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Design thinking is an approach to educational curriculum that builds empathy, encourages ideation, and fosters active problem solving through hands-on design projects. Embedding participatory “co-design” into design thinking curriculum offers students agency in finding solutions to real-world design challenges, which may support personal empowerment. An opportunity to explore this prospect arose in the design of sounds for an accessible interactive science-education simulation in the PhET Project. Over the course of three weeks, PhET researchers engaged blind and visually-impaired high-school students in a design thinking curriculum that included the co-design of sounds and auditory interactions for the Balloons and Static Electricity (BASE) sim. By the end of the curriculum, students had iterated through all aspects of design thinking and performed a quantitative evaluation of multiple sound prototypes. Furthermore, the group’s mean self-efficacy rating had increased. We reflect on our curriculum and the choices we made that helped enable the students to become authentic partners in sound design. 

Teaching students with learning disabilities about design thinking can prepare them to be active co-designers of learning tools and resources that will ultimately benefit them and their peers. In this paper, we outline an introductory design thinking activity conducted with students with learning disabilities and share two specific and contrasting student interactions that occurred during the activity. The two interactions highlight how being able to engage in open, respectful, and constructive idea sharing can lead to a more sophisticated and evolved design prototype. Student collaboration observed also provides insight into improved ways to scaffold learners in introductions to design thinking. We share lessons learned and ideas for how to modify this activity to better support a positive introduction to design thinking experience.