Participation at What Cost? Teaching Accessibility Using Participatory Design: An Experience Report

In this episode I unpack Brinkley’s (2020) publication titled “Participation at what cost? Teaching accessibility using participatory design: An experience report,” which summarizes lessons learned designing and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on inclusive design.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each week of this podcast is either an

    interview with a guest or multiple

    guests or a solo episode where i unpack

    some scholarship in relation to computer

    science education in this week's

    particular episode i'm unpacking a paper

    titled participation at what cost

    teaching accessibility using

    participatory design colon an experience

    report this is by julian brinkley here's

    the abstract for this paper quote as

    institutions respond to market demand

    and their training of the next

    generation of technology designers there

    is an increasing awareness of the need

    to add accessibility to computer science

    and informatics curricula advocates have

    suggested three strategies for including

    accessibility and discussions of

    disability in courses changing a lecture

    adding a lecture or adding a new course

    in this paper we report on our

    experiences with the latter

    incorporating accessibility within two

    new graduate and undergraduate inclusive

    design courses taught concurrently we

    found that while the use of

    participatory design was decidedly

    effective in supporting student learning

    and ameliorating ableist attitudes

    creating and managing teams comprised of

    students and visually impaired

    co-designers proved challenging despite

    these challenges overall students

    demonstrated steady growth in their

    grasp of inclusive design concepts as

    they tackled accessibility challenges

    through a series of mobility-related

    group projects efficiencies were also

    realized through the concurrent teaching

    of both courses though the pace of

    course deliverables proved challenging

    at times for undergraduates we argued

    that a review of our experience may help

    others interested in teaching

    accessibility related courses

    specifically in course design and

    execution end quote now if i summarize

    this paper into a single sentence i'd

    say that this experience report

    summarizes lessons learned designing and

    teaching undergraduate and graduate

    courses on inclusive design now you can

    find a link to this paper in the show

    notes which you can find at

    jarrodaliry.com and clicking on the

    podcast tab or simply clicking the link

    in the app that you're listening to this

    on and you'll notice that this podcast

    is powered by boot up professional

    development which is the nonprofit that

    i work for you want to check out the

    free coding curriculum that i create

    just go to boot up pd.org or if you want

    to learn more about a professional

    development you can check that out there

    too so in the introduction the author

    mentions that there are a lot of

    different technologies that assist with

    accessibility as the industry in general

    is moving toward a better understanding

    of

    end user diversity quote this increasing

    recognition that end users are not a

    single homogenous group has spurted

    demand of technology designers with the

    skill set rooted in user center design

    and accessibility end quote from page

    while the vast majority 84 of companies

    believe that it's important to hire

    designers with accessible technology

    skills 60 of those companies said it's

    hard to find people who have those

    skills so it's important for

    institutions higher education or even

    k12 to help people develop those skills

    so that way they can fill jobs like that

    now in the next section the background

    and related work the author summarizes

    some different scholarship related to

    accessibility and design so one of the

    papers was talking about how they

    introduced accessibility as a topic

    across a few different engineering

    degrees so degrees in electrical

    electronics and automatic control

    industrial product design electronic

    systems and computer science and they

    found that students perform differently

    depending on which degree they had so

    for example quote students from product

    design for instance produce the highest

    grades while students in cs and

    electrical systems obtain the lowest end

    quote which is interesting i wonder what

    that is the next paper that the talk

    about is by coen ladner and if you

    haven't listened to the interview that i

    did with amy co i highly recommend it

    i'll include a link to that in the show

    notes but in that paper they recommend

    three different strategies one is you

    can change the focus of the lecture to

    center around accessibility another is

