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Increased Focus on Disabilities, Access, and Diversity: Why and How

From the Man on the Moon…. Increased Focus on Disabilities, Access, and Diversity: Why and How. Katherine Deibel Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington, Seattle. Why: It’s the Ethical Thing To Do. ACM Code of Ethics, Section 1.4:

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Increased Focus on Disabilities, Access, and Diversity: Why and How

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  1. From the Man on the Moon… Increased Focus on Disabilities, Access, and Diversity: Why and How Katherine Deibel Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington, Seattle SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  2. Why: It’s the Ethical Thing To Do • ACM Code of Ethics, Section 1.4: The values of equality, tolerance, respect for others, and the principles of equal justice govern this imperative. Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin, or other such factors is an explicit violation of ACM policy and will not be tolerated. SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  3. Why: It’s the Law • United States • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (1998) • Americans w/ Disabilities Act (1990, 2008) • Individuals w/ Disabilities Education Act (1990, 2004) • Great Britain • Disability Discrimination Act (1995) • Special Education Needs & Disability Act (2001) • Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms (1982) • Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act (1992) SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  4. The Why More specifically… SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  5. Why: Miracle of Computers • Computers have been one of the greatest catalysts for disability rights and community • Improving education access • Opening employment opportunities • Ending social isolation • Information sharing • Treatments, equipment, etc. • Disability law • Support and mentoring SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  6. Why: Better Access Benefits All • Specialized technology spreads into general use and application • Easier to design for access first than to change it later • Examples • Curb cuts and wheelchair ramps • Telephones • Originally intended as a • TDD/TTY and AT&T monopoly • Speech recognition / Text-to-speech SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  7. Why: Digital Divide Has Changed • USA: 20% of people report having a disability or chronic condition • 51% of disabled go online • 74% of not disabled go online • Cause of divide: • Not a lack of technology • Barriers to access and use of technology Ref: Pew Internet Study “E-patients With a Disability or Chronic Disease” SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  8. Why: Changing Age Distribution SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  9. The Why More specifically (CS Education-wise)… SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  10. Why: Recognizing User Diversity • We programmers often design for ourselves • Designing for a user with disabilities: • Requires a shift in focus • Must attend to a user’s need and wants • Negotiation of priorities and tradeoffs • Critical thinking galore SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  11. That’s the why… Here’s the how… SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  12. How: Change Our Population • 2004: 11.3% undergraduates had disabilities 7.2% majoring in CS/IS • Recruit more students with disabilities • Disability more present in day-to-day life Ref: NSF-04-317 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  13. How: Change Our Population • Camps and Workshops: • S. Ludi et al., Developing inclusive outreach activities for students with visual impairments, SIGCSE 2008 • J. Bigham et al., Inspiring blind high school students to pursue computer science with instant messaging chatbots, SIGCSE 2008 • A. Cavender et al., The summer academy for advancing deaf and hard of hearing in computing, SIGCSE 2009 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  14. How: Change Our Population • AccessComputing • Increase presence of people with disabilities in computing and related fields • Funding disability outreach programs and events • Funding internships for students with disabilities • Mentoring and communities of practice • http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/ SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  15. How: Make Pedagogies Inclusive • Inclusive Education: • Provide an equitable educational experience for all students of all abilities • Build supports into regular teaching practice • Raise quality of education for all students SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  16. How: Make Pedagogies Inclusive • Universal Design approaches in CS Ed: • K. Deibel, Studying Our Inclusive Practices: Course Experiences of Students with Disabilities, ITiCSE 2007 • K. Deibel, Course Experiences of Computing Students with Disabilities: Four Case Studies, SIGCSE 2008 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  17. How: Make Pedagogies Inclusive • Universal Design approaches in general: • DO-IT Resources: http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/ • Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principles to Practice (S. Burgstahler & R. Cory, eds.) SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  18. How: Make Pedagogies Inclusive • Disability-specific advice: • Asperger’s SyndromeM.A. Egan, Students with Asperger's syndrome in the CS classroom, SIGCSE 2005 • Visual disabilities:M.E. Califf, M.M. Goodwin, J. Brownell, Helping Him See: Guiding a Visually Impaired Student Through the Computer Science Curriculum, SIGCSE 2008 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  19. How: Service Learning • About incorporating community service into pedagogy and students’ course experiences • Examples: • Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), Purdue University • B. Rosmaita, Making service learning accessible to computer scientists, SIGCSE 2007 • M. Buckley et al., Benefits of using socially-relevant projects in computer science and engineering education, SIGCSE 2004 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  20. How: Service Learning • Opportunities abound for service learning: • University student disability services • Area K-12 programs • Accessibility of local services, museums, etc. • Craigslist polling • Nursing homes • Social services and non-profits • And many more… SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  21. How: Research For Your Needs • More students with disabilities are attending computing courses • Problematic issues in teaching can spawn solutions (and research projects) • Example: • Teaching data structures to a blind student • R.F. Cohen, Teaching graphs to visually impaired students using an active auditory interface, SIGCSE 2006 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  22. How: Last Mile Implementation • All but implemented access technologies: • 95% of research completed • Needs implementing for general use • Examples: • Open-source options for expensive AT software • Quality open source optical character recognition • Implementing document structure analysis • PDF-to-XHTML that produces human-readable source that meets accessibility guidelines SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

  23. Computer science and its educators should focus on disability more over the next 40 years because: Ethical and legal reasons Promoting and continuing social involvement Recognizing human diversity Many established practices, directions, and opportunities for educators to pursue Summary SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

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