Dr. Joshua Miele

Dr. Joshua Miele is an innovative leader in both the accessible technology and blindness communities whose inventions are characterized by the creative use of low-cost, off-the-shelf technologies to improve information accessibility for the blind in education, employment, and entertainment. As a scientist and Associate Director of The Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Low Vision and Blindness he spends his days designing and developing new tools and techniques for improving information accessibility. As a community leader and founder of the Blind Arduino Project, LightHouse Labs, and the Description Leadership Network, Dr. Miele is a teacher and bridge builder, with  an approach to accessibility that integrates community, communication, and self-empowerment with user-centered and universal design principles. His career spans decades, including contributions to screen readers; auditory and tactile displays; tactile maps, models, and graphics; mobile wayfinding; braille input; video description; hobby robotics; and more. Dr. Miele was born in Brooklyn and lives in Berkeley with his wife and two children. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where he received his BA in physics and his Ph.D. in psychoacoustics.