    to add a lecture as an accessibility

    topic and then the last one is to add an

    entirely new course which is what the

    author did in this paper and then the

    third paper that they talk about is a

    paper that explores quote how designing

    for both disabled and non-disabled users

    encourage students to think about

    accessibility in quotes for page 115 any

    of those three papers sound interesting

    i'd highly recommend checking out the

    paper that i'm reading from so you can

    check out the references and explore the

    related works all right so the next

    section is titled case study inclusive

    design and accessible technology they

    talk about the case being lin

    undergraduate and graduate course where

    quote the overarching goal of both

    courses was to aid students in learning

    how inclusive design practices may be

    used to identify user characteristics

    study user needs ideate design prototype

    and evaluate technologies for

    accessibility end quote from page 115

    and the following page on 116 actually

    has some learning objective descriptions

    and i'll read from that list there's

    seven of them so the first one is to

    describe the characteristics of various

    disabilities as they relate to computer

    and technology use the second one is

    describe how people with disabilities

    and older adults use assistive

    technologies example screen readers

    keyboard mouse alternatives etc number

    three is describe inclusive design as a

    methodology and understand how to

    practically incorporate principles of

    accessibility into the design process

    number four is to describe the

    philosophical basis and rationale for

    accessibility number five is to describe

    the characteristics of inclusive

    technologies number six is to design and

    implement inclusive and accessible

    systems and number seven is to describe

    the mechanisms that exist for technology

    professional to evaluate a technology

    for accessibility now each one of those

    objectives might also be relevant in k12

    cs classes and whatnot some of them more

    relevant than others i don't know if

    kindergarteners necessarily need to be

    able to describe the philosophical basis

    and rationale for accessibility but high

    schoolers middle schoolers certainly

    could even late elementary students so

    if you rewind that back or if you go and

    actually read this paper itself think of

    how might you actually be able to

    include these learning objectives in the

    cs classes that you facilitate or teach

    or design or whatever the way that this

    author did this was in university

    courses that had 10 modules first

    modules kind of an introduction the

    second module is focusing on theories of

    design and accessibility and they worked

    in groups of two or three people and

    they were quote asked to identify 10

    problematic control panels that they

    encountered in daily life identify the

    design breakdowns and select one panel

    to be redesigned final deliverable was a

    poster outlining the research and design

    process that was reviewed during an

    in-class critique end quote from page

    you could do in k12 and aligns with some

    of the k-12 standards like csta's

    standards now module three started off a

    four-part series with the first one

    focusing on quote visual impairment and

    blindness and involve lectures videos

    and readings which explore the causes of

    visual impairment appropriate

    terminology related to visual impairment

    and assistive technologies like screen

    readers and refreshable braille displays

    module 4 explored mobility disabilities

    and related assistive technologies

    module 5 explored auditory disabilities

    in the series concluded with module 6

    which explored cognitive disabilities

    through lectures videos and selected

    readings and quotes from page 116 and

    then modules seven through ten focused

    on a two-phase design project quote in

    phase one of the semester project

    students were asked to explore the

    concept of an accessible transportation

    chain comprised of emerging technologies

    through the design of a pre-trip

    concierge mobile application of an

    autonomous vehicle in quotes from page

    the project itself quote in small teams

    of two to three students were asked to 1

    conduct user research using focus groups

    and interviews 2. conduct a literature

    review or video analysis of the user

    experience with related technologies

    example uber or lyft three aggregate

    their findings and identify user needs

    through affinity diagramming four

    construct personas that reflected the

    main themes uncovered during user

    research five brainstorm design ideas to

    address user needs six create scenarios

    in storyboards seven produce a system

    task flow diagram and eight create

    wireframes of the final concierge

    application end quotes from page 117.

