AT Around Us

Last revised date: 9/17/2025

Overview

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.

Competencies

When you turn in this homework, also turn in these competencies

• Accessible Documents
• Finding First Person Accounts

Optionally, you may want to turn in these competences as well:

• Accessible Presenting

Table of Contents

1. Assignment Requirements
   1. 1. Select two examples of an accessibility technology or disability hack
   2. 2. Find First Person Accounts
   3. 3. Try it yourself
   4. 4. Create your slides, two for each technology you found
   5. 5. Make sure your slide is accessible
   6. 5. Prepare to present accessibly
2. Assignment FAQ
   1. I know or interviewed somebody who uses AT for their accessibility needs. Does talking to them count as finding a first person account?
   2. Does asking an other student or TA in this class who may use AT count as first person response?
   3. Length and Difficulty
   4. Is there an example?
3. Assessment & Handin Process

Assignment Requirements

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

1. Select two examples of an accessibility technology or disability hack

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

• One technology should improve computer access (such as sticky keys).
• One should improve access to “the world” at large (such as Microsoft’s Seeing AI).
• Try not to pick the same thing as someone else in the class.
• Do not choose really really common things (like elevators and glasses).
• Do not pick a Disability Dongle
• At least one of your chosen technologies is something you can try yourself

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:

• Does it address infrastructure (like curb cuts) or is it more individual (like a screen magnifier)?
• Was it designed for the disability community (like a screen reader) or is it a mainstream technology being used to address accessibility needs (like voice assistants have).

2. Find First Person Accounts

Find first person accounts by a person with a disability that is not an advertisement describing each technology and how they use it. You will use this account to hand in the First Person Account Competency, so it is recommended you read that and select an account that meets those requirements.

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.

3. Try it yourself

While some technologies may be expensive or hard to get, many accessibility technologies are easily available and some are even re-purposed everyday items. Select at least one technology you can use yourself.

4. Create your slides, two for each technology you found

You will create two accessible slides (per AT) in a shared slide deck. Your slide should include

• A summary of the AT you researched (what accessibility gap it addresses and how)
• Which disabilities it supports. Think broadly about this, and try to find evidence for your ideas. For example, audio books and screen readers are used by people who are blind or low vision, as well as people who are dyslexic, or cannot look at a screen without experiencing chronic illness symptoms.
• A picture of it
• If you have a chance to interview users of this technology, what would be one question you would ask, that was not answered in your search for information?
• A link to the first person account you found and possibly quotes
• Something you learned from the first person account about its strengths and weaknesses
• What you learned by trying it yourself
• Any additional sources

5. Make sure your slide is accessible

Go over the accessible documents competency. You should make sure your slide is accessible, and turn it in as the first handin of your Accessible Documents Competency

5. Prepare to present accessibly

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. Finally, make sure you don’t use ableist language.

Optional reading: Its complicated: Negotiating Accessibility and (Mis)Representation in Image Descriptions of Race, Gender and Disability

Assignment FAQ

I know or interviewed somebody who uses AT for their accessibility needs. Does talking to them count as finding a first person account?

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).

Does asking an other student or TA in this class who may use AT count as first person response?

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.

Length and Difficulty

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:

• “I like the requirement of looking at real world tools or tech, expanding beyond the computer.”
• “I enjoy doing this because I watched a few videos and learned a lot of accessibility technology tools [and why we have them].”
• “It was surprisingly difficult to find first-person accounts for the tech I chose.”

Is there an example?

An example can be found at the start of the sample slide deck you will add your slide to.

Assessment & Handin Process

The handin is broken up by competency

Accessible Documents

• Your writeup (Microsoft word) or PowerPoint
• A list of images and the ALT text you wrote for each of them
• Which best practices are demonstrated in this document or PowerPoint
• A screen shot showing the accessibility checker results for your document or PowerPoint

Finding First Person Accounts

• A link to the first person account
• A reflection answering the following questions
• What first person account did you find and does it meet the requirements for a first person account described above
• What are the barriers and opportunities the person described?
• What technology did they describe using?
• How might what you learned extend beyond this specific person, disability and/or technology?
• A list of additional resources you used to answer these questions (first person accounts, research papers, etc). If you use Generative AI, you still need to check and cite relevant references.

Optional Information to hand in

In addition, you may choose to hand in the following optional information. Please ask the instructors if you're unsure what additional work or materials might be needed to complete these.

Accessible Presenting

• Tell us which video you want to be assessed (from the class videos including discussion leads; and AT around us presentations)
• Timestamps for places in the video where any of the following best practices are demonstrated.
• Introduce and describe yourself
• Verbally describe images and videos so that someone who cannot see the screen can understand them
• Repeat questions for clarity and member checking (even if on zoom)
• Note that your presentation must have positive examples of at least seven of the ten best practices to be assessed as excellent on this competency.