Rachel Adler

For More Information

• Dr. Adler's Webpage

Education

• The Graduate Center, CUNY (New York, NY); PhD, Computer Science; 2012

Biography

Rachel Adler is an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Adler's research interests are in human-computer interaction, accessibility, and computing education. She is particularly interested in designing applications for and with people with disabilities. Some of her recent projects include co-designing a mobile health application to empower cancer survivors with disabilities, co-designing a mobile health peer navigator intervention for people newly diagnosed with disabilities, and creating accessibility games to teach students about accessible design. Her research has been funded through the National Science Foundation; National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research; and the U.S. Department of Education. She holds a PhD in computer science from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Academic Positions

• Faculty Affiliate (0%), Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, 12/2025-Present
• Faculty Affiliate (0%), Siebel Center for Design, 8/2024-Present
• Associate Member, Cancer Center at Illinois, 12/2023-Present
• Faculty Affiliate (0%), Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 12/2023-Present
• Faculty Affiliate (0%), National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 10/2023-Present
• Faculty Affiliate (0%), Illinois Informatics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 09/2023-Present 
• Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 08/2023-Present
• Affiliate Faculty, C3 Lab, Northwestern University, 09/2020-08/2022
• Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Northeastern Illinois University, 08/2019-08/2023
• Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Northwestern University, 09/2019-08/2020
• Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Northeastern Illinois University, 01/2013-08/2019

Research Interests

• Computing Education
• Accessibility
• Human-Computer Interaction

Selected Articles in Journals

• Liu, C., AI, M., Wang, P., and Adler, R. F. (2026, to appear). No Sound, No Problem: Accessibility in Gaming for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Players. PACM Human-Computer Interaction 10(7), GAMES.
• Choudhry, A. Mshvelidze, J., Mullen, S., Kletenik, D., and Adler, R. F. (2026) Motivations, Barriers, and the Potential of AI in Physical Activity Applications for U.S. Older Adults: Interview Study, JMIR Aging,  9, e96114.
• Kletenik, D., Almendral C., de Goeas-Malone, M., and Adler, R. F. (2026). Bridge to Inclusion: Enhancing Digital Literacy for Pre-Service Teachers with Accessibility Integration. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE).
• Kletenik, D., Adler, R. F., Rivera, B., and Wong, M. (2026). Leveling the Playing Field: Using Games to Enhance Accessibility Education in Library and Information Science. Information and Learning Sciences.
• Zhou K. Z., Iftakher, R., Mullen, S. P., Adler, R. F., & Kletenik, D. (2025). Toward Designing Accessible and Meaningful Software for Cancer Survivors. PACM Human-Computer Interaction 9(7), CSCW.
• Adler, R. F., Shan, J., Sotelo, J., Raudales Reyes, D. I., Baez, K., Delgado, M., Mathur, A., Phillips, A., Zhou, K. Z., and Magasi, S. (2025). Designing an mHealth Prototype for People with Disabilities: Insights from Co-Design and Heuristic Evaluation. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology 21(2), 904-924.
• Zhou K. Z., Peng, W., Liu, Y., Adler, R. F. (2025). Exploring the Diversity of Music Experiences for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals. In PACM Human-Computer Interaction 9(2), CSCW.
• Adler, R.F., and Kletenik, D. (2025). Empowering access: Integrating multiple means of engagement when teaching accessible design principles. Education and Information Technologies.
• Adler R. F., Baez, K., Morales P., Sotelo J., Victorson, D., and Magasi S. (2024). Evaluating the Usability of an mHealth App for Empowering Cancer Survivors with Disabilities: Heuristic Evaluation and Usability Testing. JMIR Human Factors, 11: e51522, total pages 14 doi: 10.2196/51522.
• Winters, C. A., Marshall, H. K., Victorson, D. E., Adler, R. F., and Magasi, S. (2023). Does the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) Capture the Complex Experiences of Cancer Survivors? A Mixed Methods Approach, Occupational Therapy In Health Care, 38 (2), 347-363 doi: 10.1080/07380577.2023.2215875.
• Adler, R. F. and Kletenik, D. (2023). Accessibility for All: Introducing IT Accessibility in Postsecondary Computer Science Programs for K-12 Teachers. Practice brief. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability (JPED), 36(1), 103-108.

