Bridging the Accessible Technology Gap: Connecting Industry and Computing Faculty for the Adoption of Evidence-Based Teaching of Accessibility Concepts

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving computer science curricula through integration of accessible technology concepts in foundational computer science courses. Providing accessibility in software applications and web sites to enable use by people with disabilities is often an afterthought, and inaccessible applications can disadvantage large numbers of people. This Level II Engaged Student Learning project intends to scale up instruction of accessible technology concepts by engaging faculty in pedagogy-focused development workshops and virtual support sessions throughout the year. Integrating instruction on accessible technology concepts into existing foundational courses has the potential to expand the number of students reached and aid in adoption since new courses will not need to be developed. This in turn has the potential to positively impact preparation of the workforce to develop technology for a wide variety of people. The workshops will be offered in both virtual and in-person formats to meet the needs of a range of faculty from different types of institutions. The project builds on prior work by the proposers where they developed accessible technology related learning outcomes and provided one-on-one professional development to help faculty develop assignments that incorporate accessible technology in their courses. An important goal of this project is to align learning objectives with industry needs through a Delphi panel of industry experts. The project team will investigate three research questions: whether the technical accessibility learning outcomes align with industry needs; the efficacy of the workshops for disseminating knowledge about, and pedagogies for, teaching technical accessibility concepts; and whether the assignments developed through their workshops achieve desired gains in student learning. This project will employ empirical evaluation to measure faculty training effectiveness and its impact on student success. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.