publications

2026

1. ACM CHI

   

   Amplifying Rural Educators’ Perspectives: A Qualitative Study on the Impacts of Generative AI in Rural US High Schools

   Shira Michel, Benjamin Taylor, Sabrina Parra Dı́az, and 3 more authors

   In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2026

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   Recent breakthroughs in Generative AI (GenAI) are reshaping educational landscapes, presenting challenges and opportunities. While all contexts present unique challenges, rural schools are historically under-resourced, facing persistent technology-related barriers. To understand and reduce these barriers, we studied 31 rural high school educators across three U.S. states to examine their use of GenAI and understand how GenAI introduces new challenges, opportunities, and may exacerbate existing educational barriers. Results show while rural educators use GenAI to streamline teaching tasks, existing resource disparities restrict meaningful integration. Through rural educators’ voices, we reveal issues like infrastructure barriers, resistance to adoption, and lack of AI literacy training create significant obstacles. Nonetheless, educators envision GenAI can support themselves and their students, but findings emphasize the need for rural-specific design approaches. As a community, embracing inclusive GenAI design and re-examining assumptions about technology adoption in under-served educational contexts is essential to reducing barriers rather than widening them.

   @inproceedings{michel2026amplifying,
     title = {Amplifying Rural Educators’ Perspectives: A Qualitative Study on the Impacts of Generative AI in Rural US High Schools},
     author = {Michel, Shira and Taylor, Benjamin and Parra D{\'\i}az, Sabrina and Wiggins, Joseph B and Finn, Ed and Nourani, Mahsan},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
     pages = {1--20},
     year = {2026},
   }

2025

1. ACM FAccT

   

   "It’s not a representation of me": Examining Accent Bias and Digital Exclusion in Synthetic AI Voice Services

   Shira Michel, Sufi Kaur, Sarah Elizabeth Gillespie, and 3 more authors

   In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 2025

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   Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) speech generation and voice cloning technologies have produced naturalistic speech and accurate voice replication, yet their influence on sociotechnical systems across diverse accents and linguistic traits is not fully understood. This study evaluates two synthetic AI voice services (Speechify and ElevenLabs) through a mixed methods approach using surveys and interviews to assess technical performance and uncover how users’ lived experiences influence their perceptions of accent variations in these speech technologies. Our findings reveal technical performance disparities across five regional, English-language accents and demonstrate how current speech generation technologies may inadvertently reinforce linguistic privilege and accent-based discrimination, potentially creating new forms of digital exclusion. Overall, our study highlights the need for inclusive design and regulation by providing actionable insights for developers, policymakers, and organizations to ensure equitable and socially responsible AI speech technologies.

   @inproceedings{michel2025s,
     title = {"It’s not a representation of me": Examining Accent Bias and Digital Exclusion in Synthetic AI Voice Services},
     author = {Michel, Shira and Kaur, Sufi and Gillespie, Sarah Elizabeth and Gleason, Jeffrey and Wilson, Christo and Ghosh, Avijit},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency},
     pages = {228--245},
     year = {2025},
   }