AccessComputing

In Summer 2012, AccessComputing began work to update its Web Design & Development curriculum. The curriculum, originally developed with funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education, is a project-based introduction to web design developed for use primarily in secondary schools, grades 9-12. The curriculum emphasizes standards-based and accessible design, and students learn to consider accessibility throughout the course as they learn and apply new skills and techniques.

Summer 2012 brought a new learning opportunity for DHH students. For the first time, thanks to a subcontract from AccessComputing, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) hosted a special two-week computing summer camp for DHH students called DRobotZ.

AccessComputing capacity building activities are funded by the National Science Foundation (grant #CNS-1042260). They were coordinated by the Alliance for Access to Computing Careers, which is led by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and DO-IT at the University of Washington.

Among the strategies for meeting AccessComputing objectives are Communities of Practice (CoPs) for stakeholder groups. Communicating using email and other electronic tools, CoPs share perspectives and expertise and identify practices that promote the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. The eight project CoPs are described below. Members in all CoPs:

Accessible Technology in Education: Problems and Solutions

Presenter: Terrill Thompson

With technology, curriculum, or any resource, we should ask "can everyone access this?" "Everyone" includes theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who has a motor neuron disease that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; T.V.

8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

Registration and Refreshments

8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m

Welcome

Institute Objectives and Schedule

Introductions

Daniela Marghitu (Auburn University Education and Assistive Technology) & Nels Madsen (Associate Dean, Samuel Ginn COE)

9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m.

Universal Design in Academia: A Capacity Building Institute took place April 11, 2012 in Auburn, Alabama. Its overall purpose was to bring together a select group of national experts to help Auburn University faculty and staff reduce barriers and optimize levels of challenge and support to meet the needs of all learners.

My name is Diana. I graduated last year from Georgia State University (GSU) with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration in Computer Information Systems and a Certificate of International Business. The IT field is always changing, and I excel in dynamic environments, so computing was a great fit for me.

The Workshop for Emerging Deaf and Hard of Hearing Scientists was held at Gallaudet University on May 17-18, 2012, with support from AccessComputing. The workshop brought together 97 participants, including high school, college, and graduate students as well as K-12 educators, sign language interpreters, university professors, and government staff involved in STEM fields.

What might be the first response of a professor when a student who is deaf enrolls in her computing class? Would she look forward to the unique perspective this student brings to the class, or only be concerned about what accommodations might be necessary? An important step to creating a classroom environment that is welcoming to all students is to value diversity in all of its many forms—to see, in this case, differences in hearing abilities as a normal, interesting part of the human experience.