AccessComputing News - January 2013: All Articles

AccessComputing has funded over 140 internships for students with disabilities to work on research as well as lab, technical support, and other computing projects. Through these experiences, students have learned how to request reasonable accommodations, communicate with supervisors and co-workers, collaborate with others, and manage priorities. As one student shared, "despite being visually impaired, I can continue to work toward a degree in software engineering. My confidence level has increased along with my determination."

Research projects include:

• developing a methodology to measure network performance for mobile devices
• creating a bioinformatics project to implement replica-exchange molecular dynamics
• developing an accessible viewing device for deaf and hard-of-hearing students to use in the classroom

Paid interns include:

• a motion capture intern who worked at a museum focusing on science, technology, and art
• a web development intern who created an online learning tool
• an accessible technology (AT) intern who provided information on AT to clients

AccessComputing has limited funds to support internships for members of the AccessComputing Student Team. Team Members also participate in mentoring and receive support from AccessComputing staff. Visit www.uw.edu/accesscomputing/team_app.html for more information and an application.

What might be the first response of a professor when a student who is deaf enrolls in her computing class? Would she look forward to the unique perspective this student brings to the class, or only be concerned about what accommodations might be necessary? An important step to creating a classroom environment that is welcoming to all students is to value diversity in all of its many forms—to see, in this case, differences in hearing abilities as a normal, interesting part of the human experience.

Originally applied to the development of physical spaces, technology, and consumer products, universal design (UD) has more recently emerged as a paradigm for the development of instruction, curriculum, and assessment that are welcoming and accessible to students with a wide range of characteristics, including those related to gender, age, race, ethnicity, native language, and disability. The UD philosophy encourages instructors to apply a mix of teaching and assessment strategies. This proactive approach potentially reduces the need for disability-related accommodations and benefits many students, including those with undisclosed disabilities and those for whom English is a second language.

UD can contribute to research and practice in many ways, that include the following:

1. 1. Broadening the View of Diversity - From considering only issues facing women and minorities to include those that impact students with disabilities as well.
   2. Identifying and Enhancing Existing UD Practices - In teaching strategies that hold promise for making computing instruction more inclusive.
   3. Considering UD Issues in Learning Theories - Such as "how might the presence of Asperger's syndrome impact the way a student constructs knowledge?"
   4. Including UD as a Computing Curriculum Topic - For example, instructors could teach web accessibility.
   5. Measuring the Impact of UD on the Computing Learning Environment - By looking at how the communication choices of instructors can increase the participation of underrepresented groups.

For more information on this topic, consult my recent article in ACM Transactions on Computing Education, Vol. 11, No. 3, Article 19, October 2011. In it, I share specific strategies that apply UD to course syllabi, web resources, teaching methods, presentation materials, labs, and assessment instruments.

The Workshop for Emerging Deaf and Hard of Hearing Scientists was held at Gallaudet University on May 17-18, 2012, with support from AccessComputing. The workshop brought together 97 participants, including high school, college, and graduate students as well as K-12 educators, sign language interpreters, university professors, and government staff involved in STEM fields.

Featured speakers included Dr. Harry Lang from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, Dr. Becky Wai-Ling Packard of Mt. Holyyoke College, and Dr. Linda Campbell from St. Mary's University. Panels and breakout sessions provided an opportunity for in-depth discussion on the mentoring relationship between STEM students and faculty, resources for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in specific disciplines, and research experiences for undergraduates (REUs). Results of the event will be available on the AccessComputing website in 2013.

Summer 2012 brought a new learning opportunity for DHH students. For the first time, thanks to a subcontract from AccessComputing, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) hosted a special two-week computing summer camp for DHH students called DRobotZ. The camp offered students a host of opportunities—including working with robots—all in the interest of persuading qualified DHH students to pick a path through high school that would lead them to a computing major in college.

DRobotZ's goal is to encourage early high school students who are DHH and have an interest in and aptitude for computing and STEM. Participants meet deaf professionals, researchers, and college students. Students can learn about programs and careers in computing, and they can use science, mathematics, programming, and teamwork to solve problems. The camp was designed and managed by Mark Wambach. Karen Beiter served as the instructor.

The nine students who participated were very busy during their two-week stay. By day three, they were working with their robots, and by the end of the first week, students were having their robots carry out simple instructions and applying mathematics to their movements, controlling turns, measuring distances, calculating speed and acceleration, and testing friction.

Since camp ended, participants continue to stay involved; some have started a Facebook group, others have talked about taking honors classes, and one individual has pursued robotics projects independently using online materials provided by DRobotZ's director. For more on DRobotZ, see www.ntid.rit.edu/camps/drobotz.

My name is Vincent. I have been using computers and computing systems to solve accessibility problems for more than twenty years. I'm currently working towards my master's degree in human-computer interaction (HCI) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. After I graduate, I plan to attend a Ph.D. program in human-centered computing. HCI is a unique area in the computing field that studies the human perspective in the design and use of computing systems.

What I've enjoyed about graduate school is that I have the autonomy to study almost anything I want. Getting to know the other people that are in graduate school is what makes going to class and the lab every day a truly enjoyable experience.

I am blind, with only light perception. I have a genetic eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa that started to affect me in my early teens. At school, I have to help my professors remember that I cannot see any board that they are writing on. Getting them to routinely vocalize what they write is the most difficult task in any class. I stay ahead in all my classes to help me better understand the lectures. I read ahead and then visit with professors before they cover a topic. There are several classes in object-oriented programming languages that just are not accessible with screen reading programs. There are also several programming environments that have a lot of trouble working with screen readers.

To be successful, I utilize an enormous amount of assistive technology. I have an HIMS Braille Sense notetaker and a BrailleConnect Braille display, and I use the Freedom Scientific's OpenBook Reading System for scanning documents. I have five different screen reading programs: JAWS for Windows, Window-Eyes, HAL, Non-Visual Desktop, and System Access. I also have an Apple Mac-mini, iPad, and iPhone that all use the VoiceOver screen reading system.

Computing systems have allowed me to have a career and to solve a myriad of problems—most importantly allowing me to access information and increase my ability to communicate. I have also gained the skills to give people with visual impairments the tools that they need to navigate the visual world by applying technical and computing technology in the right manner.

Thirteen students attended the 2012 Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing; 64 students have completed the Summer Academy during since its inception in 2007. The Summer Academy is an academically challenging program designed for students who are deaf and hard of hearing with skills in math and/or science who may be considering computing as a career. Students obtain college credits for attending a programming course and visiting tech companies in the Seattle area, including Adobe, Isilon, Google, Microsoft and Valve. They also learn about current research in computing and meet role models who are deaf and hard of hearing, who talk about their jobs as academic settings such as Rochester Institute of Technology. Students learn about careers and graduate study in computing.

Graduates of the Summer Academy have gone on to intern at companies like Cisco Systems, IBM, Microsoft and NASA; and some of the earlier graduates who have completed college are now working at Aurora Health Care and Microsoft. For more information on the Summer Academy, see www.uw.edu/accesscomputing/dhh/academy.

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Consult Q&As, case studies, and promising practices regarding universal design of instruction; strategies for making computing curricula, classes, labs, and careers accessible; and accessible technology for people with disabilities.

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