DO-IT - College

The Neurodiversity Initiative: A Promising Practice for Promoting Disability Awareness in Higher Education

swb3 — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 17:59:31 +0000

The Neurodiversity Initiative at the College of William and Mary seeks to educate the campus about the positive aspects of embracing neurodiversity, and ultimately to be a model for other campuses. As stated on their website, "The Neurodiversity Initiative is an innovative program that is raising awareness on our campus of the vast array of brain differences and cultivating an appreciation of the many kinds of talents we can nurture at our historic institution. We seek both to serve our campus community and to be a model for other campuses with regard to how to engage this issue and support these students." The program has two goals. The first goal is for "Neurodivergent students of all types to be comfortable and successful" through enhanced supports on campus, including the counseling center and residence halls. Their second goal is to make the campus community "aware of both the unique strengths and unique needs of neurodiverse people." The Initiative explicitly states that neurological diversity joins racial and cultural diversity as essential elements at the university.

The Neurodiversity Working Group—composed of administrators, alumni, community partners, faculty, staff, and students—organizes campus events and programs in support of the Neurodiversity Initiative.

The Neurodiversity Initiative is viewed as a Promising Practice for its enthusiastic work to promote disability awareness at an institute of higher education, and its involvement of high-level administrators among broad membership.

For more information about neurodiversity, visit Across Campus and Beyond: A Promising Practice to Increase Conversations about Neurodiversity in the Engineering Classroom, California Academy of Sciences: A Promising Practice in Planning for Visitors who are Neurodiverse, and the Neuroscience for Neurodiverse Learners website.

What is neuroethics and how does it relate to people with disabilities?

swb3 — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 17:17:47 +0000

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Brain Initiative website, neuroethics is “a field that studies the ethical, legal, and societal implications of neuroscience.” The strategic plan for the NIH BRAIN Initiative, BRAIN 2025: A Scientific Vision, emphasizes “Although brain research entails ethical issues that are common to other areas of biomedical science, it entails special ethical considerations as well. Because the brain gives rise to consciousness, our innermost thoughts, and our most basic human needs, mechanistic studies of the brain have already resulted in new social and ethical questions.”

The questions that neuroethicists explore have vast implications for people with disabilities, who may adopt technology and drug treatments created in the field of neuroscience.

The concept of “nothing about us without us” suggests that people with disabilities should be involved in the field of neuroethics, as well as neuroscience itself, to ensure that their voices are included in critical conversations and decisions that impact people with disabilities. Including people with disabilities in neuroethics and neuroscience will also help ensure that principles of universal design (UD) are adopted as new technology is designed and developed. Through the promotion and implementation of UD, they can help ensure that neuroscience products are accessible to people with varying characteristics and abilities. For examples, view the publication Equal Access: Universal Design of Neuroscience Education and Research.

To learn more about neuroethics and how it involves people with disabilities, visit the Brain Initiative’s website about the Neuroethics Working Group, or explore postsecondary institutions to see if they have programming, such as the ��ԭ��’s Neuroethics program. View the perspective of students with disabilities as they discuss emerging technology that can enhance the human body and mind in the video presentation Technology Advancements and Disability Identity.

What do “neurodiverse” and “neurodivergent” mean?

swb3 — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 16:50:29 +0000

Terms such as “neurodiverse” and “neurodivergent” were introduced in the 1990s by autistic sociologist Judy Singer as an alternative to deficit-based language, such as “disorder.” Singer highlighted notable strengths of many individuals in the autistic population that include abilities to focus, recognize patterns, and remember factual information. A “neurodivergent” person refers to a person on the autism spectrum or, more generally, to someone whose brain processes information in a way that is not typical of most individuals. These people may have learning disabilities, attention deficit and anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Tourette’s syndrome. Through a neurodiversity lens, such conditions reflect different ways of being that are all normal human experiences.

Although “neurodiversity” is usually used to describe a group of neurodivergent individuals, it also refers to all of humankind because everyone has a unique way of processing information.

For a project that works with neurodiverse students, consult the DO-IT website Neuroscience for Neurodiverse Learners.

For further information regarding neurodiversity, consult Harvard's What is Neurodiversity?, How do neurodiverse and neurotypical software engineers differ in the workplace?, and this article by the Neurodiversity Hub.

How can students with disabilities arrange for accommodations at a postsecondary institution?

lylac — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 19:29:42 +0000

Date Updated:

04/07/21

In order for students with disabilities enrolled in postsecondary institutions to receive disability-related accommodations, typically they must first register with the institution’s office of disability services for students. Procedures and documentation requirements vary from institution to institution so it is important that students contact disability services early to ensure their accommodations will be in place prior to the start of each academic term.

Common accommodations students with disabilities request include the remediation inaccessible PDFs and other documents into accessible formats, captioned videos, a note taker, and extra time on assignments and tests.

For a description of their rights and responsibilities with respect to access, postsecondary students can consult Students with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education: Know Your Rights and Responsibilities.

How can students with disabilities arrange for accommodations in an online course?

lylac — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 19:26:40 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

Common accommodations students with disabilities request in online courses include the remediation of inaccessible PDFs and other documents into accessible formats, captioned videos, and extra time on assignments and tests. Accommodations should be requested in the same way they are requested for onsite courses. To receive accommodations from a postsecondary institution, students should contact the campus disability services office for information about documentation requirements and procedures. For a description of their rights and responsibilities with respect to access to online courses, students can consult Students with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education: Know Your Rights and Responsibilities.

To receive accommodations for online presentations and courses offered by entities other than a postsecondary institution, students should contact administrators of the host organization.

Are there Hour of Code activities that are accessible to students with visual impairments?

brianna — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:29:24 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

Code.org’s Hour of Code activities are one-hour tutorials designed to expose K-12 students to coding and other aspects of computer science. Although there are numerous Hour of Code projects, many are not accessible to students who are blind and visually impaired. However, there are two that utilize the Quorum programming language and are accessible.

Code with Mary, Astronomy, Dash Joins a Dance Circle (K-5), and Dash Joins a Dance Circle (with functions) (6-8) are fully accessible to students with visual impairments and can also be used with a classroom of sighted students. Currently, there are no other accessible Hour of Code activities.

For more information about Code.org and students with disabilities, consult Supporting Students with Disabilities for the Hour of Code.

For more information about accessible K-12 computer science, consult the following knowledge base articles:

Teaching ��ԭ�� Accessibility: A Promising Practice for Integrating Accessibility Topics in Computing and IT Courses

lylac — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:58:12 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

The Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing) leads activities to increase the participation of people with disabilities, including veterans, in computing and information technology (IT) postsecondary education and career fields. Activities for educators and employers are designed to build awareness of universal design and accommodation strategies, and to aid in recruiting and supporting students with disabilities through the development of inclusive programs and education on promising practices.

On November 13, 2018 in Westminster, CO. AccessComputing-sponsored a capacity building institute (CBI) that was held as part of the Accessing Higher Ground (AHG) conference. At this one-day CBI, participants shared and learned about how accessibility topics can be integrated into computing/IT courses and how faculty in these fields can be encouraged to include accessibility topics in their courses. Promising practices and resources were shared by multiple presenters with diverse backgrounds. Teaching about accessibility in postsecondary computing education will result in a high tech workforce able to design and develop technology usable for a wide audience, including individuals with disabilities.

Promising practices shared at the CBI included:

Introduction to Universal Design
Implications of Assistive Technology to the Universal Design of Websites and Software
Accessibility as a Marketable Job Skill
Teach Access Resources on Teaching Accessibility
Accessibility Innovations Matter
Accessibility Web and App Development
Accessible Design Approaches
Accessibility in General Courses
Accessibility Capstone Courses
Engage Students in Conversations ��ԭ�� Accessibility and Disability
Utilize Resources on Campus
Web Accessibility-Related Resources: Online Resources and Books
Accessibility in a Web Design and Development Course
Integrating Accessibility into a Web Development Course
Go Where the Students Go
Web Accessibility and Design

Summaries of presentations, panels, and discussion outcomes can be found in the proceedings for the Teaching ��ԭ�� Accessibility in Computing and IT Courses (2018).

