IST-2001-38786 IDCnet

D3.3 – Teaching DfA Core Knowledge and Skill Sets: Experiences in including inclusive design

Abstract

The purpose of this document is twofold. Firstly it is to present the teaching pilots that were undertaken by members of the network, and describes the pilot setting and the material taught, as related to the taxonomy of Design for All knowledge and skill sets developed in previous deliverables. Each pilot indicates topics taught and to which categories of the taxonomy they belong. Furthermore, student expectations and reactions to the DfA teaching pilots are described by means of the information gained from questionnaires. In this way the taxonomy is evaluated by the teaching pilot experiences for robustness in completeness and usefulness.

The second purpose of this exercise is to highlight best practices in, and possible obstacles and other challenges to implementing and maintaining of Design for All courses and modules in a range of higher education schemes, so that education policies and strategies may be informed accordingly.

Both of these objectives help to further the work on recommendations for curriculum work on Design for All, in terms of content and in terms of sustainability.

1Executive Summary

This deliverable describes the teaching pilots phase of IDCnet. This represents the third and final phase of workpackage 3 that was concerned with Design for All knowledge sets and skills. The previous phases were:

• Investigating and assessing relevant work and new results and information coming from a wide range of sources and interests that contribute to the body of knowledge on Design for All. This phase resulted in an interim description available to the workshop participants as baseline material (Deliverable 3.1).

• Identifying core knowledge sets and skills by eliciting information from experts who were asked to comment on the baseline documents, in order to create a taxonomy of knowledge sets based upon current and emerging work, The results of this work formed deliverable 3.2. Identifying Core Knowledge Sets and Skills, a living document that has had a major revision.

The third task is to report on the activities of network members efforts to pilot DfA teaching. The purpose of this document is to trial the taxonomy for robustness, and also, to use the experiences of teaching to highlight best practices in teaching and possible obstacles and challenges to the implementation of Design for All course modules and topics into a range of higher education schemes.

2Introduction

This document presents the teaching pilots that were undertaken by members of the network, and describes the pilot setting and the material taught, as related to the taxonomy of Design for All core knowledge and skill sets developed in previous deliverables. Following the maxim, “practise what you preach”, a primary objective was to validate the theoretical taxonomy of Design for All core knowledge and skill sets, and test it for robustness within actual teaching settings. This is even more important when the settings cover a diversity of student backgrounds, geographical locations, and higher education contexts. Each pilot indicates topics taught and to which categories of the taxonomy they belong. Student expectations of, and reactions to, the DfA teaching pilots are described using the results of questionnaires. In this way the taxonomy is evaluated by the teaching pilot experiences for robustness in completeness and usefulness, from both the delivery point of view, as well as that of the recipients (learners).

Looking to the future, the taxonomy can help to align teaching on the subject, while the taxonomy itself provides a framework of reference for further course content development as well as exchange of experiences between teaching staff in terms of both teaching methods and methodologies and topics within subcategories of the taxonomy. All these exercises can help to establish consensus on curriculum content, facilitate staff exchanges of material and contribute to a repository of knowledge. This work therefore helps to further the work on recommendations for Design for All curriculum in terms of content. Defining and validating the core knowledge sets and skills is a fundamental step in curriculum design as has been explained in previous work (Deliverables 3.1 & 3.2) and the taxonomy is here evaluated for its usefulness as a guide, its completeness, and its validity as a basis for building curricula.

A secondary outcome of the teaching pilot exercise is to highlight best practices in, and possible obstacles and challenges to implementing and maintaining Design for All courses and modules a range of higher education schemes. For this, the IDCnet teaching pilot experiences are compared with the results and recommendations from a similar project for teaching Universal Design for the built environment. These recommendations are less to do with the content of Design for All, and more to do with the internal strategies for introducing and maintaining DfA within their institutions.

The next section (Section 3) describes each teaching pilot according to a template. The term “teaching pilots” is taken very broadly and refers to both new teaching that was undertaken as part of the project; existing and ongoing courses that members were involved with, as well as future planned courses. Also included with a brief description are courses that can be said to have some connection to IDCnet, either because there are links between their organisers and IDCnet members, and/or they have made use of the IDCnet taxonomy, etc. The use of the word “pilot” was to indicate the “trialling” nature of the teaching, in relation to the taxonomy.

As can be seen, the complete list of the teaching pilots using this broad definition covers a wide range of disciplines, levels of students, and areas of Europe that subscribe to different educational systems in higher level educational institutions. In some cases the pilot may describe an activity with a relatively short duration, such as a one off lecture, or a module within a course, while at the other it may describe a whole degree course. This variety was essential to test the robustness of the taxonomy, as it is to be the basis for recommendations for content for European curricula for designers and engineers.

This general overview is supplemented by three in-depth accounts of teaching, (Section 4). The narration of the experiences from the different institutions provides material for instructors in terms of student responses, alternative methods of approaching certain categories or topics within categories, as well as a useful exchange of information relating to trialled teaching methods and methodologies. This helps to maintain alignment with teaching of categories and topics within the taxonomy as well as providing a good sample of current European practice.

Section 5 describes the results gained from the use of student surveys. Their expectations and reactions to the DfA teaching they followed in 5 cases are summarised.

Section 6 discusses the validation of the taxonomy using the criteria of completeness and usefulness.

In section 7, the focus shifts from the teaching pilots and curriculum content, to report on some of the other aspects of the valuable experience that the teaching pilots offered about the situation of Design for All within institutions, highlight best practices and identifying obstacles and other challenges to implementing and maintaining Design for All courses and modules. The conclusions from the UDEP[ 1 ] project are also examined in the light of the experience of the IDCnet pilots. This information also provides some input to Workpackage 4 of IDCnet which is concerned with higher education research and strategy policy.

Finally, the conclusions section 8 sums up with some suggestions for the ways forward for educators, as to how the curriculum effort undertaken in this project/network might proceed.

3Teaching Pilots

In this section, a brief overview of all the Design for All teaching activities/institutions participating in this phase is given. The criteria for including courses/modules, was simply that they were involved somehow in IDCnet, for instance, members of IDCnet or that the taxonomy had some influence on the design of the content of the course.

Throwing the net so wide enabled us to acquire an overview of what is happening. The information is presented in Table 1 under the following headings

1. Country

2. Name of Institution

3. Student level (e.g.undergraduate, postgraduate, professional)

4. Student background? (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

5. Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

6. Title of Design for All teaching (e.g. course, module, seminar, etc.)

7. Duration (e.g.1 semester, 1 week, no. of hours)

8. Obligatory or Optional

9. Student numbers

10. Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

In the subsections that follow, each of the entries in the table is briefly described, with further useful information such as an indication of the teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc).

Participants were also asked to answer the following questions:

• Will the teaching continue (in its present format; with changes -more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc-; uncertain; other)

• How did colleagues view this work (with interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about), with hostility; other)

• Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or do you expect it will have any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond) (the way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

And of course, participants were free to offer any other material that they thought might be of interest, such as the structure of the course, etc.

Table of Pilots

Table 1 Table of Pilots

3.1Austria:

3.1.1Universität Linz, Institut integriert studieren

Number of students

13

Student level

Undergraduate / Postgraduate

Student background

11 Computer Science

2 Postgraduate studies

Title of Design for All teaching

German title:

Spezielle Kapitel aus Informationssysteme: Barrierefreies Webdesign

English title:

Special Topics on Information Systems: Designing Accessible Websites

Duration

1 semester (= 4 months)

Lecture:

1 semester hour - 1,5 credits (European Credit Transfer System)

We do 7 sessions of 2 units each (1 unit = 45 minutes).

Practical work:

2 semester hours - 3 credits (European Credit Transfer System)

We do 4 sessions of 2 units each (1 unit = 45 minutes) where students have to be present. The rest of the work has to be done by the students at home.

Obligatory or optional

Optional

Taxonomy

1. Introduction: Design for all, Accessibility (Awareness)

2. Cognitive disabilities (Simple language etc.) (Awareness and Accessible Content)

3. Visual impairment, blindness (Braille, Screen Readers, Speech Output etc.) (Awareness, Accessible Content, Accessible Interaction: Input and output)

4. Hearing impairment, deafness (Awareness, Accessible Content, Accessible Interaction: Input and Output)

5. Mobility impairment (Awareness, Accessible Content, Accessible Interaction: Input and Output)

6. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (Recommendations)

7. HTML

8. Cascading Stylesheets (Recommendations, Accessible Content)

9. Evaluation and repair tools (Recommendations, Accessible Content)

Teaching strategies used

Lecture:

Presentations by five different lecturers. The e-Learning-System Module is used for providing the materials (slides, scripts).

Practical work:

The students have to do a small project where they can apply what they learned in the lecture. Most of the work has to be done at home, but we do 2 sessions of 2 units each for answering questions regarding the project and 2 sessions of 2 units each for presenting and discussing the results.

The e-Learning-System Module is used for discussions and for providing interesting resources (documents, links, etc.)

Any other information

• We plan to offer this teaching in its present form also in the next semester. Some changes are possible as we try to keep up to date and to integrate our experiences from this year's lecture and also from projects we are working in.

• N o involvement from other colleagues and hence no reaction.

3.1.2Universität Linz, Institut integriert studieren- Postgraduate Course on Assistive Technologes

Number of students

Max. 15

Student level

Undergraduate with vocational experience / Postgraduate

Student background

Not yet known

Title of degree course being followed

Not yet known

Title of Design for All teaching

German title:

Universitätslehrgang "Assistierende Technologien"

English translation:

Postgraduate Course on Assistive Technologies

Duration

3 semester (= 1,5 years)

Obligatory or optional

Optional

Taxonomy

Taxonomy categories used in the basic module:

Awareness of Design for All, Why Design for All, Recommendations, Accessible content, Accessible interaction: input and output

Taxonomy categories used in the specialisation module:

Accessible interaction: input and output, Recommendations

Taxonomy of categories used in the practical module:

Interpersonal Skills, Application Domains and Research, New paradigms of Interaction, Applications and Research

Teaching strategies used

The course will be offered as an online e-Learning application with a minimum of mandatory attendance hours.

The course will be built of three modules, each of them containing several seminars:

1. Basic module

2. Specialization module

3. Practical experience

Any other information

We have handed in a project proposal for developing this course. The course will only be developed if the project will be approved. Approval/Disapproval will be done in June 2004.

3.1.3Universität Linz, Institut integriert studieren: Postgraduate Course on Accessible Web Design

Number of students

Max. 15

Student level

Undergraduate with vocational experience / Postgraduate

Student background

Not yet known

Title of degree course being followed

Not yet known

Title of Design for All teaching

German title:

Universitätslehrgang "Barrierefreies Webdesign"

English translation:

Postgraduate Course on Accessible Web Design

Duration

4 semester (= 2 years)

Obligatory or optional

Optional

Taxonomy

The course will be split into six modules:

1. Web Accessibility (Accessible content, Accessible interaction: input and output, Application Domains and Research)

2. Assistive Technologies (Awareness of Design for All, Accessible interaction: input and output)

3. Software Accessibility (Accessible Content and Accessible Interaction: input and output)

4. Usability (Awareness, User centred design)

5. Legal Requirements (Why Design for All, Recommendations)

6. Preparation of materials for print disabled people (Accessible Content, Accessible interaction: input and output)

Each of the modules contains several lectures belonging to the specific field.

Teaching strategies used

The course will be offered as an online e-Learning application with a minimum of mandatory attendance hours.

Any other information

The course is currently under development.

The first course will start in summer semester 2005.

3.2Belgium:

The Research group on Document Architectures at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has been asked to take responsibility for promoting DfA items in the field of ICT accessibility within the framework of the newly established Belgian branch of eDeAN [Belgian Design for All Network, BDfAN, http://www.bdfan.be ]. The 2004 workshop will try to group persons who have a responsible position in the Belgian Educational system. Further collaboration with Jan Graafmans in the framework of EDeAN is also scheduled.

The Research group on Document Architectures at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has been promoting the inclusion of ICT related items in the DfA courses taught at LUC (Limburgs Universitair Centrum) by Prof. Froyen. The ICT-related subjects in these courses fit mainly in the categories " Recommendations " and " Accessible Content ".

3.3Finland

On the Finnish DfA Edu Project:

The Finnish Design for All Network, the Finnish national network in the EDeAN, has ten higher education institutions as members (seven universities and three polytechnics). The Finnish Design for All Education Development Project was initiated at the end of 2003 by all these insitutions and with the support of STAKES, the coordinator of the network. The primary objective of the project is to develop a cross-disciplinary set of Design for All course modules to serve students in all ten higher education insitutions. Course modules will be developed as accessible, digital learning material in the Finnish virtual university structure. Students can either select a limited set of courses in their study programme or complete them all and add a minor in their degree. The production of course material will be coordinated by the University of Art and Design UIAH Helsinki, Virtual University Department, but produced as a joint effort between the ten universities. Funding for the first part of the project has been received from the Ministry of Education in Finland.

On the taxonomy

The Finnish Design for All Education Project group discussed the IDCnet DfA taxonomy in its March 2004 project meeting. The taxonomy was welcomed by many of the participants, but the challenge related to the use of taxonomy was also recognised. In design fields especially, teaching and learning is often both project and problem based, and it was felt that a rigid taxonomy might not sufficiently support the problem based learning method. On the other hand, it was also recognised, that in the context of teaching DfA, “what” and “how” are two separate issues.

The Finnish EDeAN network has been instrumental in supporting the development of DfA education in Finnish higher level education institutions. In November 2003, it launched a three year DfA education development project with its member higher level education institutions, which aims to develop a multi- as well as a cross-disciplinary set of Design for All courses in the virtual university context.

Although the use of terms surrounding concepts such as inclusion, socially sustainable development or indeed Design for All is varied and thus makes the collation of information somewhat difficult, a study conducted by the Finnish DfA network on the network's member universities and polytechnics shows a wide range of DfA related activities in Finnish higher level education institutions. In the polytechnics courses incorporating the DfA approach range from occupational therapy and rehabilitation to teacher training and health and social care. Jyväskylä Polytechnic has also developed a degree course in Wellbeing Technologies (engineering) that now also offers post graduate studies mentioning DfA methods specifically as one of its approaches.

University of Art and Design in Helsinki (UIAH) has a long history in design education and DfA is part of the School of Design's curricula content on both BA and MA level - the university has set up an internal network across department lines to support the coordination and development of DfA education. UIAH is also the home of the Future Home Institute - a research concept largely based on the DfA idea. In Tampere University of Technology (TUT) Design for All thinking is incorporated in the study of built environment and architecture, especially in the Institute of Urban Planning and Design. Studies leading to MSc in the institutes of Electronics, Machine Design, Software Systems and Signal Processing all feature some elements of usability, accessibility and design for all.

In the fields of information society technologies and communications both UIAH and TUT have been active. UIAH's Medialaboratory has incorporated the DfA approach to areas as wide as film studies in sign language and the accessibility of museums' internet sites and online services. TUT hosts the Digital Media Institute/ Hypermedia Laboratory, which is committed to the research and development of online and networked publishing and its validation methods and tools from e.g. usability and accessibility aspects.

Although there has been no comprehensive mapping to date, Finnish DfA network's research shows that DfA education is carried out on several levels and in various disciplines, (see Table 2 below).

Table 2 Finnish DfA education various levels and disciplines

3.4 France

3.4.1L'Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique:

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc )

Design, with hypermedia/interaction design option or industrial design option.

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)?

Undergraduate (2nd year in a 5-year curriculum)

Number of Students?

27 students, (12 from Hypermedia option and 15 from Product Design option)

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)?

Master of Arts in Design. There is no undergraduate degree for the time being.

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)?

Project-based long term workshop, with industrial partnership.

Duration (e.g.1semester, 1 week)?

12 weeks within one semester.

Obligatory or Optional?

Obligatory.

Taxonomy:Categories and Subcategories taught?

Awareness of Design for All

Why Design for All? Ethical, legal and commercial considerations Interpersonal Skills for Teamwork

Accessible interaction: input and output

New paradigms of interaction

User centred design

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects,dissertation, etc) any other information?

Project focused teaching strategy.

A short theoretical work on DfA is requested.

Meetings and focus groups with disabled people of various kinds are supposed to take place within a few weeks. Our partner EDF (French electricity company) is giving us a strong input from its own multidisplinary team (ergonomist, HCI designer, product designer). The project is fully multidisciplinary : teachers will be both from industrial and hypermedia design, as well as ergonomics and semiotics.

Will the teaching continue: in its present format; with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain; other?

The project will not be duplicated as such, but the teaching of DfA in 2nd year is now an important part of the regular course.

How did colleagues view this work (With interest;With indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about); With hostility; Other

With Interest. DfA is gaining attention in our organisation.

L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique has introduced DfA concerns in a more general curriculum for three years now.

The interdisciplinary teaching team gathered for the pilot project here includes :

• Jean Patrick Péché, industrial designer with a strong background in medical devices design and coordinator for all the projects and workshops in our institution,

• Grégoire Cliquet, interaction designer (Msc in IT from the University of Amiens), currently specializing in 3D immersive environments,

• Titoun Pasquier, researcher and consultant in ergonomics and cognitive sciences (PhD in cognitive sciences from the University of Nancy),

• Alain Jacquemin, physician, psychologist and semoticis consultant for design projects.

Usually, our industrial partners give us a strong input from their own research and documentation. They’re also involved in the teaching process during meetings and presentations.

3.5Germany

3.5.1Bonn IT centre, DfA teaching sourced by FIT

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology has included a DfA module in the Summer semester of the Master's Program in Media Informatics of the Bonn IT Center. Its details are:

Name of Institution
Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology B-IT, Görresstraße 13, D53113 Bonn, Germany http://www.b-it-center.de/

B-IT offers highly selective International Master Programmes in Applied IT as well as summer/winter schools for qualified computer science students.

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc):

Computer Scientists, with Bachelor Degree

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate):

Undergraduate

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

Masters in Media Informatics: http://mi.b-it-center.de/

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Building Advanced Internet Services and Applications using Web Standards. Accessible Interfaces and New Devices. (Not an accessibility class “per se”, as it encompasses other topics.)

Duration 1 Semester (24 hours in 12 classes)

Obligatory or Optional

Optional

Taxonomy:

• Why Design for All: ethical considerations, compliance with legislation, commercial potential

• Recommendations: Principles, Guidelines, Standards, Best Practice, etc.

•  Accessible content

• Accessible input and output

• User centred design

The course aims at providing the students with theoretical and practical knowledge about building up advanced Internet services and applications with Web Standards that consider usable and accessible interfaces for desktop and mobile platforms. The students will learn how to manage and develop complex on-line applications, obtaining an overview of workflow procedures from content creation to interface development and user testing, by using latest generation Web Publishing Frameworks. These competences are key in the business world, where the ubiquitous presence of complex Web portals, e-commerce applications, Web Services, and mobile devices, both B2B and B2C demand professionals with the adequate knowledge in this area. This is linked also to widespread legal requirements for accessibility, combined with the needs of an aging population that represent a big market area.

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc): Lectures, exercises, videos, joint projects

Any other information

Course contents:

1. Introduction and course overview. Description of necessary tools and frameworks for the course (2 hours)

2. XML and XHTML. Advanced issues and new vocabularies (4 hours)

3. Processing XML (6 hours)

4. The Semantic Web. Search engines and metadata (2 hours)

5. The Integration: Web Publishing Frameworks (2 hours)

6. Accessibility I. An introduction (2 hours)

7. Accessibility II. User testing and evaluation methodologies (2 hours)

8. Accessibility III. Recommendations and implementation techniques. User and Device Profiling (4 hours)

Will the teaching continue in its present format?

The teaching will continue in its present format: every Summer Semester

How did colleagues view this work?

Mostly with indifference. It was not well understood the need for all other technical topics to teach an advanced class on accessibility

Number of students?

14

General comments:

The initial curricula was pretty ambitious and was aimed to give students a high level of understanding of new Web technologies, and how these could be influenced by Universal Access considerations, giving support to a wide range of users and devices. However, the lecturers met with a poor background of the Computer Science students in Web technologies, which was needed as a background to the course content, and had to rework the course content.

This fact is leading us to think that the application to the taxonomy in the European universities might become unrealistic until the rest of the curriculum in the CS area gets updated to the needs of the industry for Web technologies, because DfA is unavoidably linked to leading-edge technologies.

3.5.2Multimedia Campus, Kiel,

The chair of Human Centered Interfaces has the responsibility for lectures in the masters program "Multimedia Management" in the course on "Computer Graphics" a module on the comparison of usability with accessibility of user interfaces, especially web pages (given in February/March). This is based on presentations of student projects on software architecture of screen readers and screen magnifiers (addressing awareness of all students) in the previous course on "Operating Systems ". The module evaluated for this report introduces user requirements and discusses basic and some advanced interaction techniques for different user groups. As a result of this course the software architecture of graphical user interfaces is revised and students may improve accessibility of one of the own GUIs or they develop a 3D tactile model for the Phantom force feedback device.

A following module within the course on multimedia user interfaces addresses new multimodal interaction paradigms using mark-up languages for multimedia content and specific notations such as MathML.

As a result a lab for evaluation together with one colleague is being developed. Several companies are supported in developing accessible user interfaces, including accessible web sites. But: one regional research proposal together with a design colleague on accessible media technology was rejected. Master thesis projects have been developed in the past from this activity and will probably also be chosen by some students based on this year’s modules.

Number of Students: 11 with bachelor degree

Degree: M.Sc. in Media Management, taught in English

Duration: covers several courses within 4 quarters of a 12 month program, this module: 2 weeks in February + student’s project time in March

3.5.3The Kiel University - Informatics course

Chair of Human Centered Interfaces, lectures in the diploma program "Informatics" in the course on "Interactive Systems" a module on the comparison of usability with accessibility of user interfaces, especially web pages. No specific awareness raising activity precedes this optional module, but the syllabus is published in advance.

The module evaluated for this report introduces user requirements and discusses basic and some advanced interaction techniques for different user groups. For example are formal specifications of “drag and drop” via Braille display discussed.

Unlike the MMC (see above 3.5.3) web content guidelines can be discussed in greater detail and practical assignments are required. This includes profiling techniques using XML/XSLT techniques for multimedia user interfaces.

Number of Students: 10

Degree: Diploma in Informatics

Duration: 4 weeks including student assignment time (May)

Other information:

It is important to cater for “training the trainers!”. This activity is planned for the new lab in Kiel

Kiel strategy is to i nsert DfA related topics within mainstream courses.

It is important to get students interested in the subject, by including things that interest them (are current and “cool”), e.g., force feedback.

DfA has enabled students and lecturers from different disciplines interact an example is that media designers like e-Business colleagues are interested.

3.6Greece and Cyprus

3.6.1University of the Aegean, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering

Student level

Undergraduate 4 th year (of five year course (BSc+MSc))

Student background

Design of Products and Systems for the Information Society

Title of degree course being followed

BSc Degree in Product and Systems Design Engineering (five year course)

Title of Design for All teaching (e.g. course, module, seminar etc)

Design for All course

Duration

1 semester, 2x2 hours a week (56 hours)

Obligatory or Optional

Optional (, compulsory coursefor fourth year direction (one direction from 3 to be chosen) Interaction Design)

Student numbers

66 enrolled, 48 completed the course taught for the first time in 2003/2004

Taxonomy : Categories and Subcategories taught?

The course covers all categories of the taxonomy in the following way:

From the general category: Awareness (in the form of introductory “taster” classes), Why Design for All and Recommendations are given as lectures (with some practical assignments attached).  The next set of classes cover Accessible Content and Accessible Interaction , a mixture of lectures and hands on lab work. Finally User Centred Design, builds upon student’s previous knowledge of UCD and adds an inclusive dimension while New Paradigms of Interaction takes a look at some of the latest developments in ubiquitous, wearable, emotional computing how these relate to inclusive design concerns.  Finally students do group project work on Application Domains and Research thus combining their skills ( Interpersonal Skills for Teamwork ). For more detail see section 4.3)

Teaching Strategies Used

The course is graded on 50% coursework (lectures, labwork, assignments) and 50% project work.  The lectures (two lectures of two hours duration per week) also include small assignments, and some labwork.  The project includes a written report and an oral presentation (25% each).  The students are encouraged to use the material prepared by their peers to supplement their course notes.

Will the teaching continue: in its present format; with changes (more/less hours, more less students, different levels etc)

The Design for All component of the degree course is an essential ingredient in the education of Information Society designers.  For the present the course is to continue as is with some minor modifications, more hours optional labwork.

However, there are also plans to introduce this work at earlier levels and in more practical ways, into the design studios.  That is, students will be encouraged to create products (bottle openers, etc) in the 2 nd year studios that also take into account inclusivity, while in the fourth year studio classes students will take a more systematic approach to Inclusive Design.

“Crossovers” between other subjects will be identified and elaborated: e.g. informatics classes for website design and development, ergonomics classes for designing with an eye to the 5 th and 95 th percentile, etc.

How did your colleagues view this work: (With interest; With indifference, -not enough time to understand what it is about; With hostility; Other)

The reaction from and interaction with colleagues has been excellent, with the result that the activities planned have been organised for the coming year 2004-5.  

3.6.2Other activities planned by University of the Aegean, DPSD

Other activities were planned for this geographical area. However, only one was completed in time for reporting for this deliverable. The activities and the reasons for the delay are noted below:

1. Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, 2 hour seminar on ‘awareness’, ‘why Design for All’ and some ‘recommendations’

The contact in the University of Cyprus took up a position in another university, and without him there to act a as a champion, it was not possible to interest other members of the department, who are not personally aware of the area of Design for All. However, there is some hope that the contact will himself return to the University of Cyprus for invited lectures, in the academic year 2004-2005, and if that is the case he has expressed willingness to give one of those lectures over to Design for All. The proposed activity was a 2 hour seminar within the Educational Technology module

1. Department of information and Telecommunication Systems, University of the Aegean, 2 seminar hours on ‘awareness’, ‘why Design for All’ and ‘recommendations’.

2. Department of Cultural Technology, University of the Aegean, on ‘awareness’, ‘why Design for All’ ‘recommendations’ and ‘accessible content’: short course with practical exercises.

Due to problems with strike action by contracted University staff throughout the higher education sector in Greece, the students were very late in starting their academic year 2003-2004 (in some cases not starting until the 1 st December). The resulting compression of courses made it impossible to include any programmes of invited speakers and extra curricular seminars and courses hence the planned activities with other Departments in the University of the Aegean (Department of information and Telecommunication Systems and Department of Cultural Technology) have been postponed, for the next academic year.

1. Department of Computer Science, University of the Patras, chapter devoted to Design for All in student textbook on Interaction Design.

This activity is ongoing, and represents a more long term approach. It is to contribute a chapter on Design for All to a student textbook on Interaction Design, that is presently being prepared by a team affiliated to the Department of Computer Science, University of the Patras. The understanding is that if the finished textbook may be adopted as a student text, to be distributed free of charge to students, as is the habit in Greek state universities. In this way it is hoped it will put Design for All firmly on the syllabus in teaching of Interaction Design.

The chapter contents have been accepted by the editorial team, and work is now to go ahead when the page and word limits have been decided. The finished work will be in Greek. It will treat the whole of the taxonomy, but focusing mainly on the Awareness, Why Design for All, Recommendations, Accessible Content and Accessible Interaction: input and output. For accessible content there will be some suggestions of exercises. For human centred interaction, new paradigms of interaction, research and applications, there will be links to other chapters in the book which deal with these more fully, drawing out the dimensions and perspectives offered by Design for all, with suggestions for further reading, sidebars, etc.

Finally, although students in higher education in Greece have normally an average-to-high competence in the English language, a text book in Greek will be considered a distinct advantage.

1. 1. 1. 3.6.3University of Crete, Computer Science Department

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate and postgraduate

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

Computer science

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

BSc and MSc in Computer Science

Title of Design for All teaching? (e.g. course, module, seminar, etc.)

DfA modules in two courses:

Introduction to HCI

Advanced topics in HCI

Duration? (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

3 weeks in the context of “Introduction to HCI” (1 semester)

5 weeks in the context of “Advanced topics in HCI” (1 semester)

Obligatory or Optional?

Modules obligatory within the above courses

Student numbers

Approximately 90 students for the “Introduction to HCI” course and approximately 30 students for the “Advanced topics in HCI” course.

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught?

Introduction to HCI

• Introduction to the Information Society and its dimensions of diversity ( Awareness )

• Overview of different approaches to accessibility ( Why Design for All )

• User-centred design ( User Centred Design )

• Evaluation methods, techniques and tools ( User Centred Design )

• Guidelines and Standards ( Recommendations )

• Methods, techniques and tools for the accessibility of web applications and portals ( Recommendations )

Advanced topics in HCI

• Methods and techniques for user requirements elicitation and analysis, including the requirements of users with various types of disabilities ( User Centred Design )

• Design for All methods, techniques and tools ( Recommendations: Principles, Guidelines, Practice, etc; User Centred Design)

• Unified User Interfaces development methodology, techniques and tools (Recommendations: Principles, Guidelines, Practice, Etc; User Centred Design)

• Non-visual interaction ( Accessible Interaction: Input and Output, Accessible Content; New Paradigms of Interaction, Applications And Research )

• Switch-based interaction ( Accessible Interaction: Input and Output)

• Input / output devices and interaction techniques for users with various types of disabilities ( Accessible Interaction: Input And Output, Accessible Content; New Paradigms Of Interaction, Applications And Research )

• Case studies of universally accessible interactive applications and services. ( Recommendations: Practice; Accessible Interaction: Input And Output; Accessible Content )

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc)?

• Lectures

• practical work

• team work in small groups of 3-4 students

• project work carried out at ICS-FORTH under scholarship

• final year dissertation work

• MSc thesis

• Invited lectures by researchers around the world

Will the teaching continue? (in its present format; with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain; other)

The teaching is on-going since the academic year 1993/94 and is updated/upgraded on a yearly basis. The number of students is gradually increasing.

How did colleagues view this work? (with interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about), with hostility; other)

With interest.

Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or do you expect it will have any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond)? (onthe way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

Already addressed in section on taxonomy above

Any other material you think might be of interest, such as the structure of the course, etc .

Textbook used:

• Stephanidis, C. (Ed.). (2001). User Interfaces for All - Concepts, Methods, and Tools . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (ISBN 0-8058-2967-9, 760 pages).

Research papers used:

• Stephanidis, C., & Savidis, A. (2001). Universal Access in the Information Society: Methods, Tools and Interaction Technologies. Universal Access in the Information Society, 1 (1), 40-55 (Managing Editor: Reinhard Oppermann, GMD, Germany).

• Stephanidis, C. (2001). Adaptive techniques for Universal Access. User Modelling and User Adapted Interaction International Journal, 11 (1/2), 159-179.

• Stephanidis, C., & Emiliani, P.L. (1999). Connecting to the Information Society: a European Perspective. Technology and Disability Journal, 10 (1), 21-44.

Starting from the academic year 2005-2006, the following additional material will be used:

• C. Stephanidis (Ed.) (2004, to appear). Universal Access Code of Practice in Health Telematics, LNCS 3041.

• On-line DfA Training course ( http://is4all-tc.ics.forth.gr )

3.7Ireland

3.7.1Central Remedial Clinic: Diploma in Assistive Computer Applications

Student level

Professional Development

Student background

Students participating in this course have successfully completed the, one-year, Certificate programme in Assistive Technology Applications (CATA). Students have tended to be professionals working in the area of assistive technology or other disability service sectors. The course is considered as a broad overview of the area of Computers and Disabilities, with participants gaining new knowledge in relation to the use of computers by and for people with disabilities.

Title of course

Diploma in Assistive Computer Applications (D.A.C.A.)

Accredited by the National University of Ireland through University College Dublin

Run as a partnership between Adult Education Department, UCD and the CRC.

Title of Design for All teaching (e.g. course,module,seminar)

2 modules

“Human factors in Interaction” & “WWW Accessibility”

Built upon other courseware

Duration

22hours

Taxonomy categories and subcategories taught?

Human Factors in Interaction (User centred Design

WWW Accessibility (Accessble content, Accessible interaction input and output)

Teaching strategies used

(10 Hours Online; 2 x 3 hour workshops ; 6 x 1 hour lectures)

Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or do you expect it will have any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond)? (the way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

The course content for both modules delivered as part of this course has been modified slightly to reflect the taxonomy developed by IDC-Net. The next course is due to run from September 2004, with both modules related to Design for All scheduled for delivery in November/December 2004.

Other information

Running since 2002,

Accredited by the National University of Ireland through University College Dublin

Run as a partnership between Adult Education Department, UCD and the CRC.

3.7.2Computer Science, Dublin Institute of Technology,

Teaching by staff from Central Remedial Clinic.

Student level

Undergraduate Final year elective module

Student background

Computer Science

Title of degree course being followed

BSc. Computer Science from the Dublin Institute of Technology

Title of Design for All teaching (e.g. course module, seminar etc)

Assistive Technology and Universal Design

Duration

18 hours direct tuition

Obligatory or Optional

Optional (Final year elective module)

Student numbers

Although this module is optional – over the past four years, students’ selecting this module has increased from 9 students in 1999/2000 to 42 in the academic year 2003/2004.

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught?

Human Factors in Interaction, i dentification of User Requirements : Activity Analysis, Occupational Performance – as related to computer use ( Awareness , User centred Design)

WWW Accessibility: Guidelines and Standards, Website design and evaluation methodologies,m ethodologies for Design of accessible software applications and Websites. evaluation of existing media ( Recommendations, Accessible content, Accessible interaction input and output )

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, project, dissertation, etc)

18 hours lectures

Previously 1 x 3 hour workshop

Students must complete final year exam

Other information

Future Course Delivery

Currently, staff involved in the delivery of this course are in the process of changing this module from an elective, final-year option, to a mandatory component of the first-year curriculum.

3.8Spain

Three “DfA and ICT” courses have been organised by Spanish Universities for their undergraduate students in 2003, as free selection modules, with good acceptance both among students, teaching professionals who took part in them and experts colleagues who where aware of their existence.

Two out of these three courses will be repeated next year, the third being under revision because of infrastructure reasons.

It is foreseen that two new courses will be started in 2004. One of them is an initiative of the Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). BEST knew about the DfA activity of the UPM and decided to organise a similar course for 20 students coming from all over Europe, except Spain.

Relation between IDCnet project and Spanish University activities

There has been a bidirectional link between the IDCnet project and all the University courses that have been run in Spain, or those that are foreseen to be run.

The reasons for this relationship are:

• The awareness of project activities among teaching professionals, and the public availability of interesting material produced within its framework.

• The participation of one Spanish partner in the project, the University of Valencia (Universitat de València Estudi General), which is an active stakeholder of Spanish DfA and ICT movement.

In all these courses the work from IDCnet had influence on the teaching to some extent, including content and structure. The results from the IDCnet project, especially the taxonomy, are helping to shape up a new course to be taught in 2004 (BEST) see section 3.8.4.1 below

On the other hand, IDCnet is performing a watchdog task, where the main features of these courses are being collected following a template design within the project. This has enriched the final results of IDCnet.

3.8.1Computer Science School, Polytechnich University of Madrid (Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid)

Name of Institution

Polytechnic University of Madrid. Computer Science School

Number of students?

25

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

Computer Science

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate (5th year of a 5 year career)

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

Computing Engineer (in Spanish: “Ingeniero en Informática”). It is

more or less a Master level (5 years).

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Design for All. Accessible Web Design

Duration (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

1 semester (in Spain that is 4 months) 4.5 Spanish credits

(that is 45 hours)

Obligatory or Optional

Optional (it is a free selection module)

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

1. Introduction to DFA and Assistive Technologies (3h) ( Why Design for All, Accessible Input and Output)

2. Normalisation and Legislation (5h) ( Why Design for All ?)

• General context

• eEurope 2002 and 2005

• Spanish law on the Services of the Information Society

• Spanish standards on Accessible Hardware, Software and Web content

• US: 508 amendments

WAI (1h) ( Recommendations)

• The World Wide Web Consortium

• The Web Accessibility Initiative

- Guidelines: content, authoring tools, user agents

4. WCAG 1.0 (9h) ( Recommendations )

• Guidelines

• Checkpoints

• Techniques

• (All of this was taught using an example)

5. Accessibility Evaluation (3h) ( Accessible content, accessible input and output)

• Manual vs. Automatic evaluation

• Automatic Tools: TAW

• Practical Evaluation Method

6. Implementing DFA in an organisation (1h) ( Why Design for All, Interpersonal skills, User centred Design)

• The accessibility control group

• Accessible Web Design Process

• Usability

There was an invited lecture about “Independent Living” (2h) (Awareness)

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc)

Lectures (22 hours) + Small project (designing a simple accessible web site 23 hours)

Any other information you believe interesting

It was the first year for this module, but we had previous experience from a Seminar on “Computing Technologies for People with Disabilities that was taught from 1995 to 2000 in the previous Curriculum in our school.

Will the teaching continue? (In its present format, with changes ( more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain other)

It will continue in the present format with a couple of changes:

- We will accept more students (this year we had a limit of 25)

- We will have more invited lectures from people with disabilities

- Maybe we will slightly change the contents (providing more about usability, for instance)

How did colleagues view this work? (With interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about); with hostility; other).

The proposal of this module required no evaluation from colleagues. Some of them found it interesting when we told them about it, but that’s all.

Has the work from IDCnet had, or will it have in the future any influence on the teaching?

It had some influence about the contents and structure. IDCnet final results will be checked for input next year.

3.8.2Telecommunications School, Polytechnic University of Madrid.(Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid)

Name of Institution

Polytechnic University of Madrid. Telecommunications School. Vodafone Chair

Number of students:

58

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

Telecommunications

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate (5th year of a 5 year career). 10% postgraduate.

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

Telecommunications Engineer (in Spanish: “Ingeniero en Telecomunicaciones”). It is more or less a Master level (5 years).

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Introduction to Design for All in Information and Communication Technologies

Duration (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

1 semester (in Spain that is 4 months) 4 Spanish credits (that is 40 hours)

Obligatory or Optional

Optional (it is a free selection module)

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

1. Introduction to Design for All. Relationship with ICT (2h) ( Awareness, Why Design for All, especially ethical reasons, accessible content, accessible input and output,)

• Users: types and demographics of disabilities

• Evolution of disability: from paternalism to integration

• Definition of Design for All and Assistive Technologies.

• Application to ICT

2. Legislation and Standardisation. The role of Public Administration (2 h) ( Why Design for All, especially legal resons; Recommendations)

• Legislation in the US. European Union Mandates. The situation in

• Spain

• Importance of Standards. Working groups in CEN, CENELEC, ETSI

• The role of the Public Administration

3. Accessible Web Design (14h) (Recommendations, accessible content, accessible input and output)

• The Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium

• Assistive technologies used for Web Access

• Accessibility Evaluation

4. User Centred Design (2h) ( User centred Design )

• Userfit methodology: concepts and practical application in engineering projects

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc.)

The first two parts were given by invited lecturers Lectures (14 hours) + Laboratory classes (6 hours) + Small exercise

(evaluating the accessibility of a web site or designing a simple accessible web site 15 hours)

Any other information you believe interesting

This module was promoted by the Vodafone Chair/Vodafone Foundation

Results from an evaluation questionnaire:

• Before the course began, 86% of the students thought Accessibility was only related with access to the built environment. 70% had never heard before about the Design for All concept.

• After the course, 57% of the students thought they could never/seldom apply the concepts learnt in the course during their future jobs.

• After the course, 58% of the students believed that Design for All philosophy and criteria should be widely included within the School Study Plan.

• Students required more content related with hardware accessibility issues.

Will the teaching continue? (In its present format, with changes ( more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain other)

It will continue. Main structure and content will continue. Enhance of contents related with Telecommunication engineering.

How did colleagues view this work? (With interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about); with hostility; other).

They found it very interesting.

Has the work from IDCnet had, or will it have in the future any influence on the teaching?

It had some influence about the contents and structure. IDCnet final results will be checked for input next year.

3.8.3University of Valencia (Universitat de València Estudi General)

Name of Institution

Universitat de València Estudi General (UVEG)

Department of Developmental and Evolutive Psychology of the University of Valencia Estudi General has offered an optional module on 'Design for All and Accessible Technology' to students of technical courses (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics...

Number of students:

18 (20 enrolled, but two did not take the course)

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

- 7 from Computer Science (+1 who did not attend)

- 8 from Biology

- 2 from Mathematics

- 1 from Electronical Engineering

- 1 from Pharmacy (who did not attend)

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate (between 1st and 5th year of 5 year careers)

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc.)

Currently degree courses in Spain are 5 years long, something between Bachelor and Master degrees. This will change soon to harmonize with the rest of Europe. Students were registered in these courses:

• Computer Science

• Biology

• Mathematics

• Electronical Engineering

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Design for All and Accessible Technology

Duration (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

1 semester (in Spain that is 4 months) 6 Spanish credits

This should have been 60 hours, but finally there were 24 sessions of 2 hours each.

Obligatory or Optional

Optional (it was a free selection module). Students chose this module freely from the available offer of modules. Every year they have to choose 2 or 3 of these from about 50 optional modules.

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

1. Awareness of Design for All

2. Why Design for All? Ethical, legal and commercial considerations

3. Recommendations

4. Interpersonal Skills for Teamwork (slightly)

5. Accessible content: knowledge about documents and multimedia

6. Accessible interaction: input and output

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc.)

The course was given face to face but the eLearning platform WebCT was used for supporting the discussion forums, content presentation, course webmail and the submission of assignments. Also used practical assignments in groups, and visits from experts and users. See section 4.2 for a detailed account of

Will the teaching continue? (In its present format, with changes ( more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain other)

Uncertain. For the moment it will not continue.

How did colleagues view this work? (With interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about); with hostility; other).

No, involvement from other colleagues and hence no reaction. This is one of the reasons that the course has been stopped for the moment.

Has the work from IDCnet had, or will have in the future any influence on the teaching?

If the course is run again I will try to cover also the categories missing from the taxonomy in the first edition.

3.8.4Foreseen “Design For All And ICT” Courses in Spain

3.8.4.1Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) Polytechnic University of Madrid

Name of Institution

Board of European Students of Technology (BEST)

Polytechnic University of Madrid

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc.)

Technical Students. Details not yet known.

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate, but concrete level is not yet known.

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc.)

It doesn't belong to any degree course

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Design for All. Accessible Web Design

Duration (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

2 weeks in July 2004

Obligatory or Optional

It is an external event, not related with degree studies. In some

Universities students can get credits for their certificates.

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

1. Introduction to DFA and Assistive Technologies (3h) ( Awareness, Why Design for All, Accessible interaction: input and output )

2. Normalisation and Legislation (3h) ( Why Design for All, Recommendations)

• General context

• eEurope 2002 and 2005

• Spanish law on the Services of the Information Society

• Spanish standards on Accessible Hardware, Software and Web content

• US: 508 amendments

3. W3C and WAI (3h) ( Recommendations )

• The World Wide Web Consortium

• The Web Accessibility Initiative

• Guidelines: content, authoring tools, user agents

4. WCAG 1.0 (9h) ( Recommendations )

• Guidelines

• Checkpoints

• Techniques

5. Accessibility Evaluation (3h) ( Recommendations )

 - Manual vs. Automatic evaluation

 - Automatic Tools: TAW

 - Practical Evaluation Method

6. User centred Design (3h) ( User centred Design )

 - Accessible Web Design Process

 - Usability

 - Application of the Userfit Methodology

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc.)

7 Lectures (21 hours) + 2 Laboratory sessions (6 hours) + 2 visits

to relevant places

Any other information you believe interesting

All the course will be in English.

The students come from all over Europe (except Spain). The estimated number of students is around 20.

Web page for BEST: http://www.best.eu.org/index.jsp

Web page for BEST-UPM: http://best.da.upm.es/

Web page for the course: http://www.best.da.upm.es/events/sc04/index.html

Will the teaching continue? (In its present format, with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain; other)

Initially this is a unique course but if successful it may be repeated.

How did colleagues view this work? (With interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about); with hostility; other).

This course was proposed by UPM students in relation with the European Year of People with Disabilities and after they saw there was some activity in the UPM (the free selection modules in Telecommunications and Computer Science Schools).

Has the work from IDCnet had, or will have in the future any influence on the teaching?

It had some influence about the contents and structure.

3.8.4.2University of Cadiz (Universidad de Cadiz)

Name of Institution

University of Cadiz

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

Technical Students. Details not yet known.

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate and postgraduate, but concrete level is not yet known.

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc.)

It doesn't belong to any degree course. It is part of the Summer Courses of the University of Cadiz

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Design for All. Accessible Web Design

Duration (e.g., 1 semester, 1 week)

3 days in August 2004

Obligatory or Optional

Optional. It is part of the Summer Courses organised by the University of Cadiz.

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

1. People with Disability and the Information Society (2h) ( Awareness, Why Design for All)

2. The need for accessibility: Design for All (2h) ( Awareness, Why Design for All)

3. Tools for evaluating web accessibility (1,5h) ( Accessible content, Accessible input and output)

4. Methods to evaluate web accessibility (4h) ( Accessible content, Accessible input and output)

5. Semantic web and web accessibility (3h) ( Accessible content, Accessible input and output)

6. Design for all, Accessible web and DfA Curriculum (? Is this part of the course?)

Will the teaching continue? (In its present format, with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain; other)

Initially this is a unique course but if successful it may be repeated.

Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or will have in the future any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond)? (the way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

It had some influence about the contents and structure and they will check the IDCnet final results for input next year.

3.9Sweden

3.9.1Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm.

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate and postgraduate

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

From KTH: engineering students such as computer science, electrical engineering, media technology and industrial economics.

From Stockholm University: students in for example psychology, anthropology, sociology, pedagogy and graphic design.

From University College of Arts Crafts and Design (Konstfack): industrial design.

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

Mainly master students in their own subject, often specializing in human-computer interaction or similar subjects.

Title of Design for All teaching? (e.g. course, module, seminar, etc.)

User Centred Interaction design (not really a DfA course, but during the years many of the student projects has been dealing with DfA issues)

Duration? (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

1 semester

Obligatory or Optional?

Elective course for last years students, students specializing in HCI at KTH has to choose at least one out of three courses, where this course is included.

Student numbers

50 (about 30 from KTH, 20 from other universities)

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught?

User centred design

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc)?

The course uses theory and practical exercises using the theory, as well as project based work.

Theoretical part:

The theoretical part of the course consists of two separate threads, a series of lectures and a number of practical exercises. The lectures are mainly based on invited speakers that give the students an insight into how different disciplines views participation of and works with users. Another reason for having these lectures is to give the students a common ground and a basic understanding of how work is perfomed in the different disciplines. The lecturers have a background in e.g. industrial design, psychology, anthropology, ethnology, human-computer interaction, computer science, and cinema studies.

The practical exercises give the students practical experience from using different user centered methods. During the years the methods used have varied a lot, from scenario based methods such as Observation & Invention and brainstorming methods such as Future Workshop (Kensing & Madsen, 1991), to the more ethnographically oriented Contextual Inquiry (Beyer & Holtzblatt, 1998) and Function analysis which is a common method used by industrial designers (Westerlund 2002). The focus has shifted from introducing the students to ways of working with and observing users in general, to a more cooperative design perspective using for example design workshops (Westerlund & al 2003) and probes (Gaver & al 1999).

Projects:

Projects (interdisciplinary, 5-7 per year with 6-8 participants

Taken form all areas, e.g. participatory design with users, ethnography, design workshops, giving different aspects and “triangulisation”

Cooperative design, working close together with the users.

A total of about 50 multidisciplinary projects, 5-7 per year with 6-8 participants, under themes such as

• Adaptability

• Portability

• Physical and digital

• Rooms in Stockholm

• Accessibility in public spaces

Will the teaching continue? (in its present format; with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain; other)

It will continue, more or less in its present format

How did colleagues view this work? (with interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about), with hostility; other)

With great interest, the course has been around for about ten years now

Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or do you expect it will have any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond)? (on the way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

Not on the things taught, but it might be used as inspiration when giving the students the project theme.

3.9.2KTH (new course from 2004)

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

All engineering students at KTH (2004), 2005 onward hopefully also for social science and design students

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

Mainly masters students

Title of Design for All teaching? (e.g. course, module, seminar, etc.)

IT Design for Disabled People (a whole course dedicated to DfA)

Duration? (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

one period, which amounts to about a half semester

Obligatory or Optional?

Optional

Student numbers

This year 13 students, the goal for next year is 30

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught?

Awareness of design for all, also elements of ethical considerations, recommendations, accessible content and interaction, user centered design and application domains and research (as outlined in the IDCnet deliverable D3.2),

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc)?

Written exam and a paper about an issue brought up during the course

Will the teaching continue? (in its present format; with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain; other)

Yes, it will continue, hopefully with more categories of students

How did colleagues view this work? (with interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about), with hostility; other)

Most people fall somewhere between interested and indifferent, as usual most people agree that the area of DfA is very important but the actual interest is often very small

Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or do you expect it will have any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond)? (on the way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

The IDCnet taxonomy has been used as the basis for this course

Any other material you think might be of interest, such as the structure of the course, etc .

A lot of focus has been placed on the awareness raising, with many guest lecturers talking about specific disabilities (visually impairments, hearing impairments, mobility impairments and cognitive disabilities), how accessibility issues are dealt with in industry, and what are the policies and legislations that a university has to follow.

3.10UK

3.10.1 City University, London

3.10.1.1Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design, City University

Name of Institution

Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design, City University

Student Level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

Undergraduate (Year 2 and 4 of 4 year courses) and postgraduate (MSc and PhD)

Student background

Computing, Engineering

Title of Degree Course being followed (BSc in … MSc in … etc.)

BSc Business Computing, Information Systems, Software Engineering

until Autumn 2004:

MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design

MSc in Information Systems and Technology

From Autumn 2004:

Msc in Business Systems Analysis and Design

MSc in Information Systems and Technology

MSc in Human Centred Systems

Title of DfA teaching (ie course in , module on..)

Introductory course in HCI (2 nd year students) in which DfA is taught as part of the course (course title: Principles of HCI, module within the course: “Designing for a diversity of users”)

Duration (hours, weeks, semesters)

30 hour course - 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of practical work

Obligatory or Optional

Obligatory

Student numbers

BSc students in Informatics - 220 per year

BEng students - 20 per year

Taxonomy: Categories and sub categories taught

The business case for DfA (as an example of developing a customer-oriented business case of any kind), particularly emphasising the ageing population ( Why Design for All )

Physical/psychological capabilities of users - the bell curve, designing for a diversity of users, not a “typical” user, not oneself, temporary and permanent disabilities, the basic concept of DfA ( Awareness )

Interaction devices: specialist input and output devices for people with disabilities and how they interface to standard environments and applications [and DON’T reinvent the wheel] ( Accessible Interaction: Input and Output )

User requirements elicitation and evaluation techniques - how to include a diversity of users, why that is useful for all design (yields good design) ( User centred design )

Mini-project - paper prototyping a novel interface, one option is older users or users with particular disability (last year blindness, this year Sign Language users) ( Accessible input and output, +)

Case study of the whole design lifecycle - embodying DfA approach ( User centred design + )

Teaching strategies used

Lectures and practical classes, including exercises

N.B. A very similar module is given on the MSc IST and MSc BSAD courses

Student numbers:

MSc IST – approximately 20 students per year

MSc BSAD - approximately 20 students per year

Will the teaching continue? (in its present format; with changes (more/less hours, more/less students, different levels, etc); uncertain;other)

Teaching will continue at an undergraduate level with the same hours and numbers of students; teaching at the MSc level will continue as before, but now with a whole course dedicated to Inclusive Design .

How did colleagues view this work? (with interest; with indifference (not enough time to understand what it is about), with hostility; other)

with interest, - although they accept it as an insert into their courses and do not get much involved in the subject

Has the work from IDCnet WP3 had, or do you expect it will have any influence on the teaching (both pilot and beyond)? (the way the course is structured, coverage of topics, etc.)

Very helpful in terms of thinking about the syllabus and what needs to be covered, ideas for materials, sources, exercises etc

Any other information that you think of might be of interest

Teaching organisation

At City University, the research centres provide teaching support in their areas of expertise to the School of Informatics, thus CHCID provides teaching expertise in HCI, including DfA and [e]accessibility

Masters level courses

The School of Informatics also runs a number of Masters courses

• MSc Electronic Publishing (Web and multimedia)

• MSc Object Oriented Software Systems (conversion for non-computer scientists)

• MSc Information Systems and Technology

• MSc Business Systems Analysis and Design

All these courses include an introductory HCI course, and about 100-130 students a year take them

Research projects in DfA/[e]Accessibility: All students undertake a research project, for BSc students - a one year project in their final year and one MSc students - three month project over the summer. A number of research projects related to DfA/eA are offered and these are proving very popular In last 12 months - approx. 6 BSc and 6 MSc projects in the area

In addition, City University states that it aspires to be a centre of excellence for students with disabilities in the London region. It has been pro-active in providing access to students with disabilities, having a very large disability support team for a UK university, has conducted an accessibility audit of the physical and learning environment in advance of the legal requirement, and is building a specialist centre for students with disabilities. The Centre for HCI Design wants to build upon this commitment to develop education in related topics - DfA and e-Accessibility.

The centre conducts disability-related research in a number of areas, and recently carried out a very large survey commissioned by the Disability Rights Commission to look into web site accessibility.

3.10.1.2City University CCHID: Advanced Principles of HCI

Title of DfA teaching (ie course in , module on..)

Advanced course in HCI (3 rd /4th year students) in which DfA is taught as part of the course (course: Advanced Principles of HCI)

Duration (hours, weeks, semesters) 30 hour course - 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of practical work

Obligatory or Optional

Optional

Student numbers

BSc students in Informatics - 100 per year

BEng students - 10 per year

Taxonomy: Categories and sub categories taught

The business case for DfA (as an example of developing a customer-oriented business case of any kind), particularly emphasising the ageing population ( Why Design for All ) – builds on the material from the previous course

Web accessibility (as an example of guidelines based design & as useful information in its own right) ( Recommendations, Accessible content, Accessible input and output)

Case study of the whole design lifecycle - embodying DfA approach (User centred design +)

Teaching strategies used

Lectures and practical classes, including exercises

3.10.1.3City University, CHCID MSc in Human Centred Systems

From 2004 the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design is offering a new MSc in Human-Centred Systems 2 . The programme comprises eight modules: Human-Computer Interaction Design

• Requirements Engineering

• Systems Specification

• Professional and Research Skills

• Inclusive Design

• Multimedia Design

• Advanced Human-Computer Interaction

• Evaluation of Systems

From Autumn 2004:

Title of DfA teaching (ie course in , module on..)

Inclusive design

Duration (hours, weeks, semesters) 30 hour course - 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of practical work

Obligatory or Optional

Optional

Student numbers

MSc in Human Centred Systems (it may also be available to the other MSc students, if there is interest)

Anticipated 10 – 15 students

Taxonomy: Categories and sub categories taught

• demonstrate detailed understanding of the importance of inclusive design ( Awareness, Why Design for All )

• illustrate and exemplify a professional awareness of the issues involved and potential approaches to be adopted in designing for diverse users ( Recommendations , Accessible Content, Accessible Interaction)

• identify the theoretical foundations in cognitive psychology for human-computer interaction as they relate to inclusive design ( User Centred Design)

• demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the state-of-the-art practices and leading academic research that are aimed at addressing the range of issues which arise in inclusive design ( New Paradigms of Interaction, Domains of Application and Research )

The syllabus for the course is still being developed, it will cover all these areas and probably several others

Teaching strategies used

Lectures and practical classes, including exercises

3.10.2Loughborough University

3.10.2.1Loughborough University, Department of Human Sciences

Name of Institution

Loughborough University, Department of Human Sciences.

Student level (undergraduate, postgraduate)

both undergraduate and postgraduate

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

Mainly Ergonomists, but some students in psychology. Sometimes we also have students in human biology, design and technology and mechanical engineering.

Title of degree course being followed (undergraduate degree, masters, etc)

BSc or MSc in Ergonomics

Title/type of Design for All teaching (e.g.course, module, seminar, etc.)

Optional Module in Ergonomics of Disability and Ageing

Entire Module runs for one semester, but the pilot described in detail in section 4.1 consisted of 2 lectures

Duration (e.g.1 semester, 1 week)

Total of 2 lectures (2 ½ hours each) over 2 weeks.

Teaching strategies used (lectures, practical work, team work, projects, dissertation, etc)

Entire module uses lectures, practical work, and coursework which consists of either an essay focused on inclusive design, an assessment of need or an ergonomic audit of a building or technology. However, team work was the strategy used for this pilot workshop.

Taxonomy: Categories and Subcategories taught

All the categories in the taxonomy of core knowledge sets and skills (and especially awareness’, ‘why Design for All’, ‘recommendations’, and user-centred design) are at least introduced over the course of the module, although a detailed coverage is not possible due to time constraints in a one-semester module (see full report). The Workshop pilot was intended to integrate the knowledge covered earlier in the module and to give the students more effective Interpersonal Skills for Teamwork and Communication by providing an opportunity to practise and consolidate behavioural skills, such as team work, communication skills, information representation, information retrieval, etc., in the context of Design for All. Given the nature of the workshop, however, all other elements of the taxonomy were also touched upon, the extent depending on the nature of the proposed design ideas and related discussions.

Other information:

The pilot Inclusive Design Workshop, which formed part of an existing module, has demonstrated the robustness of the knowledge sets and skills. It is expected that this module will continue in its present form. However, to introduce this workshop into the module in a permanent way will require the support and funding of the Institute, in order to pay for the expert user’s time. This has proved to be a vital part of the interaction and learning process.

Colleagues have viewed this work as interesting and as an important part of this module.

3.10.2.2Loughborough University, Institute of Polymer Technology and Materials Engineering (IPTME)

The Institute offers a range of programmes which are enhanced by its research activities and close contacts with industry. The philosophy of the IPTME is based on the engineering application and use of materials which when processed, are altered in structure and properties. This philosophy encompasses design considerations and business implications.

Student background (computer science, human computer interaction, and ergonomists, designers, etc)

The students in this pilot (15 in total) come from a range of different backgrounds, from materials/engineering, textiles, and design and techn