Chieko Asakawa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chieko Asakawa
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| 浅川 智恵子 | |
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Chieko Asakawa during a field experiment in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 2017
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Osaka, Japan
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| Nationality | Japanese |
| Education | Ph.D. engineering |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science, Accessibility |
Chieko Asakawa is an amazing Japanese computer scientist. She is blind, but that hasn't stopped her from creating incredible technology. She works at IBM Research – Tokyo in Japan. Her main goal is to make computers and the internet easier for everyone to use. This is especially true for people with disabilities. This field is called "accessibility".
One of her most famous inventions is the IBM Home Page Reader. This was a special program for the Netscape web browser. It could read text from websites out loud. For many years, it was the most popular system for blind people to access the internet. Chieko Asakawa has received many important awards for her work.
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Chieko Asakawa's Early Life and Education
Chieko Asakawa was born with normal eyesight. When she was eleven years old, she had an accident while swimming. She hit her left eye, which hurt her optic nerve. Slowly, she started to lose her sight. By the time she was fourteen, she was completely blind.
Even though she couldn't see, she continued her education. In 1982, she earned a bachelor's degree in English literature. She studied at Otemon Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan. After that, she took a special two-year computer programming course. This course was made for people who are visually impaired. Students in the course used a device called an Optacon. This device helped them feel printed words with their fingers.
Joining IBM and Earning a Ph.D.
In 1984, Chieko Asakawa started working at IBM Research. She began with a temporary job. Just one year later, she became a permanent researcher. She continued to learn and grow in her field. In 2004, she earned her Ph.D. in engineering. She received this advanced degree from the famous University of Tokyo.
How Chieko Asakawa Helps People with Technology
Chieko Asakawa has worked on many projects to make technology more accessible. Her goal is always to help people use computers and the internet more easily.
Making the Web Easier to Use
One of her early projects was creating a word processor for Braille documents. Braille is a system of raised dots that blind people can read with their fingers. She also helped develop a digital library for Braille documents. This made it easier to share and read books in Braille.
A very important invention was her Netscape browser plug-in. This program changed text on websites into speech. It also made it simpler for blind people to move around on web pages. This plug-in became an IBM product in 1997. It was called the IBM Home Page Reader. Within five years, it was the most used system for reading web pages aloud. She also created a system that let sighted web designers experience the internet as a blind person would. This helped them make better websites for everyone.
Newer Projects and Future Ideas
More recently, Chieko Asakawa has been working on other exciting projects. She has studied how to make multimedia content, like videos and music, easier to control for everyone. She also looks at how technology can help older people work longer before they retire.
One of her newest projects is a special robot. This robot is like a lightweight suitcase. It helps blind people find their way through busy or difficult places. Her work continues to make the physical world more accessible for blind people.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Chieko Asakawa has received many important awards and honors for her groundbreaking work.
Recognized for Her Impact
In 2003, she was added to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. This is a special group that recognizes amazing women in technology.
In 2009, she became an IBM Fellow. This is the highest honor IBM gives to its employees. She was the fifth Japanese person and the very first Japanese woman to receive this award. In 2011, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology gave her their Women of Vision Award. This award celebrates women who have made a big difference in technology.
Government and Academic Honors
In 2013, the Japanese government gave her the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon. This is a very special award from her home country. Also in 2013, a paper she wrote in 1998 won the ACM SIGACCESS Impact Award. This paper was about her work on web interfaces for blind people.
In 2017, she was chosen as an international member of the US National Academy of Engineering. This was for her work in creating technologies that help visually impaired people access digital information. In 2022, Chieko Asakawa was also elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
See also
In Spanish: Chieko Asakawa para niños
