Evaluating Instructor Strategy and Student Learning Through Digital Accessibility Course Enhancements
Claire Ferrari, Devorah Kletenik, Kate Sonka, Deborah Sturm, Amy Hurst · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019) · doi:10.1145/3308561.3353795
Summary
This paper evaluates the Teach Access Curriculum Development Awards program, an initiative by the Teach Access consortium (comprising 10 industry partners including Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, 5 advocacy groups, and 20 university partners) to integrate digital accessibility into existing university courses. The program awarded \,000 stipends to instructors to develop accessibility modules for tech-related courses. The study examines 18 courses across Computing, Non-Computing Art, and Non-Computing Psychology/Education departments during the 2018-2019 academic year, with approximately 400 students completing pre-instruction surveys and 354 completing both pre- and post-instruction surveys. The researchers addressed four questions: what learning objectives and methods instructors use, what instructors think supports learning, what materials and delivery methods support student learning, and how learning objectives influence accessibility outcomes. Courses ranged widely in accessibility content density, from 1 to 26 dedicated lectures, and used varied delivery methods including lectures, in-class activities, homework, team projects, simulation exercises, field trips, and service learning. Resources commonly used included the Teach Access Tutorial, WCAG, WebAIM, and DO-IT materials, though several instructors reported difficulty with the volume and technical density of available resources.
Key findings
Student confidence increased across all eight accessibility-related survey questions after instruction. The largest gains were in defining the ADA (pre: 2.5, post: 3.98, delta: 1.48) and explaining WCAG (pre: 2.1, post: 3.64, delta: 1.54) — areas where students started with the lowest confidence. Confidence in giving examples of inclusive design increased by 1.04 points, and assistive technology knowledge by 0.88 points. Students already had relatively high pre-instruction confidence in identifying disability types (4.4) and technology barriers (3.9), limiting room for growth. Design and web students showed the greatest overall confidence increases. A counterintuitive finding emerged: courses with fewer accessibility-specific lectures (1-7) showed higher average post-instruction confidence than courses with more lectures. The authors speculate this may indicate that concentrated, experiential learning is more effective than extensive lecture-based coverage. Instructors reported that experiential methods — simulation exercises, field trips, service learning, screen reader demos, and direct interaction with people with disabilities — were the most effective delivery approaches, even though lectures and in-class activities were the most commonly used. Qualitatively, 350 student responses about applying their learning showed strong themes of awareness and intent to implement accessibility best practices, with 58 responses specifically referencing techniques like alt-text, color contrast, WAVE, and VoiceOver.
Relevance
This study provides the most comprehensive evaluation to date of how accessibility is being integrated across diverse university departments and course types. For organizations building accessibility capacity, the finding that 60% of tech companies struggle to find candidates with accessibility skills underscores the urgency of this work. The practical insight that fewer, more experiential accessibility sessions may outperform extensive lecture coverage is valuable for curriculum designers. The WCAG finding is particularly telling — instructors found WCAG documents "ironically, inaccessible for many beginners," suggesting that the standards themselves create a barrier to accessibility education. Student interest in accessibility remained largely unchanged (pre: 3.4, post: 3.6), indicating that while confidence grows through instruction, motivating students to pursue accessibility careers requires different interventions, such as showcasing career opportunities and research needs. For accessibility practitioners involved in training or organizational capacity building, this paper demonstrates that even short accessibility modules can meaningfully increase student confidence, but that experiential components — not just lectures — are key to deeper engagement.
Tags: accessibility education · higher education · curriculum development · WCAG · universal design · inclusive design · workforce development
Standards referenced: WCAG 2.0 · WCAG 2.1 · ADA