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
COLTT 2018
Howard Kramer
University of Colorado-Boulder
hkramer@colorado.edu, 303-492-8672

2. Presentation posted at
slideshare
http://slideshare.net/hkramer99/
UD-in-Curriculum-AHEAD- 2018-solo.pptx

3. 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

4. Agenda
• New arguments for teaching about UD and
accessibility
• Research that explains the dearth 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

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

7. Bremerton Beyond Accessible Playground

8. Social Model of Disability

9. WhyTeach about
Accessibility & Inclusive Design?
(the usual arguments)
Social Case
Reaching diverse audiences
Legal
Accessibility benefits
everyone

10. Quotes – Social Case
“The power of theWeb is in
its universality.Access by
everyone regardless of
disability is an essential
aspect.” – Tim Berners-Lee
“We need to make every
single thing accessible to
every single person with a
disability.” – StevieWonder
“The one argument for accessibility that doesn’t
get made nearly often enough is how
extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives.
How many opportunities do we have to
dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing
our job a little better?” – Steve Krug (2005)

11. Lawsuits / Settlements

12. Disability Demographics / Changing
Markets
• Demographics
• 1 in 5 people in the U.S. have a disability
• 1 in 10 have a severe disability
• 2003 – 36 million aged 65+ in U.S. (about 12% of pop.)
• 50% have disability
• 2030 – 70 million 65+ (20% of pop.)
• 1 Billion people in the world have a disability
• Globalization | Emerging Markets
• Tourism | immigration | globalization
• More non-English speakers or non-readers

13. Accessibility Benefits Everyone
“Situational Disability”
Captioning in
noisy room
Stroller at curb
cut
Driving

14. Devices created for “special need”
Text to Speech

15. 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

16. Teach Access
•Originated atYahoo!
• Collaboration between tech companies,
faculty and accessibility specialists
•Goal
• Increase accessibility knowledge and skills
among tech and design professionals
Other Resources / Projects

17. Teach Access - Industry Supporters

18. Academic Contributors

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

20. Where’s the Gap?

21. 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

22. 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

23. Audiences & Issues
Disability & Issues Adaptation or AssistiveTechnology
Blindness orVisual Impairment
Visual information, non-semantic
text (on Web), orientation, poor
contrast, small font
Screenreader technology, high contrast,
semantic web pages, adjustable font,
high contrast, keyboard friendly
Deafness or Hearing Loss
Speech, sounds & multimedia, low
volume, noisy environment
Captioned videos, Real-time captioning,
transcripts (for audio-only multimedia),
sign-language interpreters
Mobility & physical disabilities
Inability to use a mouse, or a
keyboard, walking, lack of hand
dexterity
Large targeting areas (i.e. links and
controls on a web page), keyboard
friendly, voice recognition, word
completion, head and eye-tracking
devices
Cognitive
Poor understanding meaning of site
elements, finding information on a
web page
Easier to understand language, article
summaries, avoid over cluttered web
pages, high contrast, semantic web
pages

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

25. 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

26. 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

27. Screen Reader + Browsers
Recommended Combinations
• Internet Explorer + JAWS
• Google Chrome + JAWS
• Firefox + NVDA
• Safari (Mac OS X and iOS) +Voice Over
• AndroidTalkBack and Google Chrome (Can also
be used with Firefox)
http://www.maxability.co.in/2017/02/screen-reader-and-
browser-combination-for-accessibility/

28. Accessibility onYour Phone
• iPhone
• Android

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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.

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

33. 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

34. 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

36. Teach Access – Initiatives & Resources
• 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

37. Teach Access – Initiatives & Resources
• Core Concepts
• Conduct faculty training
• Provide guest speakers from tech companies for
the classroom
• Develop training tutorials on accessibility
Other Resources / Projects

38. W3C WAI Resources
•Before and After Demonstration (BAD)
•Web AccessibilityTutorials
•Developing Presentations andTraining
•Future Resources
Other Resources / Projects

39. ACM, etc.
•ACM InformationTechnology Curricula -
IT2017 (local copy)
•Article on Teaching About Universal Design and
Accessibility in Higher Education
Other Resources / Projects

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

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

42. 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 12 – 18, 2018
•Westin Hotel - between Boulder & Denver
•http://accessinghigherground.org

43. Session Evaluation