[Music]
>>Narrator: Human ability varies greatly with respect to
sight, hearing, learning, communication, attention, and mobility.
The best engineers design products that are usable by a broad audience.
Considering the needs of individuals with disabilities in design decisions
can lead to better products.
>>Nils Hakansson: People with disabilities are problem solvers
and engineering is about solving problems
and improving quality of life
and designing environments and structures and devices to help people.
And we’re experts at that
because we do it every day in our lives.
>>Narrator: Engaging people with disabilities in engineering fields
can help to meet the demand for innovative engineers.
To make this possible, engineering courses need to be welcoming
and accessible to students with disabilities
and reasonable accommodations need to be provided.
>>Grace: In school I use an interpreter, a sign language interpreter,
and also have a note taker for each of my classes
whenever I request one.
>>Nils: I was even able to attend a machine shop class,
working with a lathe and an end mill, non-computer controlled, hand controlled,
largely because the faculty who taught that class
were open-minded and really allowed me to dictate my limits.
>>Narrator: Engineering educators can make their courses
more welcoming and accessible to students with disabilities
by applying universal design strategies.
>>Narrator: Engineering faculty can also teach accessibility and universal design
in their courses.
>>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.
>>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.