Our Values

We are committed to creating inclusive technology that is transparent and ethical. In the CRTL+F Lab we prioritize the safety and wellbeing of the children, families, and all stakeholders we work with.

People over research

While research and discovering new knowledge is important, it is never above the wellbeing, health, and relationships of our participants and volunteers. From prioritizing snack time with kids, to talking about their days, their lives, current events, we do not burnout our participants and lab members.

Nurturing a safe and inclusive environment

All of our participants and lab members have the right to protection from harassment and abuse. To promote this, we follow guidelines from the University of Washington's Institutional Review Board. Our lab is also registered with the Office for Youth Programs Development and Support. We support transparency and calling out abuse and bad behavior. We support anti-racist principles in our group.

Upholding the right to participate or not

We believe participants and lab members have a right to participate or not in our studies. For instance, we allow children to step away when they want to. All participation in our lab is voluntary.

Creating equitable and equal opportunities

We honor differences in perspectives, experiences, expression, and opinions. Our group strives to provide the same opportunities for children, families, and lab members. We also believe in providing resources and extra means to support marginalized groups and students to overcome challenges in participating in our lab.

Preparing people for active and responsible citizenship

Our lab is responsible for supporting democracy and participation through design, even for children. We believe that engagement in participatory design and design justice principles can help us take responsibility for issues in the world.

Having fun!

Research isn't just about work. We need to find time to have fun. This means enjoying our time together as lab members, playing games with children, and nurturing fun ways to conduct research in our lab.

Ensuring opportunities for everyone to speak their mind and be heard

In our lab and our research, we provide spaces for everyone to speak their mind. People are fine to respectfully disagree with each other. Children have the right to disagree with adults. We ask children to speak their minds and give many opportunities to listen.

Maintaining privacy and confidentiality

We often work with children as a vulnerable population and marginalized communities. Our research lab takes privacy and confidentiality seriously. We also do our best to make sure our participants and lab members all know how research is conducted and where our data is stored. Data in our study is stored in encrypted drives and UW servers that are HIPPA and FERPA compliant.

The right to health, well-being, emotional, and spiritual development

We believe that all participants and lab members need the best access to their self-care. For instance, if anyone is sick, we ask them to rest and heal up before coming to our lab. If members and participants need to take time off for religious purposes, medical, mental wellness, or anything else, we encourage this.

Ensuring transparency

Our belief is that transparency in our lab leads to better understanding of what we do. To promote transparency, we document and publicly show our fiscal transactions (see Research Funding Experience). We are also happy to answer any questions about our lab. We will also never accept any anonymous donations to our lab.