This course focuses on introducing students to what accessibility is, why it is important, and how to apply accessible design to technology and engineering projects. The course will use disability as a lens to examine the ways in which technology (e.g., assistive, medical, consumer) can both enhance and diminish access to economic, social, and informational resources. Students will examine the history of such technologies and analyze modern trends. Building from this perspective, students will learn about design processes and implementation strategies for maximizing the accessibility of the technologies they build.

During the course, student teams will work to design a technology (broadly defined) to enhance accessibility (along some dimension) for a user group with some form of disability. Students will learn and employ user-centered approaches throughout the course. Potential project areas include (but are not limited to) educational technologies, navigational aids, technologies to enhance participation in recreational activities, and software to enhance web and mobile accessibility.