DO-IT News April 2015: All Articles

By Doug Hayman, DO-IT Staff

There has been a rapid increase in the use of video in instructional materials used for higher education. Many institutions are using lecture capture software to record not only the instructor’s audio/video feeds but also the desktop screencast of PowerPoint slides and other material.

The University of Washington (UW) promotes creating accessible videos with its new resource, a video titled Captions: Improving Access to Postsecondary Education. Students, educators, and technology specialists in this video discuss the importance and benefits of captions for videos used in courses.

The UW began using Panopto lecture capture software in conjunction with the Canvas learning management system in the winter quarter of this year. If these videos don’t include captions, students who are deaf or hard of hearing are at a disadvantage. Usually, when a student requests an accommodation for captioning, all of the lecture capture content for that class is sent out to the UW’s captioning vendor for prompt turn-around so that all students have access to the captioned videos. Additionally, if the instructor creates his/her own videos with another online service, such as YouTube, then those too are captioned for deaf students, either by the instructor or sent out to an outside caption agency. Making captions a universal necessity for all videos would streamline these processes.

Who else would benefit by the use of captions? Not only do they benefit those with hearing impairments, but many others find them useful as well. English language learners often learn better when they can both see and hear the words—captions can reinforce their learning of both the language and the class material. Captions are also useful for anyone wanting to search through videos for keywords and quickly get to pertinent topics, or for people watching the video in a loud (can’t hear the video) or quiet (can’t use the audio) environment.

For more information, to watch Captions: Improving Access to Postsecondary Education, and to see more resources for creating accessible videos, visit www.uw.edu/accessibility/videos.

By Brianna Blaser, DO-IT Staff

DO-IT collaborator and AccessComputing Principal Investigator (PI) Richard Ladner has recently received two awards related to his work broadening the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. This January at the National Science Foundation’s STEM-CP: Computing Education for the 21st Century PI Meeting, Richard received the Broadening Participation Community Award “in recognition of excellence and leadership in increasing access to computing for students with disabilities.” At the meeting, Richard delivered a keynote address titled “Accessibility Is Not Enough.”

This February, at the Tapia Celebration of Computing, Richard received the Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science, and Diversifying Computing.  He was honored “for his incredible commitment and contributions to the disability community in computing.”

We’re lucky to have Richard as a partner in DO-IT’s efforts and look forward to continuing to work with him. Find more information about Richard’s efforts at www.geekwire.com/2014/disability-technology/.

By Lauren Gaber, AccessComputing Team Member

I received a scholarship from AccessComputing to attend the 2015 ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing in Boston, Massachusetts that took place on February 18 – 21. This year’s conference theme was diversity at scale, which focused on “celebrating efforts to move diversity in all aspects of computing beyond conversation and study into full practice and implementation.”

This was my first big computing conference, and the first time I have flown alone. Though I was nervous at first, I gained confidence in being able to be independent. I was psyched to attend workshops on resumes, graduate school, and networking, and by putting myself out there, I learned to be more comfortable in walking up to strangers and striking up a conversation. Being open to new things and putting my regular fears on hold for a while really let me get the most out of the conference and meet a variety of new people.

Before the opening presentation, I met with students from Grinnell, Virginia Tech, and Purdue, and felt very welcomed. The Fireside Chat went very well, and I had the opportunity to meet with the some of the speakers, including David Martinez and Bill Kindred from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, who recommended a book called “Smart Machines,” by John Kelly.

I spent a lot of time at the career fair meeting as many representatives as possible to learn about my different options for school and careers. There were local schools as well as big name recruiters like IBM and Google. I gained a ton of fantastic resources and learned about a lot of opportunities, including scholarships to graduate school. I even got an interview for an intern position in a national lab!

There were also some really great talks, panels, and speeches. My two favorite plenary speakers were Chad Jenkins, who gave a talk on robotics titled “Robotics to Reach Out and Change the World,” and Shaun Kane, who gave a talk on accessibility technology entitled “Superhuman Computing: Designing Custom Software and Hardware Interfaces to Support Our Natural Abilities.” My favorite panels were the “When Working for Diversity in CS Becomes Your Day Job” and “Disability: Celebrating a Face of Diversity.” The first panel shared interesting stories about working for inclusion, and I learned some very effective techniques Harvey Mudd College implemented to get more women and girls involved in computing careers.

The disability session was the best opportunity I’d had thus far to make myself aware of the other people from AccessComputing. One thing we discussed was the term “disabled,” and the negative connotations behind it; this made me think a lot about how I identify myself—something I’m still figuring out. The session seemed short, but I was glad to meet and talk with so many great people. I really think representation matters, and the experience instilled in me a real pride and sense of belonging in the professional computing community.

Overall, this conference was very inspiring and informative. I learned about fields in computing that I wasn’t aware of before or just didn’t have comprehensive access to at my own institution, such as library science, human-computer interaction, security, ethics and privacy, cloud computing, and machine learning. The experience also made me set a list of future goals, including staying in contact with my network; investigating the University of Michigan Ann Arbor’s 3D printing lab; and getting more professionals with disabilities involved in advocacy and networking.

By Brianna Blaser, DO-IT Staff

DO-IT hosted an accessible IT capacity building institution (CBI) on February 4 – 6, 2015 in Seattle, WA. Over 50 participants attended, including disability service professionals, individuals with disabilities, and IT professionals from across Washington State.

The CBI provided a forum for sharing interventions and strategies that promote accessibility of IT in colleges and universities. A highlight of the CBI were the two panels on Thursday. The first panel featured IT professionals discussing video accessibility; the second panel featured students with disabilities discussing what types of technology they use. Both panels gave perspective on what steps we should be taking towards reaching accessible technology.

Staff for Accessible Technology Services, which includes the Access Technology and DO-IT Centers, presented on topics related to web accessibility, accessible documents, and working with vendors. Other topics discussed were the accessibility of websites, accessible online learning courses, universal design, and a variety of other issues.

Professionals and students from colleges across Washington State worked in groups throughout the event to answer questions such as “What barriers do you face on your campus relaated to IT accessibility?” and “What strategies can you implement on your campus to encourage accessibility of webpages and media?” Their answers to these questions and more will be published in the proceedings of the event later this month.

Overall, the CBI was a great opportunity to bring together people and create and share ideas on accessible IT in postsecondary education. Individuals who attended left with concrete plans for ways to affect change related to IT accessibility on their own campuses. By hosting this CBI and others similar to it, DO-IT hopes to continue the trend of bringing people together to discuss important disablity-related issues and create change among schools and our community.

AccessSTEM Careers is hosting its second annual Elevator Pitch Contest for college students and job seekers with disabilities! In 90 seconds, participants pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics will pitch their skills and career goals to employers and mentors. They will improve their pitches, enhance their professional network, win prizes, and learn about open career positions.

The Elevator Pitch Contest will take place on April 14th from 2 pm to 4 pm on the University of Washington campus. To find out more information, contact Scott Bellman at swb3@uw.edu.

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) serves to increase the successful participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers, such as those in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. It is part of Accessible Technology Services and UW-IT at the University of Washington. Primary funding for DO-IT is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education.

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