Teaching Accessibility & Universal
Design Concepts Through the
Use of Public Policy Projects
Dr. Jonathan Lazar
Dept of Computer and Information Sciences
and Universal Usability Laboratory
Towson University
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How do you structure a research paper
assignment in a way that it:
Is interesting to the students?
 Is unlikely to simply be copied from the
Internet?
 Will actually help students understand
concepts in a hands-on way?
 Will perform something useful for society?
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And also deal with the fact that…
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Much of the policymaking that occurs in the
area of IT accessibility, is done using LITTLE
TO NO EMPIRICAL DATA!!!
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Policymakers are starving for data to
understand what’s going on!
Old Research Paper Assignments
Comic from
http://www.anthonyarroyodotcom.com
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Human-Computer Interaction undergraduate class
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All Information Systems and Information Technology
majors
Students chose their own topic within HCI
10-12 page paper
With citations and references
New approach to research papers
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Class-wide public policy projects
Students learn:
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1. international guidelines related to web
accessibility
2. how to evaluate web sites for accessibility
3. specific details of federal and state laws related
to web accessibility
The students then perform a series of
accessibility inspections on a group of web
sites that are required under law to be
accessible
Why this approach is better
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Students appreciate the hands-on nature of
the evaluations
Students are more engaged, since it’s useful
writing for an external audience
Students experience the relationship between
law and human-computer interaction
Students see that their work can have a real
impact
How the “Intro to HCI” class is structured
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Junior/Senior undergraduate level course
Nearly all students come in with basic web
programming skills
Most students come in with no understanding
of UD or HCI, and no background in the area
of disability or accessibility
I introduce the topics of web accessibility and
public policy
I ask students to utilize a screenreader
(download when necessary)
Students Learn
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Web Accessibility
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Public Policy
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Screen readers, captioning, and other types of
assistive technologies
WCAG 2.0
Section 508
Maryland IT Non-Visual Access Regulations
Americans with Disabilities Act
Students learn 1) who is legally required to
be accessible and 2) what that means to be
accessible
Practice, practice, practice
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Students can’t just do an accessibility
inspection for the first time and become
confident and knowledgeable
You need to do a LOT of exercises first!
Start with the university home page, then
departmental web pages, then local
organizations that students are familiar with
Encourage questioning and admitting
confusion
Method for the accessibility evaluations
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Use a screen reader, along with a written set of
instructions on accessibility inspections
1. Listen to the web page being read out loud,
while looking at the page
2. Use three common navigation methods:
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Headers
Links lists
Keyword searching
3. Check the web page code for compliance with
each one of the legal paragraphs
The evaluation covers more than just blind users
Categories of potential study
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State or local government web sites
University web sites
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Including course materials, videos, and lifecycle
systems (applying to college, registering for
classes, and applying for graduation)
Local stores which would fall under legal
requirements
Public transportation (busses, subway, etc.)
Public libraries
Method for the evaluations
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Each web page gets 5 individual inspections
from students
Group meeting is held, where professor leads a
discussion of the differences in each of the 5
inspections
One student is the “lead” evaluator for that web
page, and integrates the discussion into a
meta-evaluation, summarizing all 5 reviews
Be clear, that each individual evaluation won’t
be perfect
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Also helps teach about why we do multiple reviewers
Outcomes
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The class summarizes the data in a series of
online spreadsheets
The professor takes the leadership role on
writing up the report (students comment on it)
Final report is sent to appropriate local, state,
or federal government officials
Final report is also submitted for potential
publication in a conference or journal, with all
students as co-authors
What happens if it doesn’t work?
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If students don’t follow through or take the
evaluations seriously
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No report is written
No data is sent outside of the class
But students still get hands-on experience doing
accessibility inspections
So you can’t PROMISE a report to any outside
entities before the semester is over with
Previous Examples
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Job placement and travel web sites (Spring
2010)
E-commerce web sites where there are webonly prices and also physical stores (Fall 2010)
Maryland Public Library web sites (Spring 2011)
Airline web sites (Fall 2009 and Fall 2011)
Maryland state government web sites (Spring
2012)
Suggestions for educators
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Undergraduate students are not immediately
experts in something that they just learned,
they need practice!
There need to be pedagogical-related goals
for these projects!
The professor needs to check, and check,
and re-check the data!
Be aware of any potential politics