Teach Access: Bridging the gap between accessibility and education

What did you learn about accessibility and/or disability when you were in school? We are guessing that the answer is probably “nothing” or “very little.” The discourse in education has been mostly around “teaching accessibly”, which involves making sure that course content, technologies, and activities are accessible to learners with disabilities. However, not much effort has been made to ensure that learners know what accessibility means and how it relates to their fields of study. Teach Access is a non-profit organization collaborating with education, industry, and disability advocacy organizations to address the critical need to enhance students’ understanding of digital accessibility as they learn to design, develop, and build new technologies with the needs of people with disabilities in mind. During this session, Teach Access will share how they are helping to bridge the gap between accessibility and education through its novel programming for educators and students.