NSF AccessComputing staff have worked over the last six months to provide multiple webinars to the NSF AccessComputing community. We’ve got several recent resources focusing on student academics, leadership, and career development, and on faculty development. We also have quite a few resources designed to support computing faculty in advancing their teaching/learning knowledge to support students with disabilities in the classroom and the workplace. In addition, hearing from students and faculty alike that mental health concerns are on the rise, we provided a two-part series on mental health by academics for students, faculty, and staff.
Webinars for Students
Blind Institute of Technology (BIT) - Employment Services for People in the Disability Community
Mike Hess, the founder and executive director of BIT, describes the opportunities and services that BIT offers to individuals with any type of disability.
These services feature staffing services that encompass both recruitment and training for professionals and the BIT Academy, which provides free courses and training in professions such as database administration, computer networking, cloud computing, project management, business applications, and more. All courses have an independent study component, as well as class lessons with BIT instructors.
Workshop: How to Request Letters of Recommendation
During this workshop, Kayla Brown, NSF AccessComputing staff, provided tips and strategies on how to approach letters of recommendation. She talked about how, during your education and career, you'll encounter supportive mentors and that selecting the right person to ask for a recommendation can be challenging. Kayla noted that it's crucial to think carefully and consider individuals who are aware of your strengths and understand how they contribute to your qualifications as an applicant.
NextGen Leaders Initiative
Alyse Erickson, Coordinator for NextGen Initiatives with Disability:IN, explains how NextGen Leaders are college students and recent graduates with disabilities, including veterans, who represent sought-after talent by Disability:IN’s 550+ Corporate Partner companies. NextGen Leaders have the opportunity to connect with leading brands across all industries, and are matched one-on-one with mentors from Disability:IN Corporate Partners for a six-month virtual mentoring relationship. This mentoring experience includes opportunities to connect and network with recruiters from leading companies like Wells Fargo, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Walmart and more! (This video has been edited, removing personal identifying information from the participants).
Engaging in Research and Summer Internships
Although it was not recorded, a third student webinar, with NSF AccessComputing Principal Investigator Dr. Maya Çakmak, focused on helping NSF AccessComputing undergraduate team members understand the value of engaging in research and on how to apply for summer internships, including through either the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates or the NSF AccessComputing/Computing Research Association Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates. We do have a DREU Information Session webinar with Dr. Richard Ladner (NSF AccessComputing founder) and Dr. Raja Kushalnagar (current co-PI) from a couple of years ago that provides much of the same information.
Resources for Faculty
NSF AccessComputing’s newest resources for faculty development include a powerful video featuring NSF AccessComputing student team members talking about what they wished their faculty knew or understood about students with disabilities, as well as several companion videos for the new Teaching Accessible Computing online book.
What You Should Know About Your Students with Disabilities ( and Audio Described Version)
Through their experiences in the classroom, NSF AccessComputing team members share their thoughts and suggestions about key things they would like their computing professors to know and understand about students with disabilities. These thoughts and suggestions include teaching tips, information about how a student’s disability impacts their access to learning, and thoughts on implicit bias and ableism students often experience.
Teaching Accessible Computing (Online Book, Companion Video, and Author Panel)
Without explicitly learning to develop accessible technology, technologists are entering the workforce without the ability to produce technology that is accessible to people with disabilities. This, in turn, limits the ability of companies and organizations to design accessible technology. The new book, Teaching Accessible Computing (TAC), offers concrete pedagogical ideas for educators about how to integrate accessibility into their computer science classes. The book is available free online.
NSF AccessComputing, along with one of our partner programs, the Alliance for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Computing Education (AiiCE), created a companion video to the recently launched faculty resource, the online book Teaching Accessible Computing, featuring the authors of several chapters in the book.
Then, in early 2025, we hosted a panel of different chapter authors, discussing ways to teach students how to incorporate accessible design in their projects. The panel featured Drs. Alannah Oleson (moderator), Catherine Baker, William Bares, Elena Kalodner-Martin, and Thomas Pickering and highlights the inclusion of accessibility in various aspects of computing curriculum.
This Class Isn't Designed for Me!
Traditional and currently prevalent pedagogies of design perpetuate ableist and exclusionary notions of what it means to be a designer. In this session, Dr. Sarah Coppola gave a brief overview of historically exclusionary norms of design education and highlighted modern-day instances of her own experience as a design educator in such epistemologies. Dr. Coppola led the audience in imagining a more inclusive and sustainable future of design education and presented case studies from personal experience in redesigning course experiences for students with disabilities.
Alternative Grading
UW Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering assistant teaching professor Kevin Lin shared his experiences with alternative grading practices that better represent the learning that students achieve over time, producing more equitable outcomes by changing the way we determine final grades. He talked about the potential alternative grading has to empower students by making space for creative student work that might not otherwise thrive in a points-based grading ecosystem. He suggested that grading policies on their own often aren’t enough—at least not in the grade-focused culture at many institutions—so he also shared some of the challenges he's faced and how he works toward better relationships between students, educators, and grades.
Mental Health Webinars
Last fall, we provided a pair of webinars on mental health, focused specifically on students, staff, and faculty in the academic environment.
Introduction to Mental Health Literacy
There are many misconceptions about psychiatric disease: what causes it, who is at risk, and how it manifests. Increasingly, we are understanding how common these misconceptions are in academia. In this seminar and facilitated discussion, tailored for academics, Dr. Mary Huff of DragonflyMentalHealth.org teaches about the prevalence of mental health illness in general and in academic populations, as well as an overview of signs and symptoms, particularly those seen in academic settings.
The Basics of Burnout
Burnout is work-related feelings of exhaustion, cynicism, and lack of accomplishment and is highly prevalent in chronically high-stress jobs such as those in academia. Dr. Mary Huff of DragonflyMentalHealth.org led this 1-hour seminar that facilitated discussion on defining the core components of burnout, presented evidence-based strategies to address the symptoms, and discussed how to prevent work-related stress.
Resources for Departments
Finally, NSF AccessComputing has also worked with collaborators to provide new online materials to support accessibility and inclusion in computing education and beyond. These materials are especially valuable for faculty, staff, and departments working to create more equitable environments for students and colleagues with disabilities.
Advising Neurodivergent PhD Students
This guide, designed for faculty new to neurodivergent concepts, introduces good practices for advising neurodivergent students, lists helpful assistive technologies, highlights faculty support areas, and links resources.
Improving Equity and Access for Graduate Students with Disabilities
Graduate school is challenging, and disabled students face additional accessibility barriers. This brief helps faculty and staff prioritize equitable access, bridging educational gaps between students with and without disabilities.
Making Departments More Accessible to and Inclusive of Faculty with Disabilities
Inaccessible job applications, facilities, tools, and resources create barriers for faculty with disabilities. Improving communication, worksites, meetings, technology, and services fosters inclusivity and helps build an equitable department culture.
For these and other resources, visit the resources section on the NSF AccessComputing website.