Universal Design in the Curriculum
Including universal/accessible design content in a course teaching future professionals in a field can contribute to the design of products, environments, and services that are inclusive of diverse users, including those with disabilities. The resources below can help faculty integrate universal/accessible design into their curriculum.
View
- Teaching Accessibility: Including Accessibility in Your Courses
- Building Capacity to Increase the Participation of People with Disabilities in Engineering
Read
- Universal Design of Web Pages in Class Projects
- Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses
- Teach Access Tutorial for Accessible Mobile and Web Apps
- Disability, Accessibility, and Universal Design in the Engineering Curriculum
- Web Design and Development (WebD2)
Access Q&As, Case Studies and Promising Practices
- How can I integrate disability-related topics into the classes that I teach?
- What is universal design?
- What is the difference between accessible, usable, and universal design?
- Why is it important to integrate disability, accessibility, and universal design content into engineering courses?
- How can universal design, disability, and accessibility topics be integrated into the engineering curriculum?
- How can you introduce accessibility topics in engineering courses?
- How can you prepare engineering students to work with people with disabilities?
- How might teaching about universal design help to diversify the engineering student body?
- Teaching About Accessibility: A Promising Practice for Integrating Accessibility Topics in Computing and IT Courses
- What are some examples of engineering courses that teach about disability, accessibility, or universal design?
- Where can I find examples of engineering senior design projects that help individuals with disabilities?
- Bioengineering Capstone Projects: A Promising Practice in Integrating Universal Design Concepts into Engineering Curriculum
- Making Design Reviews Accessible to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Participants: A Promising Practice in Engineering Education
- Accessible Outdoor Table Design: A Case Study in Teaching Design Students to Think Universally
- How can faculty be encouraged to include accessibility topics in computing curriculum?
- Design Projects That Serve Veterans with Disabilities: A Promising Practice in Teaching How to Design Assistive Technology
- Shaping the Future of Cyberlearning: A Promising Practice for Promoting Accessibility in Cyberlearning Projects
- How can web design teachers learn to incorporate web accessibility in their courses?
- Where can I learn about incorporating accessibility topics in computing/IT courses?
- Find more in DO-IT’s Searchable Knowledge Base.
Explore Examples of Specific Courses
- 6.811: Principles and Practice of Assistive Technology (PPAT)
A semester-long, project-based course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focused on the design and engineering of customized assistive devices for people with disabilities. Additional information about PPAT can be found at MIT Open CourseWare. - Perspectives in Assistive Technology, at Stanford University, explores the design, development, and use of technology that benefits people with disabilities and older adults.
- Assistive Technology Design Projects,
A capstone design course at Duke University that pairs students with health care professionals to build custom assistive, recreational, or therapeutic devices for people with disabilities in the local community. - The Accessibility Capstone in Computer Science and Engineering
A capstone at the University of Washington that has students work in teams to create new applications on cell phones that allow persons with disabilities to accomplish tasks that would be difficult to impossible to do without their applications. - The Adaptive Toy Project
This course at the University of North Florida has taught a special topics course focused on engineering innovative adaptive toy technologies to help engage children with disabilities in play. - Investigating Normal at Olin College is a critical disability studies seminar housed in a design-build studio. Engineers and designers solve problems and ask questions—about normalcy, ability, and cultural ideas of the body.
- A free course curriculum on web design and development that integrates accessibility into lessons on design and site planning, HTML coding, cascading style sheets, JavaScript, and web authoring tools.
- Strategies for integrating accessible design principles into existing courses.
- This tutorial will help you get a solid footing on accessibility via hands-on exercises and useful reference guides.
- A presentation by Richard Ladner and Matt May about how to teach accessibility.
- "MILK" modules are classroom ready educational components that teach students and developers how to create accessible mobile applications, along with demonstrating the importance of creating these apps.
- AP Computer Science Principles Quorum Curriculum
Accessible curriculum based on the Code.org AP Computer Science Principles curriculum. - An accessible version of Exploring Computer Science Unit 4 that utilizes the Quorum Programming Language.