Xinru Tang

About

I am a Ph.D. candidate at Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine. I am advised by Dr. Anne Marie Piper as a member of Accessibility Research Collective. I was also fourtunate to work with Dr. Yixin Zou in her Human-Centered Security and Privacy group at Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP).

Research Interests

My current research seeks to center disability across the entire AI development pipeline. Toward this goal, my work (1) critically examines AI systems’ capabilities and design paradigms against lived disabled experiences; (2) develops disability-centric AI practices with affected communities and domain professionals.

My interest in the diversity of human bodyminds origins from my work with people across disabilities, ages, languages, and cultures. I enjoy drawing insights from across disciplines to shape my ideas, particularly from critical scholarship on disability and other human-centered topics such as linguistics. I have published and co-authored work in top-tier human-centered computing venues such as CHI, CSCW, and IEEE S&P.

Latest Publications

Everyday Uncertainty: How Blind People Use GenAI Tools for Information Access
Xinru Tang, Ali Abdolrahmani, Darren Gergle and Anne Marie Piper
@CHI2025 [PDF] [ACM] [slides]

Beyond "Vulnerable Populations'': A Unified Understanding of Vulnerability From A Socio-Ecological Perspective
Xinru Tang, Gabriel Lima, Li Jiang, Lucy Simko and Yixin Zou
@CSCW2025 [PDF] [ACM] [slides] [blog]
*Recognition for Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion*