No User Left Behind: Including Accessibility in Student Projects and the Impact on CS Students’ Attitudes

  • Authors:

  • G. Michael Poor;Laura M. Leventhal;Julie Barnes;Duke R. Hutchings;Paul Albee;Laura Campbell

  • Affiliations:

  • Bowling Green State University;Bowling Green State University;Bowling Green State University;Elon University;Central Michigan University;Central Michigan University

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE)
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Usability and accessibility have become increasingly important in computing curricula. This article briefly reviews how these concepts may be included in existing courses. The authors conducted a survey of student attitudes toward these issues at the start and end of a usability engineering course that included a group project with an accessibility component. Results of the survey indicate that students’ awareness of issues related to usability and accessibility are increased after taking the course and completing the project. Our work and results are potentially valuable to CS educators in three ways: (1) They validate the usefulness of the survey instrument in assessing pedagogies in usability engineering, (2) They provide useful insights into the attitudes of CS majors relative to the important topics of usability and accessibility, and (3) They point to possible benefits of including usability and accessibility topics into CS curricula.