Frank Elavsky

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PhD'ing at CMU HCII and consulting for accessibilty R&D.

https://www.frank.computer
fje@cmu.edu
@frankelavsky

Research Area

To break down barriers that exclude people from data work and data interfaces, I research methods that improve greater adoption of accessibility practices, engineer tools and systems that improve inclusive practitioner work and outcomes, and contribute to global technology standards bodies. I critically examine ways that sociotechnical systems exclude people with disabilities while also building and making. My research seeks to intervene in the technological spaces where practitioners produce inaccessible data visualizations, interfaces, and experiences in order to include and empower everyone with information.

Positions

2024–present Adobe (Remote)
Visualization and Accessibility R&D (contract)
2024 Highsoft Vik, Norway
Accessibility R&D (contract/intern), Highcharts Accessibility
2022–2023 Apple Pittsburgh, PA
Data Interaction R&D (contract/intern), AX Visualization Team
2021–2023 Fizz Studio Pittsburgh, PA
Senior Research Scientist, Accessibility Standards, Industry Consulting
2017–2018 Northwestern University Evanston, IL
Data Visualization Specialist, Research Computing Services
2016–2017 Acumen LLC Burlingame, CA
Data Visualization and Policy Analyst, Data Visualization Team
2015 Clemson University Clemson, SC
Undergraduate Research Assistant, National Science Foundation REU Site

Education

2021–Present Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA

Advised by Dominik Moritz and Patrick Carrington.
Thesis: (In progress).
Member of the Data Interaction Group and AXLE Lab.

2011–2016 B.S. in Computer Information Systems, Trinity Lutheran College Everett, WA

GPA: 3.88 / 4.0, Magna Cum Laude
Advanced coursework on data visualization, video game physics, digital humanities archives, and software interfaces.

2011–2016 B.A. in Theology and Philosophy, Trinity Lutheran College Everett, WA

GPA: 3.88 / 4.0, Magna Cum Laude
Advanced coursework on post-colonialism, trauma theory, feminist semiotics, secularism, and the philosophy of play.

Publications [Interactive Version]

Conference

Book Chapter

Micro-paper

Poster

P1
Digital Wrangling and Visualization for Correspondence Projects
Frank Elavsky, Gabriel Hankins, Jill Gemmill. XSEDE 15, 2015.

Patents

Notable Awards

2024–2025 Access and Inclusion for Blind and Low Vision People in Data Products, Services, and Tools Adobe

In partnership with internal individuals and teams at Adobe, we were awarded an internal grant for our work to make Adobe's data visualization tooling and analytical products and services more accessible for blind and low vision data workers.

2024–2026 Accessible Interactive Data Visualizations Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

In partnership with Quansight Labs, I am listed as key personnel on a 2-year CZI EOSS 6 grant for making the Bokeh python visualization library more accessible. I am the leading consultant, advisor, auditor, and architect for the accessibility efforts of this grant.

2023 Impactful Community Leadership, shortlist Information is Beautiful Awards

I was recognized on the shortlist (of 3 out of 20k members) for my work with the Data Visualization Society's community, fostering a space for folks to learn and connect regarding accessibility.

2022–2024 Outstanding Review ACM CHI

I was given awards for my outstanding review contributions to CHI 2022, 2023, and 2024 (a hat trick!).

2019 Image of the Week NASA

My Masses in the Stellar Graveyard interactive data experience won NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Archive Research Center (HEASARC) Image of the Week Award.

2018 Kantar's IIB Longlist Kantar's Information is Beautiful Awards

My Masses in the Stellar Graveyard interactive data experience won Kantar's longlist.

2018 Kantar's IIB Longlist Kantar's Information is Beautiful Awards

My Quantifying Career Hot Streaks interactive data experience won Kantar's longlist.

2017 Featured Graphic in the 2017 Nobel Lectureship on Physics

Barry Barish's lecture prominently featured my figure on electromagnetic and gravitational wave detections of compact stellar objects.

2011–2016 Dean's Circle Scholarship Trinity Lutheran College

Recurring, 60% scholarship awarded to a select group of students who participate in a conversation with the Academic Dean on a semesterly graduate-level humanities topic.

2011–2016 Presidential Honors Trinity Lutheran College

Scholarship awarded to the top 10% performing students each year.

