Accessible Computer Science for K-12 Students with Hearing Impairments
This addresses the problem of underrepresentation of students with disabilities in STEM fields, specifically targeting Deaf and Hard of Hearing K-12 learners, and is incremental as it builds on existing initiatives like AccessCSforALL.
The paper tackles the lack of accessible computer science education for K-12 students with hearing impairments by introducing a project to develop an accessible block-based curriculum in American Sign Language, aiming to engage Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in hands-on computing.
An inclusive science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce is needed to maintain America's leadership in the scientific enterprise. Increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, including persons with disabilities, requires national attention to fully engage the nation's citizens in transforming its STEM enterprise. To address this need, a number of initiatives, such as AccessCSforALL, Bootstrap, and CSforAll, are making efforts to make Computer Science inclusive to the 7.4 million K-12 students with disabilities in the U.S. Of special interest to our project are those K-12 students with hearing impairments. American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary means of communication for an estimated 500,000 people in the United States, yet there are limited online resources providing Computer Science instruction in ASL. This paper introduces a new project designed to support Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) K-12 students and sign interpreters in acquiring knowledge of complex Computer Science concepts. We discuss the motivation for the project and an early design of the accessible block-based Computer Science curriculum to engage DHH students in hands-on computing education.