1. Teaching Accessibility and Universal Design in Higher Education Curriculum: Benefits, Approaches and Resources
Howard Kramer
University of Colorado-Boulder
AccessU 2017
Good morning –this session is Teaching Accessibility and Universal Design in Higher Education Curriculum: Benefits, Approaches and Resources .
My name is Howard Kramer. I work at the University of Colorado at Boulder and I also work at AHEAD, the association of Higher Education and Disability.

2. Presentation posted at slideshare
UD-in-Curriculum-AccessU pptx

3. Introduction Howard Kramer University of Colorado-Boulder Conference:
Conference:
Accessing Higher Ground: Accessible Media, Web & Technology
Class:
Universal Design for Digital Media - 14 week class
Grant Project:
Promoting the Integration of Universal Design in University Curriculum (UDUC)
Member of EOWG of WAI
A little bit about my background and my involvement with universal design and accessibility …
Coordinate a conference called Accessing Higher Ground (under AHEAD) – focuses on accessible media and accessibility in higher education.
Teach an in-person course called Universal Design for Digital Media …, which is focused on UD for the Web.
I also teach a self-paced online version of the course, both of these at the University of Colorado – Boulder.
A few years ago I worked on a grant to promote the inclusion of universal design content in university curriculum. That grant ended in 2014 but was just refunded this year. I’ll be talking about that project towards the end of this presentation.
Usually, I teach this subject over the course of 14 weeks – can’t do that here. But will try to cover some of the key concepts that we cover in that class.

4. Today’s Outline What do we mean by Universal Design?
Importance is teaching about UD and accessibility
Examples & models for including UD content in curriculum
Resources for teaching about UD/accessibility
Resources & future plans of UDUC project
Round Table - your input & feedback
In terms of today’s outline, we’ll briefly cover what we mean by Universal Design, how does it compare and differ from accessibility.
Then, the importance, the benefits, of teaching about Universal Design and Accessibility.
And as per the title of this session, what are some models, resources and strategies for teaching about UD and accessibility. One of those models will be the class that I teach.
Then I’ll talk about the resources and future plans of the UDUC project and how you can participate in that project.
Finally, assuming there’s time, and if there’s interest, I’d like to have a round-table format during whatever time is remaining to get your input and feedback and ideas for things the UDUC project can do to promote the teaching of UD and accessibility.

5. Today’s Objective(s)
Acquire a sampling of examples of UD in curriculum that you may replicate or build upon
Provide you with ideas for promoting UD curriculum at your own institutions
Inspire you to become involved with this project by using our resources, recommending resources or collaboration
Want you to also know more about our project and perhaps provide feedback or collaborate

6. Universal Design – What do we mean?
Universal Design (Defined/Origins)
So, let’s begin by briefly reviewing what we mean by UD and accessibility – to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Also, I’ll be using slides and content that I use in the UD class that I teach – so you’ll get a sense of how I approach this topic in class.
[Ask audience for their definition]
UD – term coined by Ron Mace in the 1980s – it grew out of the civil rights, disability rights and accessibility movements (source: . Referred more toward physical environment. It also stemmed somewhat from the recognition or the philosophy that accessibility provides not only benefits to persons with disabilities but to many populations across the demographic spectrum. The ubiquitous and most used example of this is the curb cut – not only providing access and egress to persons in wheelchairs but to persons with babystrollers, wheeled luggage, delivery persons or anyone with a wheeled device.
In contrast to an accessibility focus, it advocated for the inclusion of accessible environments and products from the beginning of a design project, not after the fact.
Above definition – developed by Ron Mace and the Center for Universal Design - is the most common according the Steinfeld and Roger O. Smith from Universal Design for Quality of
Life Technologies, Vol. 100, /$ IEEE No. 8, August 2012 | Proceedings of the IEEE, pg 2539.

7. Universal Design – What do we mean?
Universal Design (Defined/Origins)
Universal Design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design – Ron Mace, Architect
So, let’s begin by briefly reviewing what we mean by UD and accessibility – to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Also, I’ll be using slides and content that I use in the UD class that I teach – so you’ll get a sense of how I approach this topic in class.
UD – term coined by Ron Mace in the 1980s – it grew out of the civil rights, disability rights and accessibility movements (source: . Referred more toward physical environment. It also stemmed somewhat from the recognition or the philosophy that accessibility provides not only benefits to persons with disabilities but to many populations across the demographic spectrum. The ubiquitous and most used example of this is the curb cut – not only providing access and egress to persons in wheelchairs but to persons with babystrollers, wheeled luggage, delivery persons or anyone with a wheeled device.
In contrast to an accessibility focus, it advocated for the inclusion of accessible environments and products from the beginning of a design project, not after the fact.
Above definition – developed by Ron Mace and the Center for Universal Design - is the most common according the Steinfeld and Roger O. Smith from Universal Design for Quality of
Life Technologies, Vol. 100, /$ IEEE No. 8, August 2012 | Proceedings of the IEEE, pg 2539.