    all of that process the eight steps in

    there is certainly something that you

    could do in k12 context as well just

    with maybe different contexts or

    different outcomes etc in phase two they

    actually had a visually impaired

    co-designer come in and work on the

    project and so they were compensated

    with a prepaid gift card for each

    session that they participated in which

    may or may not be difficult to do in a

    k-12 context but it's certainly

    important to consider for designing for

    a particular disability it would help to

    have somebody there as a co-designer who

    had that disability and i don't use that

    term lightly by the way if you listen to

    some of the other interviews i've done

    with like maya israel jesse rathgeber

    etc i think it's important to consider

    ableistic terms and whatnot all right so

    in the discussion section the author

    talks about several different aspects of

    this particular course so one is an

    elaboration on the lectures next one is

    on the participatory design then they

    talk about time slots readings the

    workload team composition teaching both

    of the courses concurrently scalability

    and the instructor perspective i'm not

    going to read through all these because

    i don't necessarily think they are super

    relevant to a k8 or k12 audience but if

    any of those headers sounded interesting

    to you i highly recommend checking out

    this paper but the participatory design

    section the author mentions that the

    students were most engaged in the design

    activity which i imagine if you're to

    replicate that in a k12 context they

    would say something similar kids

    generally and adults aren't as engaged

    in a lecture as they are in actually

    creating something or designing

    something the author also mentions that

    students really valued having a

    co-designer in this process and that

    quote the combination of site visits to

    organizations serving disabled persons

    coupled with the use of participatory

    design gave students a greater

    appreciation for the innate abilities of

    disabled persons while ameliorating

    ableist attitudes in quote from page 117

    however here's an interesting paragraph

    on pages 117 and 118. while successful

    the use of participatory design was not

    without drawbacks the use of this

    process entailed financial costs which

    were nominal as well as recruiting and

    logistical costs which were significant

    while an existing relationship with

    leadership of the national federation of

    the blind was leveraged to assist in

    co-designer recruitment recruiting

    participants still proved challenging

    though the initial pool of interested

    persons were sizable identifying

    participants one within close proximity

    to the university two who were able to

    commit to meetings with students over a

    several week period and who three

    could attend during hours that vary

    depending upon student availability

    significantly narrowed the pool of those

    interested by involving co-designers

    external to the course it was also

    necessary to seek institutional review

    board approval and closely monitor

    communication between an interaction

    with the students and the de facto study

    participants end quote now that is an

    excellent point i honestly hated group

    work in college in particular because

    our schedules were so drastically

    different some people did their work in

    late evenings some people did it in

    early mornings some people did it midday

    etc well other people had jobs during

    those times etc like i used to work in a

    stain shop long before the sun would

    ever come up we're talking two three in

    the morning i was staining closet doors

    that cost more than i paid for my house

    so because i was getting to work that

    early in the morning or sometimes

    staying just really late at night my

    sleep schedule is off so when other

    people wanted to meet for something i

    typically was sleeping or at least

    attempting to this however in a k-12

    context if you do the work at school

    might honestly be easier especially if

    you have an integrated approach to

    various disabilities in your campus or

    school like many of the schools that i

    worked with had an integrated approach

    where students would come to the various

    specialist classes that i was teaching

    and some others had some standalone

    classes that could relatively easily

    find some time to collaborate with other

    classes now one other section that i

    want to point out that was interesting

    was the scalability discussion is that

    the author notes that it's difficult to

    do this with a larger number of students

    especially when trying to find enough

    co-participants or co-designers to

    collaborate with the different groups so

    if you can't do that in your campus then

    you might want to look into potentially

    doing some virtual collaborations if

    possible and if this interests you which

    hopefully does now again i skipped over

    some stuff in here but if any of those

    other sections that i listed off sound

    interesting to you i do recommend taking

    a look at the paper but the author

    concludes by basically stating that hey

    having a standalone course like this

    works and hopefully this experience

    report kind of helps other people design

    similar classes now as always when i'm

    reading these papers i like to share

    some of my lingering questions and

    thoughts at the end of the episode so

    one of them is how might inclusive

    design practices be infused into other

    courses so it's great that they had a

    course that focused on this but then how

    might you cycle back to this throughout

    the degree program or if this isn't a

    k12 context if you had a unit on

    accessibility how might you keep coming

    back to that in following semesters or

    years i'm thinking of like a brunerian

    spiral approach where you keep spiraling

    with increasing complexity to be able to

    dive deeper into

    understandings of accessibility and

    accessible design so as an example when

    i

    was a faculty associate for university

    we had a class that i facilitated and

    helped design called the digital hybrid

    lab and so it's basically like music

    technology for music educators like how

    specifically could you incorporate music

    technology pedagogy and practices and

    devices into your ensemble or general

    music class or whatever we collaborated

    with the other professors who taught the

    follow-up practicum courses to tell them

    hey here are the concepts and

    understandings that students ideally

    will be able to walk away with and

    should be able to demonstrate let's come

    up with some projects that align with

    what you're already going to teach in

