Xinru Tang

About

I am a 2nd-year Ph.D. student 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

I'm interested in how to embed people's lived experiences in technology design, and how technologies can serve a broad user base and associated challenges. My perspective has been influenced by my work with individuals across disabilities, ages, languages, and cultures. I take insights across disciplines to shape my ideas.

My current focus is how to ground the design of assistive technologies into the everyday, living world of disability and push accessibility in practice.

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]

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]

Why is Accessibility So Hard? Insights From the History of Privacy
Xinru Tang
CSCW2024 Poster [PDF] [ACM]