8. UD Defined – variations on a theme
…[T]he practice of designing products or environments that can be effectively and efficiently used by people with a wide range of abilities operating in a wide range of situations (Vanderheiden, 1997, p. 2014).
…[B]uilding products that are robust and accommodating. Universal designs take account of differences in sight, hearing, mobility, speech, and cognition. Universal design helps not only people with disabilities, but also any of us when we’re tired, busy, or juggling many tasks (Francik, 1996).
Over time, other designers, architects and educators have added to or modified Mace’s definition which initially focused more on the built environment. These definitions have extended the UD concept to education, to the digital world, and to services in general.
A number of other definitions of UD
…[T]he practice of designing products or environments that can be effectively and efficiently used by people with a wide range of abilities operating in a wide range of situations (Vanderheiden, 1997, p. 2014).
…[B]uilding products that are robust and accommodating. Universal designs take account of differences in sight, hearing, mobility, speech, and cognition. Universal design helps not only people with disabilities, but also any of us when we're tired, busy, or juggling many tasks (Francik, 1996).

9. “Universal design implies a process that goes beyond minimum access codes and standards, to design environments that are comfortably usable by people from childhood into their oldest years.”
- Nasar & Evans-Cowley, eds Universal Design & Visitability.
Going beyond code – thus focusing on user-centered design.

10. Definition of Accessibility
Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities. [1] 
Includes both "direct access" (i.e. unassisted) and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology.
Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities,[1] 
including both "direct access" (i.e. unassisted) and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology.
The first bullet point is from Wikipedia but since they sourced it to Shawn Henry,

11. Universal Design vs. Accessibility

12. What about accessibility? How is it different from usability?
Vs. Usability
What about accessibility? How is it different from usability?
What follows in the presentation relates and is intrinsic to the grant.

13. Vs. Usability
What about accessibility? Isn’t that a part of usability?
And they’re right of course. Unless you’re going to make a blanket statement that people with disability are not apart of your audience, you really can’t say your site is usable unless it’s accessible.
- Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think
What follows in the presentation relates and is intrinsic to the grant.

14. Assistive Technology or Special Adaptation Universal Design
After the fact
Before the fact
Individual adjusts to unaltered environment
Alters environment and information
Burden on the user
Burden on the designer
Consumable, with limited use
Used by many in various circumstances
High cost
Lower cost
May need to adjust above chart – really refers to AT vs. UD
Juli Albiero-Walton, Incorporating UDL into Online Curriculum [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved July 28, 2014 from

15. Skating Ring - Ottawa, Ontario
Accessibility vs. UD
Skating Ring - Ottawa, Ontario
Accessibility vs. UD – sometimes easier to describe the difference in the physical environment.
Slides that I use in my class.
Notice grade of ramp on right – about 30%.
Shanghai, China

16. Accessibility vs. UD Graham Park BART – San Francisco
Example of a more Universal Design approach to ramps.
These seem to have been planned out during the design of the project, they fit in with the overall design, they’re non-obtrusive and aesthetically pleasing.
Graham Park
BART – San Francisco

17. Accessibility vs. Universal Design in the electronic environment.
Kennedy Center Web Page (from 2014)
Notice that calendar for text only version are for 2006 events. These screen shots are from 2014.

18. Importance of Teaching UD Social Case
The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Tim Berners-Lee
It’s the right thing to do.
Aging population.
World is increasingly globalized.

19. Importance of Teaching UD Business Case
Teach Access Survey
Tech company language on hiring folks with disabilities
Accessibility consultant shortage
ATLAS class survey
Work in:
When I’ve polled students in my Accessible Web Design class about their previous exposure to accessibility topics in their previous tech classes, they indicate it has been minimal. Interestingly, when I’ve talked to the ATLAS faculty – the department where I teach my UD class – most of them indicate that they include accessibility issues in their curriculum. So either they’re overestimating their teaching of the topic or perhaps the time spent on the topic is so brief that it’s not something that students remember hearing about.

