Discussion Notes

After the talks, we had ample time for attendees to gather into groups focused on specific courses (intro, web development, capstone, and software engineering) to brainstorm about the various challenges in integrating accessibility into these subjects. Here are some of the many interesting insights from their notes:

• Many faculty members were interested in bringing discussions of disability and the law into introductory settings as a way to engage students.
• There was a strong belief that accessibility topics should be integrated throughout the curriculum.
• There was concern about accessible design as a constraint to building more flashy things like visualizations, animations, and other visual elements, because those flashy things are often not accessible.
• There was a lot of fear of not having enough expertise with accessibility and disability; faculty didn’t want to not have the answers to questions students might have.
• Many participants noted that teaching of accessibility early in a course increased student motivation throughout their course.
• Some faculty noted that in software engineering and HCI courses, it can be very difficult to find people with disabilities to help students experience the importance of testing.