Disability Awareness/Identity

Design Projects That Serve Veterans with Disabilities: A Promising Practice in Teaching How to Design Assistive Technology

At North Dakota State University, engineering students design assistive technologies for veterans with disabilities. Students’ projects must be cost-effective, have a long lifespan, be robust, and be technologically superior to existing options.

Shaping the Future of Cyberlearning: A Promising Practice for Promoting Accessibility in Cyberlearning Projects

AccessCyberlearning, funded by the National Science Foundation under grant #IIS-1550477, works with current and future cyberlearning researchers, technology developers, and instructors to inform their research with what is known about student differences/disabilities; design innovative learning technologies and teaching strategies that are welcoming to, accessible to, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities; and ensure that project materials and activities  are welcoming to, acces

Online Disability Identity Webinar: A Promising Practice in Engaging Students in Conversations About Their Experiences

AccessComputing is a program at the University of Washington that helps students with disabilities successfully pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in computing fields. The program also works to increase the capacity of postsecondary institutions and other organizations to fully include students with disabilities in computing courses and programs. As a primarily-online mentoring program, building a community is essential to creating a supportive environment for students with disabilities.

PEERs Climate Survey: A Promising Practice for Comparing the Experiences of Diverse Groups of Students Within and Between Academic Departments

The Promoting Equity in Engineering Relationships (PEERs) project at the University of Washington (UW) aimed to improve the experiences of underrepresented undergraduates in the College of Engineering. PEERs integrated NSF-funded efforts to engage a cadre of students, professors, and staff to create positive change toward a more inclusive environment in the College of Engineering, particularly for women, racial/ethnic minorities, and individuals with disabilities.

What are tips for planning disability awareness events?

At some point in your life, whether at school, work, or your community, you may have been exposed to the idea of an “awareness” event, day, week, or even month. Whatever the length of time, these events are meant to focus on a single issue within society. Disability awareness events, if done right, provide opportunities to make a significant impact in your community. The following steps can guide you in creating an effective disability awareness event.

What can companies do to support employees with disabilities?

There are a variety of strategies that companies can use to support employees with disabilities. Taking such actions may help to ensure that employees with disabilities have the same opportunities for advancement and professional development as all employees.  Some of these strategies may be similar to strategies used to support other underrepresented groups, such as women and racial/ethnic minorities. To support employees with disabilities companies can:

How does designing for users with and without disabilities shape student design thinking?

How do student designers regard disability? How does designing for both users who are disabled and non-disabled encourage students to think about accessibility throughout the design process? These are the questions researchers at the University of Washington (UW) investigated via a design course study.

What language should I use to talk about people with disabilities?

Refer to a person's disability only if it is relevant to the conversation. Avoid negative descriptions of a person's disability. For example, "a person who uses a wheelchair" is more appropriate than "a person confined to a wheelchair," which is both inaccurate and negative in tone; people who use wheelchairs are not “confined” to them, they are empowered by them with the gift of mobility.

Many people with disabilities prefer language that mentions the person first and then the disability. They consider, for example "A man who is blind" preferable to "a blind man.”

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