🔊 Announcements
[10/1] Registration for our workshop is open! Please register by following this link (you are not required to register for the conference -- only the workshop!).
[9/11] Dr. Richard E. Ladner will be the keynote speaker of our workshop!
The workshop on "Teaching Accessibility in Different Disciplines," co-located with ASSETS 2024, will bring together accessibility researchers and education practitioners to explore the topics, approaches, resources, and challenges involved in teaching accessibility across different disciplines. While accessibility education has been extensively explored in computer science, its integration into other disciplines is under-investigated.Â
The workshop has two main objectives:Â
(1) providing a forum for researchers and education practitioners from different disciplines to exchange ideas about accessibility education;Â
(2) outlining a research and pedagogical agenda for teaching accessibility, emphasizing topics, approaches, resources, and challenges.Â
The tangible outcome of the workshop is a report summarizing workshop discussions and inviting contributions from participants. The report will appear as a collection of resources for teaching accessibility across disciplines and be submitted to the SIGACCESS Newsletter, Information Matters, or, more formally, to a relevant conference such as ASSETS or SIGCSE. The ongoing dialogues regarding accessibility education in communities like SIGCSE and other disciplines will benefit from our community’s input.
The workshop structure is designed for a five-hour virtual session on Zoom, featuring a keynote address, individual presentations, and a group activity leveraging online collaborative tools such as Miro or Jamboard. The schedule is adaptable to participant preferences and access needs.
Tentative Schedule (US-central time):
9:00-9:20 Workshop introduction and agendaÂ
9:20-10:20 Keynote address "Teaching Accessibility Everywhere" by Richard Ladner
10:20-10:30 BreakÂ
10:30-11:30 Individual presentations (7-min presentation + 3-min QA) + group discussions
11:30-11:40 BreakÂ
11:40-12:40 Individual presentations (7-min presentation + 3-min QA) + group discussions
12:40-12:50 BreakÂ
12:50-13:50 Group activityÂ
13:50-14:00 Wrap up
Access granted: Unlocking accessibility in computer science through collaboration
Charity Pitcher-Cooper (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, USA), Shasta Ihorn (San Francisco State University, USA), and Ilmi Yoon (San Francisco State University, USA)
Accessibility and Robotics EducationÂ
Mavis Murdock (Tufts University, USA) and Elaine Schaertl Short (Tufts University, USA)
Accessible UX: Accessibility-Focused Projects to Teach User Experience and User Interface Design
Jenny Kowalski (Lehigh University, USA)
Bridging the Accessibility Gap in Indian Computing Education
P D Parthasarathy (BITS Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus, India) and Swaroop Joshi (BITS Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus, India)
Digital Accessibility Literacy: A Conceptual Framework for Training on Digital Accessibility
Björn Fisseler (FernUniversitat in Hagen, Germany)
From Classroom to Career: The Lasting Impact of Teaching Accessibility to HCI Students
Sylwia Frankowska-Takhari (City St George's, University of London, UK)
Zeynep Yıldız (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)
Rethinking Computer Science Education: Making It Accessible for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
Christopher Perdriau (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Young HCI: Promoting Disability and Accessibility Awareness Among Young People
Maryam Bandukda (University College London, UK) and Catherine Holloway (University College London, UK)
Accessibility researchers and education practitioners are invited to share their research and teaching experience of accessibility education in different disciplines. We are open to proposals on teaching accessibility in any discipline, such as computer science or related fields, health, education, design, or other areas. The proposals can be in the form of:Â
(1) an abstract (300-500 words);Â
(2) a curriculum design example or teaching experience regarding accessibility in a specific discipline featuring topics, approaches, resources, and challenges; orÂ
(3) a short research, opinion, or position paper (single column, up to 4 pages excluding references).
Submissions should be made using the ACM template; Overleaf provides an appropriate template that may be used. All proposals must be submitted in PDF format to zz78@illinois.edu with [ASSETS] in the subject line. Please refer to the General Writing Guidelines for Technology and People with Disabilities when preparing your proposal submissions.
The proposals will be peer-reviewed by two organizers based on their relevance to the workshop. At least one author of each accepted proposal must attend the workshop, and all participants (no matter if they are an author) must register for the workshop. The accepted proposal will be published on the workshop website.Â
Submissions are due Monday, September 30, 2024 (11:59 pm AOE). Notification will be sent out by October 9. The virtual workshop will take place on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm (CST) via Zoom.
Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are broadly in tech accessibility, tech ethics, and tech education. He aspires to design, govern, and teach about ICT/AI experience for vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities. He has taught accessibility to undergraduate students in information sciences and high school students.
Rachel F. Adler is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign. Her research focuses on accessibility, human-computer interaction, and computing education. She designs applications for and with people with disabilities. She also conducts research on accessibility education and integrating accessibility into computing classrooms at both university and K-12 levels. She has taught accessibility to computer science and information science students, as well as to K-12 teachers.Â
Caterina Almendral is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Education Program at LaGuardia Community College. Her research focuses on accessibility in technology for first year pre-service teachers. Her background is in educational psychology and her interests and teaching include incorporating universal design and accessibility in education. She has designed curriculum and developed learning experiences that enable pre-service teachers to consider and address barriers to high quality education.
Soyoung Choi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the development of accessible mobile health technologies designed to enhance the quality of life and well-being of individuals with visual disabilities. She leads the Accessible Healthcare Lab, where she conducts interdisciplinary research in health technology. Additionally, she teaches courses on disability and accessibility within the health sciences curriculum to both undergraduate and graduate students. Her educational efforts aim to equip future healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver accessible healthcare services and to effectively contribute to the advancement of inclusive public health systems.Â
Devorah Kletenik is an Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science in Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Her research interests include accessibility and computing education and especially the intersection between the two – education about accessibility within computing programs. She is particularly interested in finding engaging strategies to make accessibility a meaningful part of computing programs, in K-12 education and throughout the undergraduate curriculum.Â
Bruno Oro is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Iowa State University. His research centers on the intersection of design, accessibility, and user experience, with a particular emphasis on enhancing the usability of assistive technologies for children and other vulnerable populations. His scholarly work involves leading interdisciplinary research initiatives that explore innovative approaches to user-centered design, aiming to improve the efficacy and acceptance of assistive products. Bruno's academic contributions focus on advancing design methodologies that prioritize inclusivity and accessibility, preparing future designers to meet the challenges of creating equitable solutions for diverse user groups.
JooYoung Seo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign. As an information and learning scientist, his research bridges the gap between learnability and usability to enhance accessibility. His research topics broadly cover accessible computing, inclusive data science, and equitable healthcare technologies, with a particular focus on making computational literacy more accessible to people with disabilities through multimodal data representation.
All questions should be emailed to zz78 _ at _ illinois.edu