Professor Mark Hasegawa Johnson of The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics (KCGI) has been named to the Forbes Accessibility 100, a list of top innovators and influencers in the field of accessibility for people with disabilities, first published in 2025 by Forbes, the world's leading economic magazine The Speech Accessibility Project, led by Professor Johnson at the University of Illinois, where he is a professor in the United States, has been highly evaluated and recognized.
This project is funded and promoted by a company with the aim of making speech recognition technology more useful for people with speech impediments We have recorded the voices of people suffering from Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, stroke, etc., and have contributed to the improvement of speech recognition technology Professor Johnson told the University of Illinois News, "This recognition is truly an honor and shows that our research is making a difference in society."
The "Forbes Accessibility 100" list includes the world's top 100 individuals who have made an impact in accessibility-related fields such as "Mobility," "Education," "Robotics," "Sports and Recreation," and "Travel," in addition to Professor Johnson's area of influence, "Communication." The disabilities covered include physical, sensory, and neurodevelopmental disabilities, while the areas of accessibility range from technology and websites to access to public transportation and buildings.
Forbes is an economic and business magazine founded in the United States and published worldwide, with a Japanese edition called Forbes Japan. It is also well known for its various annual lists and rankings, such as the "World's Billionaires" and the "World's 100 Most Powerful Women."
Professor Mark Hasegawa-Johnson completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before assuming his current positions as Professor at the University of Illinois and at KCGI, he served as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an engineer at Fujitsu Laboratories, and a technical intern at Motorola Corporate Research. At KCGI, he teaches courses such as "Speech Understanding".