Accessibility is not widely integrated into the development of new and emerging technologies. As part of our ongoing research, we aim to enhance students’ understanding of digital accessibility as they learn to design, develop, and build new technologies with the needs of people with disabilities in mind. As a first step, in collaboration with Columbia University’s Women in Computer Science organization, we organized accessibility-themed components to be integrated into their diversity-themed hackathon DivHacks, which occurred October 2021. These components will include a workshop on assessing the accessibility of technology, a diversity panel focused on accessibility in industry in academia, and an accessibility-focused programming project track.
The next step of this project is AccessHack, a mini-hackathon themed around accessibility put on by Hamilton College and Northeastern University. More information is available at https://accesshack.sites.northeastern.edu/!
Team
- PI: Dr. Sarah Morrison-Smith
- PI: Dr. Megan Hofmann
- Tom Kruger