20. Importance of diversity in business case studies
NPR Story
“Harvard Business School Moves To Study More Diverse Cases”
Importance of diversity in business case studies
How does it relate to UD and Accessibility?
What follows in the presentation relates and is intrinsic to the grant.

21. Campus & Faculty Conceptions of Universal Design
“[F]ew postsecondary administrators, faculty, and staff are even marginally acquainted with Universal Design or Universal Instructional Design” (Higbee & Goff, eds. 2008)
Faculty at CU – may not have the definitive definition or understanding of UD
Confusion on the distinction of “UD content”.
Although faculty may not be able to provide the classic Ron Mace definition or one of it’s derivatives, they usually associate it with accessibility.
Faculty like Karin relate it to the specific techniques they use – separating content from presentation.

22. Example Courses

23. Universal Design for Digital Media
Course Outline
(text version on next slide)
Course – divided into about 4 major segments
Introduction to disability, including disability demographics, the ageing of the population, the history of disability rights and laws, and what it means for products and environments to be accessible and the technology persons with disabilities use of access to digital environments and information.
Focus on general design concepts, starting with the physical environment and then applying these concepts to the digital environment. I used the design concepts of perceived affordance, constraints and feedback. Will talk about this more in a bit.
Then we talk about general design concepts for web design, including the importance of web standards, usability and concepts such as interaction design, information architecture, etc., semantic and structured design, using CSS appropriately.
We then get into the specifics of accessible coding techniques for forms, tables, and rich-internet applications
During the final weeks of the course the students work on group projects, identifying a website for redesign and improved accessibility.

24. Course Outline
Week 1 (Introduction to Universal Design: for whom are we designing and why?)
Week 2 (Learning the language of design...)
Week 3 (General design principles, introduction to web design)
Week 4 (Interaction Design & Information architecture)
Week 5 (The Case for Web Standards)
Week 6 (Structure & Semantics: Document Object Model )-
Week 7 (Structure, xhtml...)
Week 8 (Presentation w\ a dash of Behavior, CSS)
Week 9 (Presentation continued…, behavior)
Week 10 (Accessibility)
Week 11 - Break
Week 12 (The Mobile Web & Accessibility)
Week 13 (Rich Internet Applications)
Week 14 (HTML 5)
Not only about accessibility
Although class starts out talking about disability populations, aging demographics and other populations that should be considered when designing with UD principles. And we have 2 weeks of focus on Accessibility

25. Web Standards our strategy for UD for the Web
So what are the tools we are going to use
I’m going to talk more now about Web Standards
Means we use html as recommended by the W3C
starting with xhtml 1 or html 4

26. Web Standards Using Web Standards as a Universal Design foundation
semantic HTML markup
CSS layout, the separating of content from layout & formatting
Standard coding
Html 4.0 – first web standard for html
Xhtml 1.0
Why do I say Web Standards brings you 90% of the way to accessibility?
Web Standards have been very good for accessibility – why?
Because web standards emphasize semantic markup – including alt text for images and other non-text elements.
Because semantic markup -
Before Web Standards
(perhaps show or have them look at css zen-garden – to demonstrate the power of external style sheets. Remind them to look at high contrast view via style sheet found in web accessibility toolbar in firefox).

27. All the areas we’ll at least try to cover today
(Following up on how the other 2 categories correspond to particular features).
(Maybe print this as a handout)

28. Universal Design – pyramid comprised of Web Standards Foundation, followed above with Usability / Design Best Practices with Accessibility at the top of the pyramid
Universal Design
Accessibility
Keyboard Access
Alternate Text
Usability / Design Best Practices
Consistent & Clear
Navigation
Visibility
Feedback
Visual Alignment
Typography
User control
Web  
Standards
Semantic Markup
Separation of style from content
Standard coding
Table/text version of last slide

29. Books & Curriculum Material
A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences
Norman, David A. The Design of Everyday Things (2002).
Cooper, Alan; Reimann Robert M. About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design (2003)
InterACT with Web Standards: A holistic approach to web design, Anderson, et. al.
Chisholm / May & Zeldman foundation of course

30. A Web For Everyone Personas
Excerpts

31. No Book Version WAI – How people with disabilities use the web
Universal Design for Digital Media (eBook)
Check out what other resources I use for the no book online class.

