The goal of this assignment is to give you experience with seeking out first-person accounts of disability experiences with technology. It will also give you experience with presenting accessibly and expose you to a wide range of accessibility technologies.
This homework may contribute to your competency grade on
Students in the past have reported that this assignment takes about 3 hours. However, in our experience many students have had to make multiple attempts to fully meet the competency for finding first person accounts. We recommend you carefully read the requirements for that below, and check in if you have a question. Many students also found presenting accessibly difficult, particularly with respect to how to describe images on their slides. We recommend that you practice this ahead of time. Some things students have told us about this assignment:
We have provided two examples: There is an example writeup at the end of the template writeup. An example slide can be found at the start of the slide deck (posted on Canvas) that you will add your slide to.
Yes, this counts as a first-person account, but not for this assignment unless you are able to submit a transcript or video testimony for us to review (unlikely under IRB rules).
No. This does not count as a first-person account. It is additional burden on the student who you are asking to help out in this capacity.
Youtube is a great place to start. You can also look in reddits for specific disability communities
One great resource is AskJan. This is a website that helps people with disabilities find out about accommodations that can help them succeed in the workforce. Their mission statement: “JAN helps employers recognize the valuable contributions that qualified workers with disabilities add to the workforce by providing accommodation solutions, trusted strategies, and practical guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Job accommodations play a vital role in creating inclusive workplaces, advancing the goals of the ADA, and increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”
Another great resource is from the Adaptech Database. This is a database of accessibility technology. “The Adaptech Research Network consists of a team of academics, students and consumers. We conduct research involving college and university students with a variety of disabilities in Canada. We are based at Dawson College in Montreal and have been in existence since 1996.”
To complete this assignment you will need to do the following:
Watch a video about presenting accessibly by Kyle Rector and look at DOIT’s guidance on accessible presenting. Review information about describing images and describing people in images verbally (during a presentation) or in text. Make sure you don’t use ableist language. Stay within the required time. Other details on this requirement can be found in the canvas outcomes
Select two examples of accessibility technology, or disability hack, that you will be presenting about. An accessibility technology is something that is used by a person with a disability to increase accessibility. It can be something that is included in the infrastructure (such as a curb cut) or something that is used by an individual (such as Proloque2Go, a symbol-based communication system), or something that was not designed for accessibility but is useful (such as these 5 disability life hacks)
When you pick, consider these requirements
In addition, you should pick something that expands your knowledge of accessibility technology. You should include two different technologies that you are not already familiar with. Other considerations that could help when searching for technology:
Find first person accounts by a person with a disability that is not an advertisement describing each technology and how they use it. For example, here is a personal perspective on audio crosswalks and here is an interview with two black AAC users about their experiences using AAC technology (start at 00:16:00)
Ideally, you will find a video account showing the technology in use. Try searching for “howto” or try searching first for vloggers who have a disability, and then looking in their channels for technology reviews. Also ask for help on our class discussion site if you are having trouble. If you cannot find a video, you can look for a written account, such as a blog or review. In this case, it still needs to be written by a person with a disability who would benefit from the AT that you are trying to learn about. This may influence your choice of technologies, it is OK to iterate.
While some technologies may be expensive or hard to get, many accessibility technologies are easily available and some are even re-purposed everyday items. Try at least one of the technologies you find yourself.
You will create two accessible slides (per AT) in a shared slide deck posted in the Class Discussion. Your slide should include
Make sure your slides are accessible, following best practices. More details on expectations for this are available in the Canvas Outcomes and described in the slides on presenting accessibly You can also check out this helpful video by “The Accessibility Guy.”
For each AT, consider: What is the AT? What are its strengths and weaknesses? What disabilities does it support? This article on the POSITIVES Scale might help you answer this question. It has information about what accessibility ICT people with different disabilities report using that you can refer to (see pp. 47-52). You might find p. 79 interesting as well!
Fill out the assignment reflection template, making sure it is accessible. Here is a UW web page about how to make accessible documents and a UW video about how to make accessible documents