Teaching Accessibility and Inclusive Design in Higher Education Curriculum: Benefits, Approaches and Resources

1. Teaching Accessibility and Inclusive Design in
Higher Education Curriculum: Benefits,
Approaches and Resources
CSUN 2019
Howard Kramer
University of Colorado-Boulder
hkramer@colorado.edu, 303-492-8672

2. Presentation posted at
slideshare
http://slideshare.net/hkramer99/
UD-in-Curriculum-4CSUN- 2019.pptx

3. Agenda
• New arguments for teaching about UD and
accessibility
• Research that explains the dearth of teaching about
UD
• Results of survey on the benefits of teaching about
UD
• Examples & tools for including UD content in
curriculum
• Resources for teaching about UD/accessibility
• More about grant project - UDUC
• Q & A

4. My Background & Projects
Howard Kramer
PI for Promoting the Integration of Universal Design
into University Curricula (UDUC), CU-Boulder
Teach Universal Design for Digital Media
Accessing Higher Ground: Accessible Media, Web &
Technology Conference

5. Terminology
Universal Design
vs. Inclusive Design
vs. Design for All
vs. Accessibility
vs. Usability
https://depts.washington.edu/uwitats/checklist/

6. Career Benefits
•In 2015 tech firms such asYahoo,
Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox and
LinkedIn announced that they will develop
standard language that lets applicants
“know that having accessibility knowledge
is preferred” to land a job.
Changing landscape for accessibility skills
in tech and design

7.  WCAG: 299 jobs
 ADA: 1000+
 Accessibility: 1000+
 C++: 1000+
 IT Security: 1000+

8. Where’s the Gap?

9. Why the Gap?
•Post-secondary IT programs update their
curricula every 4 to 5 years
•Curriculum standards boards – late in
adding accessibility as a component
• Association of Computer Machinery’s (ACM) –
added accessibility only in 2017
• ABET – just recently added accessibility

10. Why the Gap?
•Shinohara, Kawas, Ko and Ladner (2017) –
surveyed 1800+ faculty in Information
Technology & Information Science fields
• most critical barriers to teaching accessibility
• clear and discipline-specific accessibility
learning objectives
• the lack of faculty knowledge about
accessibility
• difficulty recruiting persons with disabilities
• difficulty engaging students

11. UDUC Survey
Measuring theValue of Accessibility
and Universal DesignTopics in Course
Curricula Survey

12. Survey Overview
• Target audience: Current students or recently
graduated students (up to 3 years) who have
taken tech, design, computer science or media
design courses
• Distribution: email invite sent to faculty at
colleges around the country to pass along to
programs and schools
• First wave: beginning of the year
• Completed responses: 86

13. Survey Invite
http://bit.ly/uducsurvey

14. 4. Were there topics related to Universal Design
and/or accessibility for persons with disabilities
addressed in a college-level course you completed?

15. 5. Please tell us the reasons why you did not take
any classes that addressed Universal Design or
accessibility topics

16. 6. Would you have been interested in taking
courses with these topics if they were offered?

17. 8. Was the primary focus of the course Universal
Design and/or accessibility or were these topics a
component of a course with a broader scope?

18. 9. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 indicating “no value” and 5
indicating “crucial,” please rate the usefulness of taking a
course with topics that included Universal Design and/or
accessibility.

19. 10. Were there any topics included in the material on Universal
Design or accessibility that you found to be particularly
valuable?

20. Specific Responses

21. Specific Responses Cont’d

22. Specific Responses Cont’d

23. 12. Since taking the class, have you found the material
on Universal Design or accessibility to be valuable for you
in specific ways?

24. Examples – work related

25. Examples – work related

26. Examples – work related

27. Examples – academic related

28. Examples – academic related

29. 17.Which state was this course offered in?

30. Distributing Survey
Survey Invite
http://bit.ly/uducsurvey

31. SurveyTakeaways

32. Resources to Introduce and Convey
Accessibility Issues
• WAI – Accessibility Perspectives
• https://www.w3.org/WAI/perspectives/

33. Resources to Introduce and Convey
Accessibility Issues
• WAI – How people with disabilities use the web
• https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-
web/stories

34. Real examples of individuals using
AssistiveTechnology
•Tommy Edison – the Blind Film Critic
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0nvdiRdehw
•S—t people say to blind people
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uk8pwEHMBE

35. Accessibility onYour Phone
• iPhone
• Android

36. 7. When happy
with your
settings, either
tap Accessibility
in top left of the
screen or press
your device’s
Home to return
to the Home
screen.
iPhone

37. 5 Popular Accessibility Features
1. Magnification
2. Text to speech
3. Negative colors/Color
adjustment/Invert
4. TalkBack/Voice Assistant
5. Interaction Control
Android
Using talkback gestures:
http://www.apps4android.org/?p=4147

38. Books & Curriculum Material
• AWeb for Everyone: Designing
Accessible User Experiences
• Norman, David A.The Design of
EverydayThings (2002).
• InterACT with Web Standards: A
holistic approach to web design,
Anderson, et. al.

39. AWeb For Everyone
Personas
Excerpts
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/a-web-for-everyone/#excerpts

40. Aspects of Course that particularly
effective at promoting UD
• Demographic assignment
• Emphasis on multi-faceted benefits – mobile,
SEO, etc.
• AT User Interview
• Use of screen reader and other evaluation tools
• Opportunity for them to redesign a site of their
choice

41. No BookVersion
 WAI – How people with
disabilities use the web
https://www.w3.org/WAI/i
ntro/people-use-web/
 Universal Design for
Digital Media (eBook)
http://www.uduc.org/res
ources.php

43. Teach Access - Initiatives
• Include accessibility in tech job requirements
• Conduct faculty training
• Provide guest speakers from tech companies for
the classroom
• Develop training tutorials on accessibility
Other Resources / Projects

44. UDUC Resources (Videos)
• Teach Access Faculty Bootcamp at AHG 2017
• https://accessinghigherground.org/teach-access-faculty-
bootcamp-ahg-2017/#videos

45. UDUCTrack at AHG 2018
(Videos & Audio)
• Teaching Accessibility: Case studies of courses that
include accessibility topics in their curricula
• http://bit.ly/casestudies_AHG

46. UDUCTrack at AHG 2018
(Videos & Audio)
• Access videos and audio from any day of the schedule
• https://accessinghigherground.org/schedule-2018/#cs_2018-11-
16

47. Promoting the Integration of UD Content into
University Curriculum (UDUC)
Other Resources / Projects

48. W3C WAI Resources
•Before and After Demonstration (BAD)
•Web AccessibilityTutorials
•Developing Presentations andTraining
•Business Case for Accessibility
Other Resources / Projects

49. W3C WAI Resources
•Business Case for DigitalAccessibility -
https://www.w3.org/WAI/business-
case/#groups
Other Resources / Projects

50. Promoting the Integration of Universal
Design into University Curricula (UDUC)
Opportunities for Collaboration
• Sharing of Resources
• E-text book
• Joining UDUC network/mailing list -
http://uduc.org/faqs.php
• Distributing surveys to students – benefits of
taking classes with Inclusive Design and
accessibility topics

51. Accessing Higher Ground
Conference
Basics of Inclusive Design for Online Education
• https://www.coursera.org/teach/inclusive-design/
Free Coursera MOOC
Accessible Media, Web &Technology
•November 18 – 22, 2019
•Westin Hotel - between Boulder & Denver
•http://accessinghigherground.org
•RFP: due April 19, 2019