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• Kletenik, D., Krupitskaya, M., Onokhina, M., Liu, C., Adler, R. F. (2026). Games, Personas, and Prototyping: Teaching Accessible Design for Cancer Survivors. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER ’26), (pp. 422-438). 
• Kletenik, D. and Adler, R. F. (2026). Tracing the Impact: A Longitudinal Study of Accessibility Training. In Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT 2026), (pp. 449-459).
• Kletenik, D., Parthasarathy, P.D., and Adler, R. F. (2026). The Most Important Feature Is Inclusion: Adding A Focus in Accessibility to an E-commerce Course for Novices. In Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT 2026), (pp. 17-26).  
• Choudhry, A., Mazumder, B., Marks, L. A., Elmenshawy, R., Kletenik, D., Mullen, S., & Adler, R. F. (2026). Creating Opportunities: Co-Designing an mHealth App with Older Adults. In IEEE 29th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD), (pp. 3526-3532). 
• Uba, E. and Adler, R. F. (2026). May We Know You? Operationalizing Co-Design Within African Communities: A Scoping Review. In IEEE 29th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD), (pp. 3416-3421).
• Kletenik, D., Lodvikov, E., and Adler, R. F. (2026). Incluso!: Introducing Universal Design Through Play. In EngageCSEdu. (ACM Teaching Materials for Computing)
• Adler, R. F., Rivera, B., and Kletenik, D. (2026). You're on the Ball: Using Games to Explore Accessibility for Neurodivergent Users. In Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '26).
• Wang, H., Choudhry, A., Adler, R. F., and Zhou, K. Z. (2026). Simplicity Gone Wrong: Revisiting Implicit Designs for Older Adults. In 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).
• Wang, O., Liu, C., Adler, R. F., Almendral, C., Kletenik, D., McDonagh, D., Oro, B., and Zhou, K. Z. (2025). Teaching Accessibility Across Disciplines: Perspectives from ADA Title II. In Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (pp. 1-5). (Workshop Proposal)
• Zhou, K. Z., Liu, C., Li, Y., Kletenik, D., and Adler, R. F. (2025). Beyond swipe and tap: Cultivating mobile accessibility awareness and knowledge in computing disciplines, in American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference (ASEE) - Computers in Education Division (COED).
• Chen, J. E., Choudhry, A., Zhou, K. Z., and Adler, R. F. (2025). Toward More Inclusive eHealth Technologies for Older Adults: A Narrative Review. In IEEE 28th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD).
• Liu, C., Wang, A., Iyer, M., Slaughter, G., Bosch, A., Lodvikov, E. Zhou, K. Z., Kletenik, D., and Adler, R. F. (2025). Teaching Accessibility: A Family Workshop for Middle School Students. In ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) - Late-Breaking Works (LBWs) Track.
• Parthasarathy, P.D., Adler, R. F., Kletenik, D., Joshi, S., and Mittal, A. M. (2025). Skill, Will, or Both? Understanding Digital Inaccessibility from Accessibility Professionals’ Viewpoint. In ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) - Late-Breaking Works (LBWs) Track.
• Liu, C., Zhou, K. Z., Sy, S., Lodvikov, E., Shan, J., Kletenik, D., and Adler, R. F. (2025). Opening Digital Doors: Early Lessons in Software Accessibility for K-8 Students. In Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '25), (pp. 722-728).
• Zhou, K. Z., Adler, R. F., Almendral, C., Choi, S., Kletenik, D., Oro, B., and Seo J. (2024). Teaching Accessibility in Different Disciplines: Topics, Approaches, Resources, Challenges. In Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Workshop Proposal).
• Zhou, K. Z., Liu, C., Shan, J., Kletenik, D., and Adler, R. F. (2024). Accessible Adventures: Teaching Accessibility to High School Students Through Games, 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T 2024). (Honorable Mention Best Long Paper Award).
• Adler, R. F., Baez, K., Delgado, M., Raudales Reyes, D. I., Sotelo, J., Shan, J., Zhou, K. Z. and Magasi, S. (2024). mENTER: Co-Designing an mHealth Peer Navigator Intervention for People with Disabilities. In Proceedings of the 3rd Empathy-Centric Design Workshop (EMPATHICH ’24 CHI ’24 Workshop), (pp. 26-33).
• Kletenik, D. and Adler, R. F. (2024). Motivated by Inclusion: Understanding Students' Empathy and Motivation to Design Accessibly Across a Spectrum of Disabilities. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '24), (pp. 680-686).
• Kletenik, D., Minkowitz, R., Peric, A., Sahin, M., and Adler, R. F. (2024). From Awareness to Action: Teaching Software Accessibility for Neurodiverse Users. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '24), (pp. 687-693).
• Kletenik, D. and Adler, R. F. (2023). Who Wins: A Comparison of Accessibility Simulation Games vs. Classroom Modules. In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '23), (pp. 214-220).
• Li Zhao, A., Paley, A., Adler, R. F., and Hammond, K. (2022). OpenIllinois: An Information System for Transparency in Illinois State Electoral Finances. In 23nd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, (pp. 466-468).
• Kletenik, D. and Adler, R. F. (2022). Let's Play: Increasing Accessibility Awareness and Empathy Through Games. In Proceedings of the 53nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '22), (pp. 182-188).
• Li Zhao, A., Paley, A., Adler, R., Pack, H., Servantez, S., Einarsson, A., Barrie, C., Sterbentz, M., and Hammond, K. (2021). Requirements for Open Political Information: Transparency Beyond Open Data. In AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Government and Public Sector, total pages 5. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.03119
• Paley, A., Li Zhao, A., Pack, H., Servantez, S., Adler, R. F., Sterbentz, M., Pah, A., Schwartz, D., Barrie, C., Einarssan, A., and Hammond, K. (2021). From Data to Information: Automating Data Science to Explore the U.S. Court System. In The 18th International Conference of Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL 2021), (pp. 119-128) (Best Innovative Application Paper Award).

Honors

• Honorable Mention Best Long Paper Award, for the paper titled “Accessible Adventures: Teaching Accessibility to High School Students Through Games.” (Co-author) (2024)
• Teacher Ranked as Excellent, IS 226 (Introduction to HCI) (Spring 2024)
• Arnold O. Beckman Award (selects projects of special distinction or promise to receive this designation) (2024-2025)
• Best Innovative Application Paper Award, for the paper titled “From Data to Information: Automating Data Science to Explore the U.S. Court System.” (Co-author) (2021)