In an effort to increase computer science awareness among youth with disabilities, the University of Alabama, Auburn University, and United Cerebral Palsy of Birmingham collaborated to host two Computer Science Fun Days. The participants engaged in fun, interactive computer and robotics activities and learned about numerous opportunities in the field of computer science.
Educational content that is presented in audio is inaccessible to students who are deaf and to some who are hard of hearing. If the content consists of audio only, a printed transcript is an accessible alternative. However, if the content includes both audio and visual components, captioning is preferable because it allows the video and text equivalent to be synchronized, thereby giving a hearing-impaired participant access to content equivalent to that provided to a participant who can hear the audio.
A speech-to-text service is an accommodation that can be used by a student who is deaf or hard-of-hearing as a way to gain access to spoken or auditory content. With speech-to-text services, a provider listens to a speaker and then produces text for the person who is deaf or hard-of-hearing to read on a computer screen, TV monitor, or projection screen. Speech-to-text service is often called real-time captioning, and the providers are often referred to as captionists or transcribers.
Yes. The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) specifically states that an impairment that is episodic or in remission meets the definition of "disability" if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active.
The Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP), which is co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment and the US Department of Defense, is a recruitment and referral program for college students and recent college graduates with disabilities. Through the program, students are matched with summer internships or permanent jobs in the federal government. Since 1995, over seven thousand students or recent graduates have been placed in internships or jobs in a wide variety of fields and locations through the WRP.
AccessSTEM CAREERS is a project of the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology Center (DO-IT) at the University of Washington.
The Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing was an academically challenging program designed for deaf and hard of hearing students with skills in math or science who may be considering careers in computing. The program introduced students to computers and computer programming with the goal of encouraging them to consider college majors and careers in computing fields. The Summer Academy occurred annually at the University of Washington (UW) between 2007 and 2013.
To expose high school students with disabilities to computer sciences and related careers, the North Central Florida High School High Tech program undertook the Computer Science Exploration Project. The Project offered a series of nine hands-on events. An event was held once a month and included visits to:
The Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) is the world's largest organization dedicated to the study of how humans interact with interactive technologies. In 2011, the SIGCHI Executive Committee began discussing ways to become more inclusive of researchers and practitioners with disabilities.
Some individuals with disabilities require assistive technology (AT) in order to access computers. Although Apple has been criticized for the accessibility shortcomings of its Mac OS operating system, it made significant progress in improving accessibility with the release of Mac OS X, and has taken it upon itself to develop and provide AT that supports and ships with its OS, without additional cost to the consumer.