Accessibility Demonstration Experiences (ADEs) are a set of on-line tutorials that include activities specifically designed to help software and user interface designers understand the needs and expectations of users with disabilities.
Despite legislation established to allow students with disabilities to fully participate in classrooms, there is still a prominent gap in the science performance of students with and without disabilities (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2005). While expectations for students with disabilities have increased considerably, the instructional materials used in the science classroom generally remain limited to printed text and paper-and-pencil activities. Often, these static media pose barriers in learning for students with disabilities, who are often struggling readers.
Since 2005, Professor Richard Ladner from the University of Washington in Seattle has introduced tactile graphics to his undergraduate computer vision students. Traditional computer vision classes introduce students to image analysis and interpretation of three-dimensional information from two-dimensional image data. Traditional topics also include image segmentation, motion estimation, object recognition, and image retrieval. Dr.
SciTrain University (SciTrain U) provides both in-person and web-based training for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty. Funded as an Office of Postsecondary Education demonstration project SciTrain U is hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Georgia.
Course curricula can be enriched by integrating accessibility for people with disabilities as a topic for discussion and application. Students whose education includes an opportunity to learn about accessibility may be more likely to practice accessible design techniques and implement universal design in their future careers.
Administrators at Purdue University look for ways to raise awareness of web accessibility issues and to educate employees on how to create websites that are accessible to individuals with a broad range of disabilities. They have focused efforts through a campus-wide Web Accessibility Committee (WAC). WAC members represent both academic and administrative units across campus. Most are web developers and all are strong supporters of accessible web design. WAC members have:
In a study funded by the National Science Foundation's Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program, a group of three postsecondary institutions used asynchronous online access as a universally designed method of content delivery. In addition to classroom lecture, web-based access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) course content was also offered.
California State University has set up faculty learning communities to help their faculty implement universal design principles in their classes, labs, and lectures. The learning communities at Sonoma State University are organized by Ensuring Access Through Collaboration and Technology (EnAct), a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
My name is Harry. I attend my local community college. I use an electric wheelchair because I have a physical disability. I would like to use the new gym facility on campus a few times a week to swim. Swimming is one of the best ways for me to maintain my upper body strength.
Kelly Kerr is a teacher of students with visual impairments in the Central Kitsap School District located in Silverdale, Washington. Ms. Kerr wrote a proposal for an AccessSTEM minigrant to support students with visual impairments who are underrepresented in careers in math and science. In her proposal she emphasized that students often fail to pursue math and science because of the lack of accessible curriculum, labs, and manipulatives in these courses. Ms.