AccessComputing is led by the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science and Engineering, the Information School, and the DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center at the ��ԭ�� (UW). The project is funded by the Computer and Information Science and Education (CISE) program of the National Science Foundation (grant # CNS-1539179). For more information visit AccessComputing.

UW INFO 340 Web Development: A Promising Practice in Including Accessibility in the Computing Curriculum

lylac — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:53:56 +0000

Date Updated:

04/07/21

Changes to curriculum don’t just happen out of nowhere – they come from faculty members thinking about what to teach and searching for new and innovative ways to engage students in the learning process. Instructors often encounter barriers to curricular change, including:

not enough time,
no room for additional topics in the class,
lack of space for more classes in the curriculum, and
insufficient expertise to teach a particular topic, like accessibility.

These barriers can prove daunting for one faculty member to overcome. However, by working as a team, members can challenge and encourage each other to implement change. For example, the ��ԭ�� hired three lecturers to teach INFO 340, a course on client-side web development. The instructors participated together in web accessibility training and strategized about how they could include the information in their courses. Ultimately, one instructor took the lead on adding accessibility content to the course, including a lecture on accessible HTML and an Accessibility Challenge in which students must add accessibility markup to an existing web page and create their own accessible web page from scratch.

The additional content not only incorporated information about accessibility, but also served to make the lesson on markup more compelling. The instructor who added the content committed to teaching the new markup lesson over the summer. The new lesson worked well and was engaging for students. Based on this trial, all of the instructors implemented the accessibility content in subsequent sections of the course. The director of the undergraduate program championed the change throughout the process by arranging the training and checking in with instructors throughout. In just the first year, over 200 web developers were trained in web accessibility basics.

The UW INFO 340 course is a promising practice for including accessibility in the computing curriculum. You can facilitate similar change by:

identifying a champion (whether this is you or someone else in your department),
surveying your landscape for incentives and capacity for change,
creating sufficient incentives and capacity,
finding the person most motivated to change and managing their change, and
repeating these steps as necessary.

There should also be some long term thought to including accessibility, and adding scheduled time to check that the efforts put forward are not forgotten or waylaid.

For more information about this topic, consult the Including Accessibility in Information School Classes replication package and the Teach Access section of the AccessComputing website.

Kirk and the GRE: A Case Study Regarding the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) and Chronic Pain

lylac — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:59:39 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

Background

Kirk’s nervous system disorder causes him to live with chronic pain. In particular, fine motor tasks like writing, using a computer, or holding a pencil can be extremely painful. Assistive technology to circumvent these tasks and ergonomic workspaces that address his needs reduces pain and increases function. Kirk is in his senior year of his bachelor's program and preparing to apply to PhD programs.

Access Issue

Kirk found that he could not get adequate accommodations to take the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) without significant pain that might preclude him from being able to finish the test. To be successful, he determined that he would need a scribe, an ergonomic chair with flexible positioning, the option to lie down, a monitor that could be used in multiple positions, extended time, and permission to take the exam over multiple days. Even with these accommodations, taking the test could cause Kirk to have a flare up of his symptoms that could interfere with test taking.

Solution

Because of the likelihood of a flare-up combined with concerns that he would not be able to do his best work on the GRE even if he received his recommended accommodations, Kirk decided not to take the GRE. Instead, he asked schools to consider his application without GRE scores. He worked with his undergraduate academic advisor to draft an email message to send to program directors at schools where he applied for admission. The message explained his disability and asked if they would be willing to consider his application based on other criteria. He attached a copy of his vita because he felt that it would help program directors see that he had a strong background and was a serious applicant.

Every school Kirk emailed agreed to consider his application without GRE scores. He also found that through the replies he learned something about the programs’ attitudes towards disability issues and overall culture. Some of them were very respectful and invited further conversations about accommodations. Others were not as welcoming and suggested that Kirk might not be able to do the work their program would require.

Ultimately, Kirk was accepted to multiple programs and enrolled in one that is highly respected.

