DO-IT News May 2016: All Articles

The 31st Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference coincided with spring break for most of us students who attended. This year, eight students had the grand opportunity of attending the conference with DO-IT, a regular contributor to the CSUN Conference. This conference, hosted in San Diego by California State University, Northridge (CSUN), featured a wide collection of accessible technology products and ideas from regional, national, and international vendors.

During the first two days we attended several pre-conference workshops, where we engaged in a variety of hands-on activities with other conference participants. These workshops ranged from iOS 9 and Apple Watch accessibility to an accessible user design experience studio. During the conference itself we attended a variety of presentations on various topics around disability and technology. Topics included web accessibility guidelines in New Zealand, China, and other countries; inclusive education on a global scale; and accessibility of apps, including those from Google, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, and Apple.

Each of us had the chance to host the DO‑IT booth in the conference’s exhibit hall, an area where participants got to know more about regional, national, and international companies and organizations promoting accessibility, as well as purchase accessibility related products. We shared DO-IT’s purpose, activities, and resources to hundreds of participants, and shared how they can continue to engage with us. We met with representatives from a variety of companies, seeking to improve their employment diversity. It was a pleasure to meet everyone who stopped by our booth at CSUN.

While we learned about the various forms of accessible technology and ideas of accessibility to a diverse audience, our experiences with the CSUN conference reminded us of the importance of ensuring the accessibility of these events. Based on our experiences with attending conference sessions, workshops, and other related events, we realize how challenging it is to make events fully accessible and how important it is to give feedback and advocate for yourself to have your voice heard.

We look forward to witnessing any upcoming breakthroughs in technology, law and policy, and education that further promotes people with disabilities in the future.

DO-IT’s AccessSTEM and AccessComputing projects participated again this year at Engineering Discovery Days, where students and faculty from all UW engineering departments share their work with students, teachers, families and the public. We drew quite a crowd each day with a display of accessible science equipment, examples of alternate keyboards and mice, as well as our most popular feature, the name tag brailing station. Students lined up to braille their names.

Students were also fascinated by the science equipment on display. The talking tape measure, talking scale, and color teller were popular items for the students to play with. They also were intrigued by the magnetic stirring equipment, which they turned up to the fastest speed. There was lots of excitement around the accessibility of the equipment and the idea that this equipment allows more students to participate.

Engineering Discovery Days is always fun and gives DO-IT an opportunity to increase awareness about accessibility to a younger crowd.

I wanted to share with you a question posed by an AccessSTEM Team Member from our Internet discussion forum and some of the responses so that you can get the flavor of the many rich conversations the DO-IT community has online. Forum posts are edited for clarity and brevity.

Anyone use a killer task management website or application? Having ADHD, I often get overwhelmed. I use Google Calendar, but I find it doesn’t fit all my needs.

DO-IT Staff: I have heard good things about www.any.do/, but I haven’t dug into it. I’ve also heard good things about EverNote and Microsoft’s OneNote.

AccessComputing Team Member: I use Any.do for free on my phone. I am a strong proponent of lists. However my major complaints for Any.do are the font size and inability to color code—there are small color markers, but you can’t change the background or highlight.

DO-IT Staff: I am a very visual learner, and sometimes apps put things out of sight out of mind. I like having a classic planner like Plum Paper where I can customize the sections for work, chores, bills, etc. I’ve also used the app Hours, which tracks what I’m doing and for how long. I also sometimes just set a timer so I can focus on one activity for a limited amount of time.

AccessComputing Team Member: Since I am blind, much of this software can be inaccessible and doesn’t work with audio or is very slow and tedious while looking through color codes. I tried using MS Outlook’s task management, but I gave up. I ended up settling on just a text file (Notepad) that I manage myself. I’ll make different text files for each project. Maybe I am biased because I can’t use a lot of the software out there, but it seems like more effort to use the software for me than just keeping these text lists.

AccessComputing Team Member: From my understanding, MS Outlook has a very accessible task schedule that works with Jaws. I personally keep a planner with events and to-dos. When I have a ton going on, I think the task apps can be helpful for never forgetting the little things. A long to-do list adds stress because the list can seem endless, whereas daily tasks are more mentally appealing, even if this means micromanaging tasks.

AccessSTEM Team Member: I use a combination of Wunderlist and Ical to organize my tasks. I really like Wunderlist as it has a built in reminder and priority system and can be synced across platforms. It can also export task lists and send them as an email attachment if I need to print them out.

AccessComputing Team Member: There is an IOS app called Errands that I use to prioritize my tasks.

AccessComputing Team Member: Task management is an issue that almost everyone deals with. If you are looking for something simple, Trello works with both web and mobile. It can handle team projects by assigning different people for tasks. Trello organizes things by project, where you then create tasks as part of a project. There are color labeling options and priorities, and you can post comments, and attach files.

AccessComputing Team Member: I also have ADHD and struggle with managing my to-do list. I’ve found the most success in following David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, where you basically write down everything you need to accomplish, and then sort these items into project categories. The two apps that work best for me are EveryTask and Wunderlist, both of which allow you to set reminders and priority levels.

DO-IT Director: It’s important to prioritize projects, but I also like to think in terms of a timeline, so progress can be made on all projects. I like noting my tasks in a calendar format, whether electronic or paper. I have tasks listed for each day, and when I don’t finish something, I move it to another day. This can also help motivate me to finish things quickly so I don’t have to move it.

DO-IT Staff: I appreciate this thread because I love to-do lists and organizing my tasks. I use a written list and also use Google calendar so if I need to remember to do a specific task by a certain time I can have a reminder email.

DO-IT Ambassador: I also use Trello, which can be organized into to-do, doing, and done. It is great for tasks not done in one sitting or take many days, or tasks with multiple parts. There is a great sample to see how it works here: https://trello.com/en-US

DO-IT Staff: I like Toodledo.com—it allows me to enter a due date, priority, status, and notes. I can then create filters that allows me to see things in different ways. It has a very intuitive, easy-to-use interface and has both an iPhone and Android app. It is also pretty accessible with VoiceOver.

In DO-IT’s online publication, Universal Design in Higher Education: Promising Practices, practitioners share promising practices related to the application of universal design in postsecondary education settings. This collection of promising practices complements the more general content in the printed book, Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principles to Practice, which recently published a second edition under Harvard Education Press.

This complementary publication is available freely online at www.washington.edu/doit/resources/books/universal-design-higher-education-promising-practices. It can be freely copied and distributed as a book or in part for noncommercial, educational purposes. The collection will continue to grow as more articles are submitted.

Articles may be submitted at any time to udhecop@uw.edu. Submitted articles should include specific ways practitioners and researchers have applied universal design in postsecondary settings along with evidence of success. They are peer-reviewed by members of the Universal Design in Higher Education Community of Practice (udhecop@uw.edu), and if accepted, edited by DO‑IT. Articles selected for the online resource are freely available on our website. Authors must agree to these conditions while retaining copyrights to their individual contributions. For author guidelines, consult the preface of the book.