My long-term research goal is to develop effective computational supports for people with disabilities and those on the far side of the digital divide, seniors and people with cognitive disabilities in particular. More specifically, I am interested in studying how to support persons with cognitive disabilities in accomplishing tasks that are currently beyond their capacity. My research interests include: human-computer interaction (HCI); assistive technology (particularly with respect to adoption and abandonment); ethnographic studies of socio-technical systems; mobile technologies; contextually aware technologies; “everyday” artifacts; situated cognition; and technology adoption.From 2006 till 2008 I did post doctorate work at the Sankt Augustin, Germany branch of the Fraunhofer Institute. As part of the EU4ALL(EU4ALL, 2006) project was in using and modifying content, user and device metadata standards to support delivery of appropriate personalized content to distance learners(Velasco, 2007). My current work at the University of York is focused on supporting seniors, typically using embedded/mobile systems, to maintain an independent and socially connected life, aging in place for as long as possible. An example of these systems is providing support for use of public transportation with special attention paid to remediation of error states (e.g. becoming lost, changed routes/schedules).I was the author and P.I. for a 2.7 M€, 9 partner, 5 nation, 3 year EC project (ASSISTANT http://www.aal-assistant.eu/)(Assistant Project, 2015; Barham, Carmien, & Garzo, 2015; Siira & Heinonen, 2015) that successfully implemented these ideas and is now in the process of commercialization.Specialties: Assistive technology design and evaluation, end user programming, task support system fro persons with cognitive disabilities, and caregivers, ethnographic based design and analysis, participatory design, stakeholder analysis