2013–2014 Organizing For Mission Cohort ELCA

Scholarship and training expenses provided for students, scholars, and practitioners involved in organizing efforts in their communities.

2013 Community Improvement Grant Forum for Theological Exploration

Grant awarded to active community organizers with promising projects.

Mentoring

2024

Industry Professional Mentoring

Carnegie Mellon University

I mentored an industry professional who is working on making an infinite canvas tool, tldraw, more accessible. "Creative support tools" (CSTs) are notoriously hard to make accessible as they are largely visual-only. We explored the problem space, ideated, and developed prototypes.

Mentored:

2022,2024

Undergraduate Mentoring

Carnegie Mellon University

Semester-long mentorships on the following topics: accessibility, machine-learning design, user interface design, software engineering, graph theory, assistive technology research.

Mentored:

2022–2023

Graduate Student Mentoring

Carnegie Mellon University

I mentored a graduate student during their research-focused Master's in CS at CMU, exploring the space of machine learning descriptions of visualizations.

Mentored:

2018

Undergraduate Mentoring

Northwestern University

I mentored an undergraduate student on two projects for the PI Sera Young, cleaning and visualizing refugee resettlement data as well as visualizing a world map of Young's Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) sites.

Mentored:

2017–2018

Graduate Student Mentoring

Northwestern University

Taught graduate students in earth and astrophysical sciences professional, data-intensive skills for two summers. I personally worked with and mentored one PhD student fellow on projects related to their research.

Mentored:

Talks, Courses, Workshops [Interactive Version]

Software Structures of Assistive Technologies

Carnegie Mellon University

Accessibility and Play

ASSETS, St. John's, Canada

Data Visualization and Accessibility

IEEE VIS Workshop on Accessible Data Visualization
(State of the Art talk) IEEE VIS Workshop on Accessible Data Visualization
Data Visualization Society, Reader's Club
Carnegie Mellon University
Highsoft HQ, Vik i Sogn, Norway
AccessU
T-Mobile Accessibility Summit
Carnegie Mellon University
Accessibility Tableau User Group
Graphic Hunters
Northwestern University
NACIS
AccessFest
Visualizing Knowledge, Aalto University
Maryland Institute College of Art
DataViz DC Meetup
IRE-NICAR
Northwestern University
Observable HQ
IEEE Vis, VisInPractice
University of Cincinnati
University of Washington
Linkedin Learning
PolicyViz
Carnegie Mellon University
Data Viz Today
Accessibility Camp Bay Area
Tableau World
NoVA UX Meetup
IRE-NICAR
CIDE, Mexico City
Maryland Institute College of Art
Knowbility

Disability and Data Equity

We All Count, Talking Data Equity
National Instututes of Health, Common Fund

Human-centered Machine Learning

Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University

Advanced Data Visualization with D3

Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University

Data Navigator

IEEE VIS, Melbourne, Australia
Apple
Carnegie Mellon University

Philosophy of Design

Visualizing Knowledge, Aalto University

Accessible Research

arXiv Accessibility Forum
University of Washington

Chartability

Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
EuroVis, Rome, Italy

Inclusive Data Experiences

Columbia University, Barnard College
Jupyter Project
DSxD

Fireside Chat: Charts in Context

Data Visualization Society

Fireside Chat: Accessibility in Data Visualization

Data Visualization Society

Data Science Best Practices: Accessibility

UC Berkeley BIDS

Are Your Data Visualizations Excluding People?

Outlier

Advanced Data Visualization and Accessibility on the Web

AccessU

Visualizations for Multi-Dimensional Data

Focus Summer School, Northwestern University
Focus Summer School, Northwestern University

High-Density Model Visualization

Data Viz Today

Introduction to JavaScript

Northwestern University

Introduction to Web Technology

Northwestern University

Introduction to Visualization

Northwestern University
Northwestern University

How to Make Scientific Figures

Northwestern University
Northwestern University

Service

References

Dominik Moritz
Assistant Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

Patrick Carrington
Assistant Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

Chris DeMartini
Senior Director, Data Experience Team
Visa

Gabriel Hankins
Assistant Professor of English
Clemson University

Vetria Byrd
Assistant Professor of Computer Graphics Technology
Purdue University