Supporting Students with Disabilities

By Joan Francioni

Given that you do not have a physical disability now, do you think you could still do computer science if you were to become blind or be unable to use your hands to type or need to use a wheelchair? Your mind would continue to function in the same logical way. With the help of computer adaptive technology, such as a screen reader, head-controlled keyboard input or just a higher computer table, you would still be able to work on the computer. Thus, there is really no reason why you could not still do computer science. Yet, we have very few students in the computer science pipeline with physical disabilities. Is there some innate reason why these students cannot learn to be computer scientists? Surprisingly, some people in the sciences believe this is true. In this article, we will identify some of the barriers students with disabilities face in science, engineering and mathematics, and look at what is being done and what can be done to remove these barriers.

First, some general statistics. According to the US Census Bureau, in 1995 there were approximately 25 million people in the US between the ages of 15 and 22, of which approximately 3 million (12%) had some type of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 defines disability as a "physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities." This covers a broad range of disabilities. Thus, as is true of the general population, not all people with disabilities will have the aptitude to become computer scientists. However, as you look around at your students, it is very evident that there are far fewer computer science majors with disabilities than 12% of the group.

In the past, a significant barrier to success as a computer scientist was the inability of the person with the disability to interact with a computer independently. As little as seven years ago, people with visual impairments needed another person to sit and read out loud to them what was being displayed on the screen. People who could not type with their hands had to resort to very slow and contorted ways of input, such as using a pencil held in the mouth to type. Although special-purpose adaptive computer devices existed at that time, general purpose computing was still very much inaccessible. It was not until the early 1990’s that reliable and affordable software/hardware adaptive technology started becoming readily available in the PC world. Today basic computer adaptive technology includes screen readers for ASCII, as well as "Windows" output, word completion/prediction software, alternative input devices, affordable scanners and intelligent screen magnifiers. Adaptive technology that works in a UNIX environment has been slower in coming than for PCs; however, that too is now changing.

Limited access to a computer is not the only barrier for a potential computer science student with a disability. These students must also take, and pass, courses in a variety of subjects. In particular, they must take CS, science and mathematics classes (and possibly engineering classes). Adaptive computers help students a great deal in their general education classes. With a scanner and screen reader or text-to-Braille conversion program, blind students have access to all the same printed material as the other students. In addition, they can easily generate written homework and reports for sighted instructors. Students with communication disabilities or hearing disabilities can converse on an equal par with teachers and classmates using e-mail. When Web pages are designed correctly, visually impaired students have just as much information available to them as sighted students.

That’s the good news. Unfortunately, students with disabilities face additional barriers in their science and mathematics classes. In the physical sciences, lab experiments pose a wide range of structural problems for students with disabilities, ranging from lab tables that are too high to instruments that are difficult to manipulate. Understanding graphs, charts and scientific notation is necessary in science and mathematics courses and can be difficult for students with visual disabilities. Learning to program using a graphical environment poses unique problems. Computer adaptive technology, however, can help break these barriers down as well. For example, devices that communicate information from sensors over serial ports to PCs, such as IBM’s Personal Science Laboratory and Radio Shack’s Micronta digital multimeter, allow students to use a computer to "read" instruments measuring such things as temperature, pH, distance and voltage. Portable Braille note-takers or laptops allow students to take their own notes during both labs and lectures.

As for help for the visually impaired in understanding graphs, charts, and scientific notations, adaptive technology offers some viable alternatives. The AsTeR system (Audio System for Technical Readings) produces an audio version of LaTex documents that reflects the structure and content of mathematical formulas. VersaPoint Graphics is a software "capture" package that converts graphical PaintBrush-type images into embossable ASCII format images that can be drawn by a raised-line printer. Other tools of this type also exist or are currently being developed for standard documentation formats, such as Word and HTML.

The basic key, of course, to being able to develop tools like AsTeR and VersaPoint is having information stored digitally. This facilitates rendering the information in different ways, using different media. A problem occurs, however, when there is not a clear separation between the data information and the presentation information in the digital form of a document. For example, when an HTML file contains embedded format commands, the presentation information is tied in with the data information. A tool that is displaying the document in high-contrast colors will fail on a <font color=#993333> in-line format command. On the other hand, if these components are separated, as is the case if the HTML document is designed to use a style sheet, then a visually impaired user can use a magnification or aural style sheet to present the information in an accessible way. This is the goal of "cascading style sheets," which are currently under development. [See suggestion Number 1 below.]

All of these techniques and tools point to more inclusion of students with disabilities in the computer science pipeline. The sad part of the story, however, is that individuals with disabilities report that the single most significant barrier they face is negative attitudes on the part of faculty and employees. Sometimes these negative attitudes are of the subtle variety – little encouragement for disabled students to pursue certain fields, unawareness of how to accommodate students with special needs, no serious effort to recruit students with disabilities. In more blatant situations, administrators and faculty just do not believe that students with disabilities can perform well in science, engineering and mathematics. This is not true, and there are case studies to the contrary in the few schools that actively work to recruit disabled students into science, engineering and mathematics programs. The important thing to remember is that learning these subjects is a cognitive process, involving systematic thought processes. It may be helpful, but it is not necessary to be able to see, touch or hear to understand science and mathematics.

Obviously, school is going to be more difficult for a student with a disability than for one without. Fortunately, adaptive computer technology can significantly increase the chance of success for these students. The use of such specialized computer devices not only allows students with disabilities to do their work, it also gives them the freedom and integrity to work independently. It would seem particularly ironic, therefore, if computer science as a major was inaccessible to these students. We should all work to make sure that does not happen.

10 SIMPLE THINGS THAT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Here is a list of relatively simple things that we, as computer scientists, can do to support students with disabilities who have the ability and the desire to become computer scientists.

1. Design your own HTML documents in an accessible way. [See http://www.microsoft.com/enable/dev/web.htm and http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/#GUIDELINES for general information on accessible HTML documents; see http://www.w3.org/Style/css/#editors for information on cascading style sheets; see http://www.wwwebit.com/magical-mist/ribbon.htm and http://www.cast.org/bobby/ for sites that check HTML documents for accessibility.]

2. Make sure your department’s home page is accessible.

3. Pass this article on to advisors and people teaching introductory CS classes.

4. Encourage promising students that you come into contact with to major in computer science.

5. Become aware of what computer adaptive technology is available at your university.

6. If you have a student with a disability in your class or department, get some background information about relating to people with special needs. [See http://www.rit.edu/~easi/pubs/ezeticut.html and/or contact your university’s Services for Student’s with Disabilities office.]

7. Make assignments/notes electronically accessible.

8. Use redundant multimedia effects where possible in presentations.

9. Use non-verbal and non-aural examples in lectures.

10.Treat students with disabilities with the same respect and consideration you use for other students.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information on computer adaptive technology, see the following websites:

EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) http://www.rit.edu/~easi/

Trace research and Development Center http://www.trace.wisc.edu

University of Washington, DOIT programhttp:??weber.u.washington. edu/ ~doit/

Dr. Joan M. Francioni is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Computer Science Department at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Dr. Francioni is also on the CRN Publications Committee, and the editor of the "Expanding the Pipeline" column. Dr. Francioni’s main area of research involves debugging and performance tools for parallel programming. She has recently begun work in the field of assistive computer technology for people with disabilities. Send any questions you may have to jf@usl.edu.