32. Aspects of Course that particularly effective at promoting UD
Emphasis on multi-faceted benefits – mobile, SEO, etc.
AT User Interview
Use of screen reader and other evaluation tools
Opportunity for them to redesign a site of their choice
I’m going to focus on Web Standards

33. Other Courses
Intro to HCI: Teaching Accessibility & Universal Design Concepts Through the Use of Public Policy Projects
Also,
Professor of Computer and Information Sciences Director, Undergraduate Program in Information Systems
Course: Introduction to HCI
Jonathan Lazar, Universal Usability Laboratory, Towson University

34. Intro to Human Computer Interaction
Teaching a11y & UD concepts through the use of Public Policy Projects.
Intro to Human Computer Interaction
Students Learn:
Range of user abilities / disabilities
International guidelines related to web a11y – WCAG 2.0
Assistive Technology
Specific details of federal & state laws related to accessibility
Accessibility Testing
Better title would probably be: Teaching Accessibility & Universal Design Concepts through the use of Public Policy Projects.

35. Accessibility Testing
Teaching a11y & UD concepts through the use of Public Policy Projects.
Accessibility Testing
Screenreader
Written set of instructions for absolute minimal accessibility inspection (amai)
Manual testing – avoids automated tools
After training on testing, students then perform series of tests on websites required under law to be accessible.
Reports sent to government agencies
Could include university websites
State government websites, etc.
By sending reports off to government agencies, students learn that their actions can affect change.
Emphasize that students need a lot of practice and exercises before going out to test pages on their own.
Mention that Jonathan checks their reports before students send to government agency or university department.
(No longer does this because class is too large).

36. Teaching a11y & UD concepts through the use of Public Policy Projects.
Sites to Test
Starts with university home page, then department pages, then local pages students are familiar with.
Course content & student administrative sites – school application, registration, parking, etc.
Local government and commercial sites that are legally required to be accessible.

37. Student & Pedagogical Benefits
Teaching a11y & UD concepts through the use of Public Policy Projects.
Student & Pedagogical Benefits
Students learn technological skills to determine a11y
Develop empathy
Promote advocacy
The intersection (and limitations) of public policy and accessibility
Talk about evaluation of airline sites. United and U.S. Air not following rules. Treatment of persons with disabilities by phone service people.

38. Teach Access Other Resources / Projects Originated at Yahoo! Goal
Collaboration between tech companies, faculty and accessibility specialists
Goal
Increase accessibility knowledge and skills among tech and design professionals

39. Teach Access - Initiatives
Other Resources / Projects
Teach Access - Initiatives
Include accessibility in tech job requirements
Conduct faculty training
Provide guest speakers from tech companies for the classroom
Develop training tutorials on accessibility
Tutorial is start of teaching repository on teaching accessibility

40. Other Resources / Projects
Promoting the Integration of UD Content into University Curriculum (UDUC)
Increasing the amount of classes that address UD (content) in post-secondary
Determining resource needs for teaching UD
Developing resources for teaching UD – syllabi, curriculum, teaching resources, etc.
Sampling familiarity of students taking design/tech classes
Surveying benefit of UD and accessibility skills in obtaining employment
2-year NEA grant
Resources could be a curriculum exchange or model curriculum components.

41. Other Resources / Projects
Promoting the Integration of UD Content into University Curriculum (UDUC)
Jump to actual URL
Show videos and then Terrill’s course
Then link to Web site

42. Other Resources / Projects
Promoting the Integration of UD Content into University Curriculum (UDUC)
Increasing the amount of classes that address UD (content) in post-secondary
Determining resource needs for teaching UD
Developing resources for teaching UD – syllabi, curriculum, teaching resources, etc.
Sampling familiarity of students taking design/tech classes
Surveying benefit of UD and accessibility skills in obtaining employment
2-year NEA grant
Resources could be a curriculum exchange or model curriculum components.

43. Other Resources / Projects
W3C WAI Resources
Before and After Demonstration (BAD)
Web Accessibility Tutorials
Developing Presentations and Training
Future Resources
Already talked about “how people with disabilities use the web”, particularly the personas
Before and after – show forms (survey)
Web Accessibility Tutorials
Developing presentations and training

44. Opportunities for Collaboration
Sharing of Resources
E-text book
Joining UDUC network/mailing list
Distributing surveys – initial knowledge of UD/a11y and follow-up

45. Other Curriculum Resources
A List Apart - Link-Rodrigue, The Inclusion Principle,
W3C Web Standards Curriculum
Usability.gov
Sitepoint.com

46. Other Curriculum Resources
First Principles of Interaction Design” (
“Personas”

47. Accessing Higher Ground Conference
Accessible Media, Web & Technology
November 13 – 19, 2017
Westin Hotel - between Boulder & Denver
Faculty boot camp – collaboration with Teach Access
Still accepting proposals until end of May
Show handouts page – mention can buy audio