AccessComputing Off to a Dynamic Start!

The goal of The Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing) is to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. AccessComputing collaborators apply proven practices to increase the number of students with disabilities successfully pursuing education and careers in computing fields; increase the capacity of postsecondary computing departments to fully include students with disabilities in computing courses and programs; and create a nationwide resource to help computing educators and employers, professional organizations, and other stakeholders develop more inclusive programs and share effective practices.

Educators, employers, and other stakeholders can become involved in project activities by joining an AccessComputing Community of Practice (CoP) to share perspectives and expertise and identify practices that promote the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. Our current CoPs include the following:

• The Computing Faculty, Administrator, and Employer CoP engages computing faculty and administrators as well as representatives from industry and professional organizations to increase their knowledge about disabilities and to promote inclusive practices in computing departments.
• The Broadening Participation CoP is populated with Alliance collaborators who administer alliances and projects that serve to broaden participation in computing fields.
• The Disability Services CoP is comprised of disability service professionals from community/technical colleges, 4-year colleges, and universities nationwide, together with their networks of postsecondary and K-12 schools and parent groups.
• The Deaf and Hard of Hearing CoP engages professionals in the field to promote computing fields to students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

High school, college, and graduate students with disabilities who would like to engage in stimulating conversations with each other and with mentors and learn about internship and other opportunities in computing fields can join the AccessComputing Team.

More information about the AccessComputing Team and the AccessComputing CoPs can be found at www.washington.edu/accesscomputing. Direct questions to accesscomp@u.washington.edu.

AccessComputing is led by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and DO-IT at the University of Washington. It is funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program of the Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) (grant #CNS 0540615).