Author: 
Maya Cakmak, AccessComputing PI

A screenshot of Jen Mankoff's Blog.AccessComputing partner Jennifer Mankoff (Richard E. Ladner Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering) has been a long-time accessibility researcher and an advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities in research communities. Her passion for accessibility and inclusion extends to her teaching as well. Mankoff is one of the authors of the foundational Teaching Inclusively chapter of the new book Teaching Accessible Computing. Last fall, she taught the first undergraduate-level accessibility course that centers disabled voices at the Allen School. Mankoff placed accessibility of the course itself on equal footing with the goal of educating students about accessibility. The course adopts many evidence-based inclusive teaching practices, such as competency-based grading and flexible due dates with regrades, while experimenting with new methods, such as “discuss-summarize-post,”  which extends commonly used active learning techniques (“think-pair-share”) to asynchronous learners. It also incorporates disability justice topics into the curriculum while taking a service learning approach to practicing accessibility-related skills. You can read more about her reflection on the course, with quotes from participating students, on the Make4All Lab's blog.