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Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁

@frank.computer

Assistant Professor of Data Science @ Cal Poly SLO Phd in accessibility, tool-making, vis 📊 @hcii.cmu.edu. Prev: Adobe, Highsoft, Apple, Visa. Move slo and repair things. Disabled & making a ttrpg. www.frank.computer

2045 Posts5122 Follower1852 Folgt
Nate O@nateo.bsky.social · 2d ago

You'd have to read to the thirteenth paragraph to discover the pull quote for the title was from Marcus Siding, a 23-year-old Swedish man living in Sweden that wanted to become a cop, but his ADHD diagnosis at the age of 12 barred him by law from becoming a Swedish cop Seems relevant

'“When my ADHD diagnosis was removed, it was a relief’ Rates of conditions such as ADHD and autism seem to be ever growing, but some adults diagnosed in childhood are happy to be free of their labels” Excerpt From “‘When my ADHD diagnosis was removed, it was a relief’” The Times and The Sunday Times https://apple.news/AdYlGGpX0SrG-Joy7OuhgMg This material may be protected by copyright.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 5d ago

Nature did a short piece on our preprint about how LLMs will affect the practice of science; my more detailed thread is below.

Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts

Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined.

nature.com

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 5d ago

This problem extends to "artificial" as well. Yes, many things are made up. But there isn't always a "real" thing (in a platonic or structuralist sense) elsewhere. "Intelligence," as we use it, is also it's own model. So much misunderstanding comes from this false real vs not dichotomy.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d ago

there are a lot of philosophical concepts that get egregiously misused out of the seminar room (and in the seminar room, to be fair). but in terms of sheer pernicious misuse "social construct" has gotta be top 5 somewhere and it's not number 5

Hagen Blix@hagenblix.bsky.social · 6d ago

AI is about bringing the logic of fast fashion to new economic realms, so hey - caring about AI *is* a form of caring about fast fashion. We've got a whole book making that argument - here's a short form essay on that point:

Does AI Work? Some Thoughts on Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs, AI, and Deskilling

Does AI actually work? Is it fake? Let’s talk about Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs, and see if that can help us figure out what the question actually means.

hagenblix.github.io

Molly Crabapple@mollycrabapple.bsky.social · 6d ago

99% of the time, when someone accuses you of selective outrage, it’s a way of politically demobilizing you and shutting you up “Why are you angry about data centers instead of fast fashion” isn’t about making you care about fast fashion. It’s about shutting you up about data centers And visa versa

Grant Stoner@supercrip1994.bsky.social · 7d ago

ICYMI – For Disability Pride Month, I reflected on the current state of accessibility and disability reporting in gaming. In summary, it's almost extinct. And unless the industry supports us, we risk losing this beat altogether. Read more here:

Grant Stoner@supercrip1994.bsky.social · last wk.

For seven years, I've had the privilege of reporting on accessibility and the disabled perspective. And now, during my seventh Disability Pride Month in this industry, I'm left wondering if this beat is coming to an end. Read my first @skyboxcritics.com piece here: skyboxcritics.com/2026/07/28/t...

EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · last wk.

7. The film centers Odysseus's guilt over his war crimes, but never shows us the POV of his victims, and instead glorifies the perpetrator for feeling bad about himself. I found this unsatisfying ethically and worse, imaginatively, because Damon's character is given only one mood (Troubled).

Grant Stoner@supercrip1994.bsky.social · last wk.

Happy 36th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To this day, disabled people still can't get married, and our rights are actively being challenged over and over. True disability inclusion happens when we're equals to our able-bodied peers.

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2w ago

Most click-baity outcome (always worth at least one post to over-summarize a project): Is accessibility work itself inaccessible? Yes! Also: seeing things helps sighted people design more meaningfully (wow, shocker!)

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2w ago

Big announcement: The final project of my thesis work, Skeleton: Visual Authoring of Non-visual Data Experiences, has now been accepted for publication at IEEE VIS! 🎉 🎉 🎉

Jonatan Hildén@jhilden.bsky.social · 2w ago

This: screen reader tools are surprisingly high-barrier to non-frequent users, that have to author accessible documents like yours truly. When you move outside of the web design space many of the tools for things like PDF authoring are downright terrible & things don't work as they should.

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2w ago

I want to see (literally) more accessibility tools actually show previews of non-visual stuff like screen reader and keyboard nav paths (and make these directly manipulable!). Getting sighted people really on board with accessibility might depend on visualizing non-visuals.

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2w ago

In case anyone missed the announcement, here's my latest major work: Some takeaways: 1. Sighted people experience modality barriers too (so they need accessibility!) 2. Making non-visual stuff interactive and visual addresses #1 but also helps sighted people treat accessibility as a design space

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2w ago

Big announcement: The final project of my thesis work, Skeleton: Visual Authoring of Non-visual Data Experiences, has now been accepted for publication at IEEE VIS! 🎉 🎉 🎉

Anna E. Cook@annaecook.com · 2w ago

I told someone recently that anyone doing accessibility work in America has been punished by our government. And I’ve gotten some “idk about that” But the thing is they banned the word accessibility and then they defunded and laid off people doing this work. Now accessibility has to be hidden

Sarah T Roberts, PhD@ubiquity75.xyz · 2w ago

A reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2w ago

Big announcement: The final project of my thesis work, Skeleton: Visual Authoring of Non-visual Data Experiences, has now been accepted for publication at IEEE VIS! 🎉 🎉 🎉

Announcing: Skeleton 🩻, the culminating project of my PhD!

My final research project looked at the barriers that sighted practitioners face when authoring non-visual data experiences. We co-designed, built tooling, built a UI prototype, and ran a study.

frank.computer