Conclusion

This case study illustrates:

Students with disabilities can learn more about the culture in a department and determine whether the department is a good fit for them by engaging in conversation about disability with prospective degree programs.
Students with disabilities should be creative in proposing solutions to access barriers and engage in conversations to determine whether there is flexibility in admission requirements.

You might also be interested in Case Study: Exam Accommodations and Anna’s Chronic Illness and How can students with disabilities get accommodations for the GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and other standardized graduate or professional entrance exams?

Case Study: Exam Accommodations and Anna’s Chronic Illness

lylac — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 22:19:45 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

Background

Anna is pursuing a PhD in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization at a large research institution. She has a nervous system disorder which causes chronic pain and sensory processing difficulties. Her disability is mostly invisible, although at times she uses a cane or other mobility aid. She has a limited ability to write. Her health is managed medically to the best degree possible, but pain and fatigue persist. Anna’s accommodations include double time to complete exams and untimed breaks. She was in regular communication with her program about her needs and her accommodations.

Access Issue

In the second year of her program, Anna will take her comprehensive exam. This is a crucial exam that all students must pass in order to continue in the program. The exam is handwritten and scheduled over two days, four hours on the first day and three hours on the second. Doubling that time will be beyond Anna’s endurance and she will be unable to write for that long. Because of the long hours and stress involved, she also expects the exam to cause a flare up of her symptoms that will impact her ability to resume classes afterwards.

Solution

Anna brainstormed potential solutions with many people including professors, advisors from her undergraduate program, trusted peers, and disability services. She sent a proposal to her graduate program director based on these conversations. Because Anna had consistently advocated for herself, her department was not surprised by the request and was open to working together to find accommodations that would allow Anna to be successful. Through negotiation, they reached a set of mutually agreeable accommodations:

The exam was given over four days with a one-day break in the middle in order to allow Anna to take double time at breaks without reaching the point of exhaustion. Anna took the exam over one week, testing on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Anna was excused from classes and other responsibilities for the week.
Anna’s classroom instructors agreed to be flexible about exams and due dates that semester to help mitigate flare-ups that might occur.
Anna took the exam in her office so that she could access assistive technology and ergonomic furniture she uses. To mitigate handwriting the exam, Anna used speech to text software combined with some custom software to turn dictated text into typeset mathematics.
She was given untimed breaks as needed. During these breaks, she could walk around the building (but not talk to anyone), go to the restroom, eat, listen to music, read material unrelated to the exam, or lie down.
Anna maintained a log of her work time on the exam and breaks, and turned this log in with her solutions. This allowed her to demonstrate that she did not use more time than allowed.
She agreed not to communicate with classmates until she had finished the entire exam. She signed the same honor code statement as other students in the program, certifying that her work was her own.
The professor administering the exam provided Anna with a phone number to reach him with any questions.

With these accommodations, Anna was able to complete her exams successfully while managing her health to the best degree possible.

Conclusion

This case study illustrates:

Graduate degree requirements such as comprehensive or general exams may necessitate revisiting students’ accommodations. Accommodations that might typically work may not be sufficient in these unique situations. Compromise may be necessary.
Students with disabilities should be active participants in negotiating their own accommodations. Students bring to the table an understanding of both their own disability and the academic environment.

DO-IT - College

The Neurodiversity Initiative: A Promising Practice for Promoting Disability Awareness in Higher Education

What is neuroethics and how does it relate to people with disabilities?

What do “neurodiverse” and “neurodivergent” mean?

How can students with disabilities arrange for accommodations at a postsecondary institution?

How can students with disabilities arrange for accommodations in an online course?

Are there Hour of Code activities that are accessible to students with visual impairments?

Teaching ����ԭ�� Accessibility: A Promising Practice for Integrating Accessibility Topics in Computing and IT Courses

UW INFO 340 Web Development: A Promising Practice in Including Accessibility in the Computing Curriculum

Kirk and the GRE: A Case Study Regarding the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) and Chronic Pain

Background

Access Issue

Solution

Conclusion

Case Study: Exam Accommodations and Anna’s Chronic Illness

Background

Access Issue

Solution

Conclusion

Teaching ��ԭ�� Accessibility: A Promising Practice for Integrating Accessibility Topics in Computing and IT Courses