ACM Meeting at NJIT Highlights Tech Education for Disabled Students
New Jersey Institute of Technology this summer hosted the 10th edition of the RESPECT conference — Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing and Technology — organized in part by NJIT Ying Wu College of Computing dean Jamie Payton along with informatics faculty Mike Lee and Alisha Pradhan.
Payton, Lee and Pradhan all care deeply about expanding access to computing — Payton is principal investigator of the STARS Computing Corps, Lee is researching code instruction for senior citizens and Pradhan is developing computing resources for dementia patients. More than 100 others joined them at the conference, representing 45 universities across the United States along with the Netherlands, Sweden and Thailand. Formerly an IEEE event, the conference is now led by ACM’s Special Interest Group for Computer Science Education.
“It’s such a pleasure to host the RESPECT conference on the NJIT campus,” Payton said. “This group has an amazing vision for advancing computer science education for all students. This year's conference theme focuses on designing an accessible future, in light of the 50th anniversary of the IDEA act, to increase access to computer science education for students with disabilities.”
Dozens of presenters addressed topics such as case studies and strategies to empower students who are physically disabled, in special education courses or from underprivileged backgrounds. How to make use of artificial intelligence was a popular topic, along with empowerment through data science, gaming and robotics. One session focused on the mistake of assuming that all students have equal experience and knowledge at the start of a class. In other sessions, panelists looked at unique challenges of disabled graduate students.
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Whether it’s in K-12 education, higher education, the workforce or consumer product design, “Making sure that we consider accessibility as our first principle in the design of these systems is incredibly important,” Payton observed. This conference looks at developing an approach from a research lens — what are the best practices for teaching accessible design? And what are best practices for designing accessible computing education? What are the best practices to include K-12 students and students in higher education, who have both visible and invisible disabilities, to have an equal opportunity?”
Patricia Morreale, chair of computer science at Kean University, presented on enabling better access to conferences themselves. “I’m delighted RESPECT is at NJIT,” she said. “I’m learning a lot about accessibility. I'll tell you that even though I'm in computing, it's really exciting to have people from all these different perspectives worried about accessibility.”
Morreale noted that stricter accessibility standards begin next year for federal websites, and that curricula for university students in web design courses needs to keep pace.