Exploring Design Thinking as a Software Accessibility Awareness Raising Methodology in Computing Courses

Resumo

ABSTRACT
Despite many advances in the area of software accessibility, there
are still many problems to be overcome that prevent a greater
availability of accessible software. One of these problems is that
accessibility is usually not included in the curriculum of computing
courses. This educational gap causes software development professionals
to leave college or university without understanding how
the software they develop can be adapted to guarantee its use by
people with different needs and how to implement these adaptations.
This work proposes and evaluates an accessibility teaching
methodology based on Design Thinking with the main objective
of increasing accessibility awareness among students. The results
indicate that the proposed methodology was effective and managed
to significantly increase students’ accessibility awareness, making
them more sensitive and empathetic about the topic. The results
also showed that the students approved of the methodology and
considered it interesting and engaging.