Julio Abascal, BSc in Physics (U. de Navarra 1978), PhD in Informatics (UPV/EHU 1987), is a Professor at the UPV/EHU (Spain). He founded and leads the Egokituz: Laboratory of Human-Computer Interaction for Special Needs (1985-).

His research is focussed on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) methods for Assistive Technology, Digital Accessibility, and Assistive Robotics. He also studies methods and tools to enhance sensory, physical and cognitive accessibility to the Web.

He is the Vice-Chair for Development and Equity of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) TC13 Committee on HCI. He is the founder chairperson (1993) of the IFIP WG13.3 “HCI and Disability”. He served as an expert, advisor, reviewer and evaluator for diverse EU research frameworks (1990-).

He is an ACM (2013) and IEEE (2020) Senior Member. He received the IFIP Silver Core award (1998), the IFIP TC13 Pioneer award (2015), and the IFIP Fellow award (2019). He has received the Jesús Lorés award from AIPO (Asociación de Interacción Persona-Ordenador).