Women in Tech: "Tech underpins all aspects of life today".

devmio spotlights the achievements of women in the tech industry by highlighting inspirational women from around the world and giving them a chance to introduce themselves, share their stories, and help advise other aspiring women in the field.

Today, we would like you to meet Becky Tyler, Applied Computing student at the University of Dundee.

Dr. Annalu Waller

Annalu Waller PhD is Professor of Human Communication Technologies at the University of Dundee in Scotland. She directs the Dundee Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) research Group and has worked in the field of AAC since 1985, designing communication systems for and with nonspeaking individuals. Her primary research areas are human centred computing, natural language processing, personal narrative and assistive technology. In particular, she focuses on empowering end users, including disabled adults and children, by involving them in the design and use of technology. Professor Waller was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Years Honours List in 2016 for services to people with Complex Communication Needs and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. Annalu Waller is part of GitHub's ‘The ReadME Project’ - more info about her and her project can be found there.

How long have you been interested in tech and how did you first come into contact with tech?

I began using my first electric typewriter at the age of 8. In terms of digital technology, my first contact was through scifi movies - the first Star Wars movie - when I decided I wanted to design a robot which would carry coffee up stairs. I first programmed on a Sperry Univac 1100 as part of my BSc in Computer Science at the University of Cape Town in 1980 using punch cards, FORTAN, Pascal and Cobol, amongst other languages.

How did you get to your current job? What different career paths have you taken?

I graduated with my BSc (Hons) in Computer Science before embarking on an MSc (Med) in Biomedical Sciences. This qualified me to be a Rehabilitation Engineer. While studying for my MSc, I established the first Assistive Technology (AT) assessment centre in South Africa.

My first job was as an Assistive Technologist (employed as a teacher as there were no posts for ATs) in a special school where I set up an Assistive Technology department and worked with teachers to provide access to the curriculum for disabled students. In 1989 I began my PhD at the University of Dundee on predictive Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems, focussing on conversational narrative.

Once I graduated, I was employed as a postdoctoral researcher on several AT and AAC projects. I was appointed to a lectureship in 1997 and promoted to senior lecturer in 2008 and to full professor in 2012. I am also an honorary chaplain at the University of Dundee, having been ordained as an Anglican “worker” priest in 2005. En route … I acted professionally in 1992.

By ensuring that all software is accessible, we will ensure more usable systems for everyone, disabled or not.

Are there people who supported you or were there obstacles in your way? Do you have a role model?

My parents had the vision that I would go to university from when I was a toddler. I have always had to prove my abilities as folk initially see my disability as a barrier. The initial assumption when people meet me is someone with severe disabilities who is unable to think, talk and work… One example was being told that I should not expect people to listen to my impaired speech and to ‘know my place’ as a person with a disability. I could not change their prejudices even though I was a lecturer at the time.

What position do you hold now and what is your daily work routine like?

I am a full professor with teaching, research and administrative duties. I also coordinate the User Centre - groups of older and disabled people who support our teaching and research. No day is the same … which I love!

Your research is, among other things, in the field of augmentative and alternative communication, which uses digital tools to support people who have problems speaking. Can you please tell us a bit more about your research and projects?

I use AI, specifically NLP, to support more effective and extended conversation for people with little or no functional speech. I have pioneered the use of innovative technologies to increase the speed and quality of aided conversations, e.g. Natural Language Generation (to automatically generate punning riddles, narrative and topic shift), multimodal interaction, sensor data, mobile technologies and user profiling. I use techniques, such as data-to-text translation, to generate conversational utterances from environmental inputs using location data, RFID tags and voice input. The interfaces for these systems vary from large multi-touch screens to mobile phone devices and require significant insights from Human Computer Interaction.

Examples of projects include: The STANDUP project developed an automated humour generation system for children with speech and language impairments. Automated story generation for nonspeaking children (“How was School Today?”). Chronicle focussed on adapting the narrative technology to meet the needs of adults with little or no functional speech; “Stories at the Dentist” and ACE-LP (Augmenting Communication using Environmental Data to drive Language Prediction) which investigated the role of Computer Vision in providing Context Aware AAC.

In your opinion, what is the state of accessibility and inclusivity in the IT industry? Have software applications become more accessible for users in recent years?

There is much more awareness of accessibility due to WCAG and legislation. However, until accessibility is mandatory in all training for software engineering, we will not have global acceptance. By ensuring that all software is accessible, we will ensure more usable systems for everyone, disabled or not.

Teachers need more support to encourage girls to think of tech as a career.

What are you most proud of in your professional career?

Embedding accessibility and the involvement of expert disabled end users into the general computing curriculum at Dundee and seeing this taken up by other universities.

Which technical and IT topics would you like to work on more intensively in the future?

Most AAC users still communicate at around 8 to 10 words per minute and seldom tell ‘story’. These challenges still remain my focus 35 years on from my MSc when I investigated how NLP could speed up binary switch access.

If you could do another job for a week, what would it be?

A difficult question as I already have so much challenge in my own job.

Why are there so few women in the tech industry? What hurdles do women still have to overcome today?

The number of women in tech have gone down over the years. I think the main issue is the lack of career guidance around tech in schools. Teachers need more support to encourage girls to think of tech as a career. Hurdles…prejudice and incorrect assumptions.

Most AAC users still communicate at around 8 to 10 words per minute and seldom tell ‘story’. These challenges still remain my focus 35 years on from my MSc when I investigated how NLP could speed up binary switch access.

What clichés/stereotypes have you encountered regarding "women in tech"? What problems does this create?

None really. But I do think that women may be more interested in design and social aspects of computing which may not be as obvious as gaming etc.

Have the conditions for women in the tech and IT world changed since you started working there?

If anything there are fewer women coming into the industry.

Do you have any tips for women who want to enter the tech industry? What should other girls and women know about working in the tech industry?

Tech underpins all aspects of life today. Whatever your interest, girls and women should be part of the industry if we are to design and develop tech which is useful and will help people to reach their individual potential.