Hanson's interest in supporting disabled populations began at the University of Colorado where she focused on communication disorders, majoring in psychology along with speech pathology and audiology.

These threads converged during her postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Studies at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, and later at Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut, where she conducted research on American Sign Language[7] (ASL) and the acquisition of reading by deaf children and adults.

Her first application, HandsOn[13][14] demonstrated how computer technology could provide a bilingual educational experience for deaf children.

In 2006 it brought IBM recognition as the Goodwill Partner of the Year, and in 2008 it received Lighthouse International’s Corporate Visionary award.

[16] In 2009 Hanson joined the School of Computing at the University of Dundee in Scotland as Professor and Chair of Accessible Technology.

[17] The success of this effort motivated a broadening of the work in the BESiDE project, targeting both technology and architectural design aspects of the Built Environment of older adult care homes.

[18] In 2011, Hanson accepted an appointment at the Rochester Institute of Technology as a Distinguished Professor where she built a team to continue research in support of the disabled and older adults.