SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009 Increased Focus on Disabilities, Access, and Diversity:...

SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

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

HowKatherine Deibel

Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering

University of Washington, Seattle

From the Man on the Moon…

2 SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009

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.


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)


The Why

More specifically…


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


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


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”


Why: Changing Age Distribution


The Why

More specifically (CS Education-wise)…

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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

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That’s the why…

Here’s the how…

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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

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⑉ 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

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⑉ 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/

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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

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⑉ 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

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⑉ 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.)

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⑉ Disability-specific advice:⑉ Asperger’s Syndrome

M.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

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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

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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…

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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

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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

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Summary

⑉ 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

SIGCSE, Chattanooga, TN, USA - March 6, 2009 Increased Focus on Disabilities, Access, and Diversity:...

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