Opening the eyes of those who can see to the world of those who can't

Abstract

While some web page or user interface design courses include a lecture or two highlighting issues related to users with visual impairments, it is rare that such courses make this a recurring theme. This paper describes how a web page design course weaves the idea of designing for screen reader users throughout the entire course with minor changes to the standard curriculum of the course. Included are examples of how the eyes of the students are opened to the world of blind users, to the requirements of the law, to the code to make pages accessible, and to ways to test accessibility.