Experiential and Expression-based Accessibility Awareness Interventions to Improve Computing Education

This research full paper presents a study demonstrating the importance of empathy-building content in computing education to foster appreciation for accessible software. Past research identifies a lack of empathy among developers contributing to software inclusion issues. We propose that enhancing empathy can lead to more accessible and equitable software development. Despite empathy studies in other fields, integrating empathy into computing education lacks sufficient pedagogical insights and accessible resources. To address these gaps, we conducted an in-person study with 121 participants, using a randomized experimental design with two empathy-building intervention groups. We compared their responses to pre-/post-survey questions using statistical tests, examining experiential and expression-based interventions' impact on inclusiveness interest and awareness of non-inclusive software. Our research questions focused on whether these interventions increase the interest, awareness, and empathy of participants and if they are equally effective across demographics and intervention formats. Our findings demonstrate that empathy-building interventions effectively raise awareness and empathy among participants. Expression-based interventions significantly increase empathy and awareness across age and gender groups, with no significant differences in impact between experiential and expression-based methods. Furthermore, we provide an easily adoptable web-based educational lab to integrate empathy and inclusive development topics into diverse curricula formats, accessible via our project website: https://all.rit.edu