hw7: Final Project Proposal

Last revised: November 8, 2023

Assigned

• November 8, 2023

Due

• Post ideas on Ed by Monday 11/13, 2023 (try not to use 2 day late window); groups must be formed by 11/15.

• Overview
• Details
• Turnin

Overview

The goal of your final project is to build an accessibility technology or make an existing technology more accessible. In this phase of the final project, you will propose a specific project idea that you come up with.

Some ideas could be to make something that is useful, or fun, more accessible to people with disabilities. Examples:

• A screen-reader accessible COVID visualization
• A simple educational game that can be used with switch input
• A CAPTCHA interface that can be used with an on screen keyboard for someone who uses switch input
• Make an interface to generate laser-cuttable SVGs that fit a class of real-world objects and make them more accessible
• Create a simple VR environment that is supports magnification and verbal description for low vision and screen reader users

To give you some more ideas, here are some examples from last Winter’s PMP version of this class

Final Project Examples

Some examples of what people have done in the past include:

• Creating a plugin for word to prompt for better alt text
• Make Arduino programming more accessible
• Make a system to help someone with motor impairments create macros for fixing typos
• Improving coding accessibility for BLV people in VS Code
• Developing a plain language checker
• Improving chart accessibility
• Improving the accessibility of a VS Code plugin for code tours
• Creating tactile schematics for circuits
• Making markdown accessible
• Addressing open issues for a free and open source screen reader, Odilia

Learning Goals / Competencies

You will need to define this homework’s learning goals, but the following are expectations even if you’ve already reached competency.

• Understanding how to apply a disability justice framing
• Image description
• Finding first person accounts
• Your participation grade, as a percentage of completeness (all required parts are present)

Length & Difficulty

We do not have details on how long this single piece of the final project usually takes students. However, overall students report a median of 7.5 hours per week plus meetings during the four weeks of the project. Some things students commented on regarding the project include:

• “I appreciate the open-endedness of this project. It gives a good opportunity to apply what we have learned, combined with the knowledge we have brought to this course.”
• “I like how open ended the project is, and it made for a really interesting last session with a wide variety of presentations.”
• “Learned a lot through the project”

Details

To complete this assignment, you will need to do the following

0. Brainstorm an Idea

In choosing this project, you may want to draw from personal expertise, literature, or user data should you have access to it. Your idea should have the following components.

• Implementation component: This project should require the creation of novel technology or resources involving programming.
• Validation component: Your project also must include a validation component (some way of measuring how well it works). This typically involves developing a set of examples and metrics for success, and assessing how well the technology performs on them.

Note on disability involvement in this project It is not feasible to do a full iterative design cycle in this project (and not necessarily an ethical use of the time of people with disabilities). However if you want to include data from interviewing, or testing with, people with disabilities, that is permissible. That said, your project should not unduly burden the disability community. Some projects may allow for direct collaboration with or feedback from people with disabilities, others may not. Please reach out to us for guidance on this if you intend to work with disabled participants.

1. Develop an Argument for the idea

We want to avoid creating Disability Dongles. To avoid this, we do two important things

1. You should inform your project from first person accounts if at all possible. If you cannot find first person commentary on the topic, please reach out to the course staff for help. We may tell you not to worry about it, or point you at resources such as research papers that have interviews of people with disabilities in them.
2. You should analyze your idea from a disability justice perspective. You should identify at least two disability justice principles that your idea helps to address. Think critically about whether and how your project empowers and gives agency to people with disabilities, as well as the extent to which it expects/engages the larger structural issues around the problem you’re trying to solve.

2. Write 4 paragraphs summarizing the idea

Your write up should include the following information

• Paragraph 1: What will you do? What first person evidence did you find for this idea? Provide a brief summary and links.
• Paragraph 2: How does it address disability justice? Define the two principles you selected and explain how your idea furthers them.
• Paragraph 3: How will you validate your idea
• Paragraph 4: Why is this feasible (timeline, etc)

Given the number of weeks available, be careful not to over commit. You must figure out how to fit this all in about four weeks.

5. Group formation

Your “group” should include 1-4 people. Many students prefer to work in groups, some prefer to work alone. Both are acceptible. If you join forces with other students in class, you will need to work together to finalize a joint vision for what you plan to do.

Turnin

• You will need to submit your write up to the class discussion board before Monday’s class. The category should be “Assignments”, the subcategory should be “Final Project”
• You will need to notify the course staff about your group membership by Wednesday’s class