Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow · Carnegie Mellon University (HCII)
My work spans building, deploying, and evaluating interactive systems that expand agency and creative expression for people with disabilities.
Short bio + research interests.
I’m a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, working with Jeffrey P. Bigham and Patrick Carrington. I earned my PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, advised by Misha Sra.
My work sits at the intersection of accessibility, human-centered AI, and participatory design. I began in assistive technology building hands-free interaction, haptic devices, and VR experiences. Along the way, I learned that "works as intended" is a low bar: accessibility is also about agency, pleasure, identity, and what it feels like to inhabit a body in a world built around someone else's norms.
That realization pulled me toward a bigger question: what assumptions get baked into new technologies, and who gets to decide what people with disabilities are supposed to need, want, or like? Lately I've been bringing that lens to AI-mediated systems, especially conversational AI. I study how these systems shape dialogue, interpretation, and social meaning around disability, and I design approaches that keep disabled people's lived experience at the center of how AI tools are built and used. My goal is to push technology toward more dignity, more nuance, and more real choice.
Research and industry roles that shaped my approach to accessible systems.
Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow · Pittsburgh, PA
Ph.D. Student Researcher · Mountain View, CA
Associate · Cupertino, CA
Intern · Mountain View, CA
List of papers and projects (with DOIs / links where available).
Atieh Taheri . Hamza El Alaoui . Patrick Carrington . Jeffrey P. Bigham
CHI 2026
To Appear
Examines how AI-mediated dialogue can support autonomy and bias recognition during sensitive conversations.
Atieh Taheri* . Carlos Gilberto Gomez-Monroy* . Vicente Borja . Misha Sra
TACCESS 2024
* Co-first authors.
Explores tactile feedback designs that support click actions and a sense of physical agency.
Atieh Taheri . Purav Bhardwaj . Arthur Caetano . Alice Zhong . Misha Sra
UIST 2023 Adjunct
Best Poster based on People's Choice at UIST 2023
Conversational AI personas and interaction flows designed for people with hand motor disabilities.
Preprints and workshop contributions to emerging topics.
Atieh Taheri . Mohammad Izadi . Gururaj Shriram . Negar Rostamzadeh . Shaun Kane
Machine Learning for Creativity and Design, NeurIPS 2023 Workshop
Co-designs and implements an accessible text-to-image interface to support creative expression.
Selected community contributions.
Community roles and peer review.
Mentorship and scholarly leadership.
Selected awards and recognitions.
OpenAI Researcher Access Grant
Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship (CMU)
People's Choice Best Poster, UIST
Student Game Competition Winner, CHI
Selected media coverage, invited talks, and panels.
HCII news feature covering CMU work at ASSETS 2025. Dec 2025.
More Than Theoretical: Real Stakes and Challenges of XR Accessibility Research. March 2025.
Virtually Accessible: HCII Researchers Ensure AR, VR Technologies Work for Everyone. Dec 2024.
Taheri: Presidential Postdoc Fellow. June 2024.
Determined to Succeed: UCSB Student Achieves Her Dreams Despite Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Aug 2022.
Has Remote Working Contributed to a More Diverse Workplace? Aug 2022.
Let’s connect!
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