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Studies indicate that much of the software created today is not accessible to all users, indicating that developers don’t see the need to devote sufficient resources to creating accessible software. Compounding this problem, there is a lack of robust, easily adoptable educational accessibility material available to instructors for inclusion in their curricula. To address these issues, we have created five Accessibility Learning Labs (ALL) using an experiential learning structure. The labs are designed to educate and create awareness of accessibility needs in computing. The labs enable easy classroom integration by providing instructors with complete educational materials including lecture slides, activities, and quizzes. The labs are hosted on our servers and require only a browser to be utilized. To demonstrate the benefit of our material and the potential benefits of our experiential lab format with empathy-creating material, we conducted a study involving 276 students in ten sections of an introductory computing course. Our findings include: (I) The demonstrated potential of the proposed experiential learning format and labs are effective in motivating and educating students about the importance of accessibility (II) The labs are effective in informing students about foundational accessibility topics (III) Empathy-creating material is demonstrated to be a beneficial component in computing accessibility education, supporting students in placing a higher value on the importance of creating accessible software. Created labs and project materials are publicly available on the project website: http://all.rit.edu
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Experiential Learning in Computing Accessibility Education
Many developers don’t understand how to, or recognize the need to develop accessible software. To address this, we have created five educational Accessibility Learning Labs (ALL) using an experiential learning structure. Each of these labs addresses a foundational concept in computing accessibility and both inform participants about foundational concepts in creating accessible software while also demonstrating the necessity of creating accessible software. The hosted labs provide a complete educational experience, containing materials such as lecture slides, activities, and quizzes. We evaluated the labs in ten sections of a CS2 course at our university, with 276 students participating. Our primary findings include: I) The labs are an effective way to inform participants about foundational topics in creating accessible software II) The labs demonstrate the potential benefits of our proposed experiential learning format in motivating participants about the importance of creating accessible software III) The labs demonstrate that empathy material increases learning retention. Created labs and project materials are publicly available on the project website: http://all.rit.edu
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- Award ID(s):
- 1825023
- PAR ID:
- 10359010
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering
- ISSN:
- 1819-3781
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This tutorial will introduce our Accessibility Learning Labs (ALL). The objectives of this collaborative project with The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) are to both inform participants about foundational topics in accessibility and to demonstrate the importance of creating accessible software. The labs enable easy classroom inclusion by providing instructors all necessary materials including lecture and activity slides and videos. Each lab addresses an accessibility issue and contains: I) Relevant background information on the examined issue II) An example web-based application containing the accessibility problem III) A process to emulate this accessibility problem IV) Details about how to repair the problem from a technical perspective V) Incidents from people who encountered this accessibility issue and how it has impacted their life. The labs may be easily integrated into a wide variety of curriculum at high schools (9-12), and in undergraduate and graduate courses. The labs will be easily adoptable due to their selfcontained nature and their inclusion of all necessary instructional material (e.g., slides, quizzes, etc.). No special software is required to use any portion of the labs since they are web-based and are able to run on any computer with a reasonably recent web browser. There are currently four available labs on the topics of: Colorblindness, Hearing, Blindness and Dexterity. Material is available on our website: http://all.rit.edu This tutorial will provide an overview of the created labs and usage instructions and information for adaptors.more » « less
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Mature and robust software applications should demonstrate several crucial qualities; namely, they should supply the functionality expected by the stakeholder(s), perform efficiently, be secure, and be accessible. However, despite government legislation and growing demonstrated need, accessibility is not a priority for a compelling amount of software applications being developed currently. The primary objective of our Accessible Learning Labs is to not only educate participants on how to properly create accessible software, but also effectively illustrate the need to create accessible software. Our experiential labs enable practitioners, instructors, and students to engage with the material using only a browser. This tutorial will benefit a wide spectrum of participants in the software engineering community, ranging from beginning-level students to experienced practitioners who want to ensure that they are properly creating inclusive and accessible software. Complete project material is publicly available on the project website: https://all.rit.edumore » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3377812.3390901
