Citation

The Winners of the Okawa Prize 2022

For significant contribution to the research and development of non-visual userinterfaces, and to the realization of information accessibility

Dr. Chieko Asakawa
Positions and Organizations :IBM Fellow
Chief Executive Director, The National Museum ofEmerging Science and Innovation
IBM Distinguished Service Professor, Carnegie Mellon
University
Degree : Doctor of Engineering(The University of Tokyo, 2004)
Date of Birth : 21 November, 1958
Brief Biography :1982 BA, Department of English Literature, Otemon
Gakuin University
1985 IBM Research - Tokyo, IBM Japan
2004 PhD, Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary
Studies, Graduate School of Engineering, TheUniversity of Tokyo
2009 IBM Fellow
2014 IBM Distinguished Service Professor, Carnegie
Mellon University
2018 IBM Fellow, T.J. Watson Research Center2020 Fellow, Research Center for Advanced Science andTechnology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo
2021 Chief Executive Director, National Museum ofEmerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan)
Other distinctions include NAE member, IPSJ Fellow
Main Awards and Honors:
1999 METI Ministerʼs Award
2003 Women in Technology International Hall of Fame2009 Information Processing Society of Japan Kiyasu
Special Industrial Achievement Award
2010 The Society of Women Engineers AchievementAward
2011 Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award
2011 Commendation for Science and Technology by the
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology Japan in the category of development2012 Japan Braille Library Honma Kazuo Culture Award
2013 Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon
2015 Umeko Tsuda Award
2016 Tateishi Prize Special Achievement Award
2019 U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame2020 AFB Helen Keller Achievement Award
2022 ITU Association of Japan ITU-AJ Special
Achievement Award

Main Achievements :Dr. Chieko Asakawa lost her sight at the age of 14 due to an
accident at a swimming pool, but since then she has led
numerous projects as a researcher to support the visually

impaired and in research to realize information accessibility(enabling anyone, anot just the disabled and elderly, to accessinformation and communicate) and has also worked to raiseawareness in this ﬁeld.
After graduating from Otemon Gakuin University in 1982,
she completed a course in information processing for thevisually impaired at Nippon Lighthouse. She joined IBM
Japan in 1985 where she was engaged in the research anddevelopment of assistive technologies for the visuallyimpaired, developing a Japanese digital Braille system andother assistive technologies.
In 1997, she developed IBM Home Page Reader, the worldʼsﬁrst practical voice browser for the visually impaired. Thiswas subsequently commercialized in 11 languages around theworld and led to a dramatic improvement in the means ofaccess to information for the visually impaired around theworld. In 2004, she developed and released free of charge
aDesigner, a tool that supports web page creators throughvisual impairment simulations and automatic usability checks
so that the visually impaired and elderly can easily accessand use web pages.
In 2009, Dr. Asakawa was appointed an IBM Fellow, and in2014 she moved to the United States as a visiting professorat Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She has led researchon applying AI technology to assist the visually impaired andhas promoted research and development of technology that
supports the improvement of the quality of life of visually
impaired people in their everyday lives. She developed Nav
Cog (known as “Inclusive Navi” in Japan), a high-precisionvoice navigation system that provides seamless guidance,
whether indoors or outdoors and has worked to improvenavigation for the visually impaired and put it to practicaluse.
More recently, she has promoted the development of an AIsuitcase as an integrated solution for mobility andcommunication support using AI and is conducting trials for
its implementation with the aim of realizing an inclusive
society in which people with and without disabilities can live
together while recognizing each other and their individuality.
Furthermore, she has been the Chief Executive Director of
the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
since 2021 where she is actively engaged in activities toconnect society with the science and technology that will
create the future.
For these accomplishments, Dr. Asakawa has received
numerous national and international awards, including theMedal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 2013. She was also
inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame in2019.
In recognition of her contributions to the research anddevelopment of non-visual user interfaces and therealization of information accessibility, Dr. Chieko
Asakawa is hereby awarded the Okawa Prize in honor ofher achievements.
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