Deborah Fels

Dr. Fels has a PhD in Human Factors from Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is currently employed as a professor in the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, and the Director of the Inclusive Media and Design Centre at Ryerson University. Her research interests involve inclusive design, access to media and technology for people with disabilities and older adults, inclusive video game design and inclusive business.

Current research projects include: 1) emotive captioning and music visualization including software application, EnACT for adding animation to text; 2) audio description including software tool, LiveDescribe and LiveDescribe Web; 3) TerpTube - co-creator for creating online sign language web pages and for sign language interpreter training support tool; and 4) sensory substitution techniques for access to sound and visual information including creation of a vibrotactile system called the Emoti-chair and a vibrotactile music facility, the VibroFusionLab. She is also a professional engineer.

Sample of supervised ComCult projects:

2015 - Ellen Hibbard; Dissertation: The impact of vlogging on deaf culture, communication and identity

2014 - Robert Bajko; Dissertation: The uses of personal communication devices in corporate environments

2012 - David Smith; Dissertation: Theorizing avatar sexualities: A grounded theory study on the erotics of Second Life

2008 - Claude Gagné; Major Research Paper: Learning Through Weblogs: Students' Perspective And Learning Evidences

2006 - John-Patrick Udo; Thesis: Motivating Children to "Write" Stories through the Use of Visual Art and Technology

ComCult Teaching Activities

• CC 8973 Design for Interactive Multimedia