

  Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen access

  More technology organizations have turned to autistic people to meet their talent needs the creation of autism-specific hiring programs. Despite the potential of such programs, early research indicates that autistic employees and their neurotypical coworkers face communication challenges due to pronounced differences in styles and preferences. These difficulties lead to breakdowns in communication, collaboration, and coordination which can leave autistic employees feeling isolated and stigmatize…

  PublisherOA PDF

Frequent coauthors

• Caitlin Sadowski

  Google (United States)

  52 shared

• Kathryn T. Stolee

  North Carolina State University

  49 shared

• Janet Siegmund

  19 shared

• Norman Peitek

  19 shared

• Thomas Zimmermann

  15 shared

• Walid Maalej

  Universität Hamburg

  14 shared

• Bonita Sharif

  University of Nebraska–Lincoln

  14 shared

• Nicole Novielli

  University of Bari Aldo Moro

  13 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California, Berkeley

  2005

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Member of the ACM

Similar researchers at University of Washington

• Benjamin M. Althouseh-59
• Hala Annabih-15
• Amanda Baughanh-6