Purpose
To build a resource that looks at how to incorporate teaching accessibility principles to students as they first learn about coding and digital design.
This resource will help educators by:
- outlining age appropriate accessibility principles that can be integrated into computer science or digital design courses;
- providing learning materials to support teaching these accessibility principles;
- providing guidance on how the educator themselves can learn more about accessibility to support their efforts to teach it.
Scope
The initial scope will focus on students in middle school, generally grades 6, 7, & 8 (ages 11, 12, and 13).
The resource will be broken down into these sections:
- A list of accessibility principles that will resonate with these students
- clear and understandable explanation of the principle
- examples of the principle, either through real-world websites/applications, or through custom built websites
- examples of people with disabilities with negative and positive experiences with the accessibility principle
- A cache of learning materials for each accessibility principle
- different learning materials for different ages
- different learning materials for different stages of learning CS
- Guidance for educators to learn more about accessibility
- General guidance for all educators
- Guidance on topics to learn depending on grade/subjects taught
- Curated lists of links to appropriate external resources
Future scope
As this resource develops, we will explore how to incorporate accessibility principles into learning at a younger age (5-10 years old), potentially outside of the context of computer science classes. One intent of this targeting this age group and non-computer science classes is to ensure that accessibility is considered regardless of the educational and professional direction the student takes.
We will focus on incorporating accessibility principles into computer science and digital design classes, but equally important is to understand accessibility when it comes to digital document creation and digital content creation, as many students will use productivity software throughout their education and into professional lives.
Audience
Primary
Computer science educators in early education (ages 5-13)
Secondary
- Non-computer science educators in early education (ages 5-13)
- Students aged 5-13
User Stories/Use Cases
As a computer science teacher for 13 year old students with some accessibility experience
I want a resource that can provide me with age appropriate digital accessibility learning materials
So that I can incorporate them into my lessons about HTML
As a computer science teacher for 11 year old students with no accessibility experience
I want a resource that can give me direction on how to learn about digital accessibility
So that I can convey age appropriate accessibility principles to my students
As a a 14 year-old computer science student
I want a resource that explains accessibility principles in a clear and understandable way
So that I can learn them well enough to include in my research project
Editor(s)
Brian Elton (belton (at) tpgi.com)
Contributors
Experience needs
We need contributors with a variety of experience:
- Educators of 11 to 13 year old students primarily, but also of 5-18 year old students (to provide knowledge in creating age appropriate learning materials)
- Accessibility professionals (to help break down accessibility principles to their core intent)
- Writers (to ensure accessibility principles are accurately explained in plain language)