Student Benefits And Teaching Resources For Including Accessibility/Inclusive Design Topics In University Courses

This session will discuss the results from a national survey to gauge the student benefits of taking accessibility and Universal Design topics in post-secondary courses. About a dozen programs and schools with a focus on Computer Science, Digital Media, Environmental Design, or other technical or design-related programs, agreed to distribute the survey to their current students and recent graduates. To date we have received 174 responses. Students who had taken these topics overwhelmingly rated these topics as either crucial (48.3%) or very valuable (31.7%). The results of this preliminary survey support the idea that including courses with these topics has notable work or career benefits, including finding employment. Other findings and resources for teaching about accessibility will also be addressed.