Designing for the Fullness of Human Experience

University of Washington · Taskar Center for Accessible Technology

Accessible technology built with communities, made to work in the real world.

The Taskar Center for Accessible Technology (TCAT) designs, develops, deploys, and helps sustain technologies that expand participation in everyday life.

Based at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, we work with disabled people, community organizations, students, researchers, and public agencies. Our work connects inclusive design, open technology, and real-world use across mobility, artificial intelligence, work, and play.

Explore TCAT projects Open the TCAT Wiki and guides Contact TCAT about collaboration

What brings you here?

Find a tool, explore a research area, or connect with a community project.

I want to use accessible technology

Explore practical tools for routing, communication, play, and everyday access.

Find TCAT tools and projects

I need instructions or documentation

Find step-by-step guides for AccessMap, OS-CONNECT, TDEI, Walksheds, and contributing pedestrian information.

Search the TCAT Wiki and tutorials

Our areas of work

Across our projects, people with disabilities contribute expertise that shapes what we build and how it works.

Mobility and transportation

Detailed pedestrian infrastructure, accessible navigation, connected transportation data, and evidence for decisions about access to destinations.

Explore mobility and transportation

Non-Ableist AI

Research and technologies that address exclusion in artificial intelligence, value disability expertise, and support human agency and oversight.

Explore Non-Ableist AI

Work and play

Assistive technology, accessible communication, adaptable interfaces, and inclusive recreation that expand opportunities for participation.

Explore work and play

Our work in practice

Research becomes useful when communities and organizations can put it into practice. These examples connect TCAT’s methods to real applications.

Making accessible trips easier to plan

AccessMap supports pedestrian route planning with customizable mobility preferences, while TDEI helps connect transportation datasets across systems.

Explore AccessMap’s routing tools

Documenting community access barriers

AVIV ScoutRoute helps organizations and community teams record observations about sidewalks, crossings, stops, and other elements of everyday journeys.

Explore ScoutRoute and community mapping

Free community resource · TCAT + PROVAIL

Try assistive technology through the Pacific Northwest Adaptive Technology Library

Borrow adaptive equipment, explore what works for you, and try tools before making a purchase.

The Pacific Northwest Adaptive Technology Library is a free lending service developed through a partnership among TCAT and PROVAIL. Its catalog includes adapted toys, switches, communication aids, mounting equipment, and other tools supporting access to play, communication, and technology.

The public lending library is located at PROVAIL in North Seattle. Visit the library website for enrollment information, borrowing instructions, and current equipment availability. Educators and therapists may also borrow equipment on behalf of eligible students or clients.

Browse equipment in the lending library Learn how to borrow assistive technology

Questions about borrowing? Email pnw-at-library@provail.org.

Explore tools, data, and research

Learn how our technologies work, where the underlying data comes from, and how projects can be adapted or reused.

Documentation and tutorials

TCAT Wiki: start here

Use plain-language entry points and detailed guides to view pedestrian data, plan with Walksheds, route with AccessMap, download data, and contribute corrections. The wiki also links to technical documentation and schemas.

Open the TCAT Wiki

Projects and technology

Browse applications, prototypes, mapping tools, and accessible technology projects.

View current TCAT projects

Events and learning opportunities

Meet our teams, share what you’re working on, and learn with other accessibility researchers, community members, students, and practitioners.

Upcoming events at TCAT

Find mapping meetups, community workshops, presentations, conferences, and other opportunities to participate. The calendar includes event dates and details.

Browse the TCAT events calendar

Event details and registration requirements vary. Follow the individual event page for accessibility and participation information, or contact TCAT if an accommodation is not described.

There are many ways to participate

Engagement can mean borrowing a tool, lending your lived experience, helping a team map accessibility, contributing to open technology, or developing a partnership.

Join a community project

Participate in mapping activities, advisory conversations, team challenges, and inclusive design and evaluation.

Explore community participation

Bring us a challenge

Community organizations, public agencies, and practitioners can discuss accessibility needs, deployment opportunities, and potential collaborations.

Email TCAT about a partnership

Support accessible technology

Help accessible technologies reach more people

Financial gifts can help sustain TCAT’s research, student learning, community partnerships, and work bringing accessible tools into everyday use. You can also contribute time, expertise, and feedback through our projects.

Give to the Taskar Center through UW Support through participation

Donations are processed through the University of Washington’s giving website. For information about other types of support or partnership, contact uwtcat@uw.edu.

Stay connected with TCAT

Hear about upcoming events, research, practical tools, community projects, and ways to take part. Or tell us what accessibility challenge you’re working on.

Subscribe to the TCAT newsletter Email the TCAT team

For accessibility accommodations, accessible formats, or help finding information on this website, email uwtcat@uw.edu.

TCAT is a research and translation center, working on open-source technology to develop, translate, and deploy accessible technologies, and then sustain them in the hands of communities. Housed by the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science & Engineering, TCAT centers the experience of people with disabilities as a lens for improving design & engineering, through participatory design practices, tooling and capacity building.

Interested in working in any of our open source projects or looking for documentation?

Access Documentation in Our WIKI!

Through engaging students worldwide, faculty, and partner communities, The Taskar Center builds a sustainable social enterprise for accessible technology development, deployment, and support. Our mission is to engage people in participatory and inclusive design across 3 pillars of work:

Check out our upcoming events!

Welcome!

Interested in signing up for updates?

We make contact only FOUR times a year.

We customize news about Pedestrian Access and Accessible Maps, Accessible Technologies and Toy Events, And Ethics of AI for Accessibility

SIGN UP HERE:  https://tinyurl.com/TCATSignup