Opening Digital Doors: Early Lessons in Software Accessibility for K-8 StudentsK12
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Accessibility is a critical topic in computing education, yet its integration into K-12 curricula has been limited. This gap highlights a significant need to introduce knowledge, awareness, and empathy regarding the challenges people with disabilities face with inaccessible software to K-8 students, as well as to present accessible software solutions. We conducted interviews with 21 K-8 students to gauge their current accessibility knowledge, observed their performance when playing simulation games developed to teach accessibility, and asked them about their experience with the gameplay and its impact on their accessibility awareness. Our findings revealed a notable lack of accessibility education in current K-8 curricula. However, after engaging with the accessibility games, participants showed a marked increase in their curiosity and awareness of the need for accessible design. Our study advances the goal of integrating accessibility education into early computer science education to foster a more inclusive future technological landscape.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Fri 28 FebDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
13:45 - 15:00 | |||
13:45 18mTalk | Accessibility Insights from Student's Software Engineering Projects Papers Wajdi Aljedaani University of North Texas, Parthasarathy PD BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, Swaroop Joshi BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, Marcelo Medeiros Eler University of São Paulo | ||
14:03 18mTalk | Enhancing Accessibility in Software Engineering Projects with Large Language Models (LLMs) Papers Wajdi Aljedaani University of North Texas, Marcelo Medeiros Eler University of São Paulo, Parthasarathy PD BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus | ||
14:22 18mTalk | Opening Digital Doors: Early Lessons in Software Accessibility for K-8 StudentsK12 Papers Chunyu Liu University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Samantha Sy University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Elizabeth Lodvikov Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Jingwen Shan University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Devorah Kletenik Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Rachel F. Adler University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | ||
14:41 18mTalk | Sprint to Inclusion: Embedding Accessibility Sprint in a Software Engineering Course Papers Wajdi Aljedaani University of North Texas, Parthasarathy PD BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, Marcelo Medeiros Eler University of São Paulo, Swaroop Joshi BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus |