Including Universal Design in the Engineering Curriculum

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>> Cynthia: By including
accessibility and universal design

in engineering curriculum,

you're making a statement to all
the students that you're teaching

that the perspectives and the needs
of people with disabilities

is something that they need
to think about,

whether they’re engineering specifically
for that group or for any other group.

>> Sheryl Burgstahler: I think it's really
important that we train our new engineers

to be versed in the area of
universal design and accessibility

so that when they create products for
the companies that they will work for

they’ll be accessible and usable
by people with disabilities

and individuals with all kinds
of different characteristics.

>> Anat Caspi: As a creator
of a technology,

you have the onus
and responsibility

to address the needs
of a variety of end-users.

>> Narrator: Universal design
and related frameworks

such as inclusive design,
ability-based design,

and human-centered design

encourage engineers to be proactive in
considering the abilities of diverse users.

Universal design is defined by the
Center for Universal Design

at North Carolina State University as

>> Narrator: Universal design
requires engineers to question

any assumptions a design
makes about its users.

Engineering students who
understand these concepts

enter the workforce prepared to
design for a wide variety of users.

>> Kat Steele: So just as we teach safety

and material properties and dynamics
within our engineering curriculum,

incorporating universal design
can ensure that our future engineers

consider those small design tweaks
and consider the breadth of the population

in their design
and future innovation.

>> Terrill Thompson: Asking “Is this accessible?”
or “What are the accessibility implications?”

then that is a practice that can follow
them throughout their engineering career.

>> Narrator: Engineer Billy Price
used his own life experience

as a person with quadriplegia
to design a line of shoes.

It’s an example of universal design.

>> Billy: I don't have the ability to tie
laces

and I know when it comes to laces

a common solution out there is to use Velcro,
but even if you overcome the laces,

you still have the physical issue
of jamming your foot into the shoe,

so staring at my feet for 18 years,
in other words half a lifetime,

of not being able to put my shoes on,
I knew there had to be a better solution.

The shoe that we've created,
yes it has adaptive characteristics.

But we're not marketing it
as an adaptive shoe.

It's a shoe that's trendy.

It's a shoe that everyone's
going to want to wear.

It's a shoe that will
be in all the stores,

so anyone can buy it.

>> Narrator: The shoes
have a unique zipper

that runs along the
outside edge of the shoe.

It opens like a clamshell.

There are opportunities
for universal design

in thousands of consumer products
and built environments

that engineers help
to design and build.

Addressing these needs
can improve the lives

of individuals with disabilities
and the general population.

Engineering educators can help
prepare their students

to design for diverse abilities

by introducing accessibility
or universal design topics

in a variety of ways.

>> Richard Ladner: You could do
maybe just part of a lecture,

or you could just do
one lecture on it,

or several lectures,
not a whole course,

and the third option is to
just develop a whole course

on accessibility and universal design.

>> Brianna Blaser: In a classroom
when you're having a design challenge,

if you think about how could somebody,

could somebody who's older
and has arthritis

use this thing you're designing?

Could a pregnant woman use this
thing you've just created?

Start asking those questions.

Could somebody who's color-blind use this?

You're actually thinking about
a more broad population.

It's an easy way to sneak some ideas
about universal design,

creating a product that's more widely
usable into what you're designing.

>> Narrator: University of Washington’s
Terrill Thompson

created a web design curriculum
for high school students

that integrates accessibility
into design considerations.

>> Terrill: Kids are
learning to code web pages

using all the languages that you
use to code webpages–

HTML, CSS and JavaScript–

and they learn very early on
some core design principles,

one of which is the need
for accessible design.

And so they learn how
people with disabilities

access computers and access the web

and what some of the
challenges they face are,

and then as they're learning new
techniques throughout the course

they learn or they're taught to ask,

how does this technique affect accessibility?

>> Narrator: But there are other ways
that faculty can teach about disability,

accessibility, and universal design
in their courses.

>> Cynthia: I think that capstone courses,
the purpose of them is to allow students to

apply the skills that they've
learned in a real world situation

and so it can be a great
opportunity for students,

to first of all understand that
accessibility and universal design

can address real world problems.

But also to allow the students to put some
of the skills they've learned into practice.

>> Kat: I teach our
senior design course

which is a common year-long
course for engineering students

that they take in their final year
if they’re an undergraduate.

And that really is a natural place
for integrating topics of

accessibility and universal design.

We have students working on projects
from designing an electric skateboard

to figuring out the next medical product
that can prevent collapsed lungs.

And in all of these,
components of universal design

can enter to help them do user testing
on a diverse set of users,

consider how small changes
in their design

can increase access, or
make a device easier to use.

Often a design tweak that,
for example,

makes it easier for an individual
with a visual impairment

or who has limited dexterity

will actually make the product
easier for everyone to use.

So we inject universal design
into our curriculum

to encourage them to explore
lots of different design spaces

and hopefully, ultimately
have a better design.

>> Nils Hakansson: In my class,
I teach a biomechanics class

and we talk about momentum
and linear and angular momentum

and I demonstrate how I use momentum
to swing my arm to get my hand up

onto the joystick
of my wheelchair.

So it's kind of, try to incorporate
those type of examples in class.

>> Cynthia: Giving students opportunities
to

meet and interact with people with disabilities

is a great way to include it
in the curriculum.

>> Kat: We've found that
the students learned so much

through just having a space to
sit down and talk frankly about

issues surrounding accessibility, disability,
and some of the societal implications.

>> Narrator: By teaching accessibility
and universal design in engineering courses,

faculty are producing engineers who can
succeed in a competitive job market

because they will be equipped to create
products that are widely accessible

to users with diverse abilities.

Instructors can get started by...

including a panel of individuals
with diverse abilities,

helping students to consider universal design

and address disability-related issues
in design projects,

requiring that students adhere
to accessibility guidelines

when they create user interfaces
or websites.

>> Terrill: If we want an accessible society
with innovation that includes accessibility,

then students need to be taught
about universal design and accessibility.