Student’s research honored by the National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program was exceptionally competitive this year, making it all the more remarkable for a project to be recognized. Chloe Adkins, a master’s student in Tandon’s Integrated Design & Media (IDM), rose above the competition, however, to garner one of only three honorable mentions in the Computer Science, Information Science, and Engineering subcategory of Accessibility.

Adkins is a self-proclaimed museum enthusiast, and as a frequent visitor of New York City’s many cultural institutions, she noticed the inequitable access that often exists within these spaces. When she joined NYU in Fall 2024, she joined the NYU Ability Project, a joint research initiative among Tandon’s IDM program, the Occupational Therapy Department at Steinhardt, and the Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch that focuses on the intersection of disability and technology. She immediately gravitated to their work on museum accessibility and volunteered to lead the development and evaluation of TouchTree, an online tool that guides museum professionals in creating tactile objects to enhance the experience of patrons with vision impairments.

TouchTree began with interdisciplinary research on accessible interpretation as part of a IMLS grant with the Intrepid Museum. It was originally conceived as a way to synthesize results from this research into a tool for curators, and the initial prototype was developed by ITP alum (and current adjunct) Lauren Race and IDM alum Syeda Anjum. A second team of IDM students — Yi Chen, Aditya Garyali, and Ayushi Shah — continued developing a prototype in Spring 2024, as part of Access and Assistive Technology in Historic Sites and Museums (DM-GY 9103 A and OT 2195).

“TouchTree follows the logic of a decision tree, where the user is presented with a series of questions that narrow down recommended touch objects for a given artifact,” Adkins explains. “That might mean a 3-D printed replica of an artifact, a simple model with moving parts, or a drawing with raised lines that show the outlines of the subject in the original piece, but it’s important that any touch object take into consideration tactile legibility and the availability of museum resources.” A TouchTree website is already up and running, and Adkins is now actively evaluating and revising the prototype with museum professionals and accessibility experts.

Over the course of her first year at NYU, she has built working relationships with many museum professionals and immersed herself in the museum access community. She says. “Because I identify as disabled, it is especially meaningful that I can use my work to uplift other disabled voices.” Her most frequent collaborator is Dr. Cheryl Fogle-Hatch, a Blind museum accessibility expert and founder of Museum Senses.

Adkins is now building a repertoire of community resources in this field through community events such as the New York Public Library’s Accessible Technology Conference 2024. In April 2025, she spoke on the need for accessible museum practices at the Symposium on Disability and Accessibility at Yale, in addition to leading multiple meetings with local museum staff to discuss potential future collaborations. “I’m really proud of the connections I have made in the short amount of time I have been working within this community,” Adkins says o. She is also supporting accessible museum work outside the NYU Ability Project by mentoring and guest lecturing in the Museum Studies Digital Frictions class, taught by Dr. Rosanna Flourty.

Working with museums, however, is not the work that she specifically set out to do back when she was studying Linguistics and Cognitive Science as an Indiana University undergraduate. She became involved, however, in conducting a study on adults with aphasia (a language disorder) and found that she greatly enjoyed the research process. “I like asking and answering questions,” she explains.

That led after graduation to a job as an analyst at Ipsos, a global market research firm whose clients included industry giants like Best Buy and T-Mobile. One day she was tasked with working on a study of accessibility, and, in an ironic twist, the survey provided to participants with disabilities could not be completed by those using screen readers or other assistive technologies.

Frustrated, Adkins began looking for resources related to digital accessibility and chanced upon the work of Dr. Amy Hurst, who is jointly appointed to Tandon and Steinhardt and who directs the Ability Project. In the process of offering guidance, Hurst put forth an intriguing option: had Adkins ever considered leaving the corporate world and attending graduate school?

Soon after being accepted into the IDM program, Adkins stepped down from her job at Ipsos and started classes the next day. She also took on a post as a graduate research assistant for Hurst, who encouraged her to submit TouchTree to the NSF competition. “Since joining NYU in the fall, Chloe has immersed herself in the local museum and accessibility community and has the opportunity to make a significant impact in helping curators increase accessible interpretation options through TouchTree,” Hurst says. “It has been a joy to work with her, and I am thrilled she is being recognized on a national stage.”

Adkins is due to graduate in 2026 and foresees a return to the corporate world, this time as a user-experience researcher focused on accessibility. “If we’re ever going to provide equitable experiences for all, accessibility has to be considered right from the start,” she says.