About Me

I am a Masters student working with Dr. Ron Baecker and Dr. Karyn Moffatt as part of the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab at the University of Toronto's Department of Computer Science. I am working on a human-computer interaction thesis and I am also a User Experience Designer at IBM Interactive. I received my Bachelor degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Carleton University in 2008 and I have worked at Cognos and IBM as a User Experience Researcher, User Experience Designer, and Front-end Developer for more than 4 years.

I am currently working with the MyVoice team. MyVoice is a context aware mobile augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for individuals with different communication disorders. My research is focusing on AAC for people with Aphasia. Aphasia is a communication disorder affecting approximately 100,000 people in North America. It is most commonly acquired as the result of a stroke, and affects approximately one third of all stroke survivors. It results in an impairment of language, that is, to the production and/or comprehension of spoken and/or written language. Rehabilitation can reduce the level of impairment, but a significant number of individuals are left with a life-long chronic disability that influences a wide range of activities. There exist some AAC devices for these individuals but it has been estimated that unfortunately only 7% of people who would benefit from such devices actually have one. My goal is to first, find the limitations of current computer-based AAC devices for people with aphasia and second, to examine the potential for smart mobile devices to improve AAC design and address current barriers to adoption. Please contact me if you would like to know more about my thesis.