INFO 4871: Design for Accessibility

Course Description

Disabled people have always been technology users, technology makers, and technology experts—yet they’re often left out of the design process entirely. This course explores what changes when we center disability in how we think about and build technology.

You’ll learn frameworks from disability studies and apply them to real design challenges. We’ll look honestly at how design has harmed disabled communities, and explore how participatory approaches can help us build more equitable technology. Through readings, discussions, and hands-on design projects, you’ll develop both practical skills and critical perspectives for creating accessible technology.

What We’ll Cover

• Different ways of understanding disability (social model, medical model, political/relational model) and why it matters for design
• How past design practices have excluded or harmed disabled people
• How existing technologies reflect ableist ideas about normalcy, universality, or productivity
• Co-designing with disabled communities (not just for them)
• Questions of representation, power, and agency in accessibility work

What You’ll Learn to Do

• Analyze technologies and systems through a disability studies lens
• Design prototypes using participatory methods that center disabled experience
• Recognize how disability is experienced differently across intersecting identities
• Make the case for inclusive design in your future work (wherever that takes you)

Acknowledgements

Deepest thanks to Crystal Lee for giving feedback on early drafts of the syllabus. Thank you to Enrico Bertini for advice/inspiration on the “paper reading roles” assignment model (originally from Jacobson and Raffel).