    that class that builds off of the

    understandings from the digital hybrid

    lab so okay students learn how to set up

    different types of microphones for

    different scenarios how to record them

    through a daw and then how to edit them

    to create an audio file or even a movie

    or whatever so let's use those

    understandings to create some kind of a

    project in a class that they take after

    the digital hybrid lab same thing could

    happen in a k12 context if you do a unit

    on accessibility and accessible design

    great find ways to keep coming back to

    that every single time you're doing a

    new project have some kind of criteria

    that is linked to accessibility so that

    students don't just engage in this once

    and then forget about it but those are

    my own thoughts there are many different

    ways that you can include this into your

    class so again the question is how might

    we include the inclusive design

    practices in other courses but another

    question that i have is when wouldn't

    you consider designing for accessibility

    or using inclusive design practices if

    you haven't listened to other episodes

    where i do this i really like to ask

    questions that cause me to question

    things that i strongly agree with

    whether it's one of these unpacking

    scholarship episodes or if it's like an

    interview with a guest where i'm like

    yep totally agree with him i will often

    ask a question that's like well when

    wouldn't you do that thing that i

    strongly agree with it helps me better

    understand why i agree with something

    but also understand perspectives of when

    i wouldn't agree with that so posing

    this question accessible design

    practices seems like something we should

    do all the time but because i like to

    argue with myself to try and better

    understand why i think that one possible

    answer that i can come up with in the

    moment is like computational thinking

    it's often taught as being used to solve

    problems there are many definitions of

    computational thinking but that's one of

    the more common ones is like thinking

    like a computer scientist or using

    computers to solve some kind of a

    problem the focus is on solving problems

    through a computer so if the focus is on

    solving problems in a scenario like that

    accessibility might not be the issue

    that we focus on if the problem itself

    doesn't focus on an accessibility issue

    or it's not designed into the experience

    for example the traveling salesman

    problem that is often posed that relates

    to computational thinking or at least

    certainly can let's say the salesman

    needs to go to 10 different businesses

    within a major city what's the fastest

    route that the salesman can take to get

    to each of the 10 businesses that

    problem does not really have anything to

    do with accessibility however if we

    framed it as what's the fastest route

    while accounting for the fact that they

    are blind and will need to use

    crosswalks that have audible signals to

    indicate when they can and cannot cross

    a crosswalk and that not all of the

    intersections have those then that

    becomes more of a computational thinking

    problem with the focus on accessibility

    or we could even do one that focuses on

    like environmentalism like what is the

    most environmentally friendly way for

    this traveling salesperson to get to the

    point is when we have these kind of

    problems that do not have an

    accessibility lens or maybe even an

    equity lens or an environmental or

    social justice or however you want to

    think of it any kind of lens that you

    think of try and find ways that you can

    slightly modify it to make it so that it

    can focus on some of those things but

    those are just some questions and

    thoughts that i had while reading

    through this i did enjoy the paper did

    made me think oh how would i apply this

    if i was still working in a k-8 class

    and i was teaching coding so hopefully

    listening this episode also inspired you

    to think of how might you include

    accessible design practices in your

    class if you're interested in a more

    resources and podcasts related to

    accessibility again the show notes at

    jaredowlery.com includes like an

    interview with andreas stephek with maya

    israel with jesse rathgeber so i was

    like unpacking scholarship episodes

    where i talk about like universal design

    for learning things like that if you

    enjoyed this episode please consider

    sharing with someone else or providing a

    review on whatever platform you're

    listening to this on thank you to

    everyone who has done that either of

    those stay tuned next week for another

    episode until then i hope you're all

    staying safe and are having a wonderful

    week

Article

Brinkley, J. (2020). Participation at what cost? Teaching accessibility using participatory design: An experience report. Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE, 114–120.


Abstract

“As institutions respond to market demand in their training of the next generation of technology designers, there is an increasing awareness of the need to add accessibility to computer science and informatics curricula. Advocates have suggested three strategies for including accessibility and discussions of disability in courses: changing a lecture, adding a lecture or adding a new course. In this paper we report on our experiences with the latter; incorporating accessibility within two new graduate and undergraduate inclusive design courses taught concurrently. We found that while the use of participatory design was decidedly effective in supporting student learning and ameliorating ableist attitudes, creating and managing teams comprised of students and visually impaired co-designers proved challenging. Despite these challenges, overall, students demonstrated steady growth in their grasp of inclusive design concepts as they tackled accessibility challenges through a series of mobility-related group projects. Efficiencies were also realized through the concurrent teaching of both courses though the pace of course deliverables proved challenging at times for undergraduates. We argue that a review of our experience may help others interested in teaching accessibility related courses, specifically in course design and execution.”


Author Keywords

Accessibility, assistive technology, education, participatory design


My One Sentence Summary

This experience report summarizes lessons learned designing and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on inclusive design.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • How might inclusive design practices be infused into other courses?

  • When wouldn’t you consider designing for accessibility or using inclusive design practices?


Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode



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