Abstract:

In near future, the societal and industry demands for employable accessibility experts will be higher than we can currently match with the computer science students that we graduate from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. KTH's goal according to the steering document Vision 2027 [1] is to be a leader in technology education and safeguard the role of technology in society: To achieve this, however, KTH needs to strengthen the focus on accessibility and design for all.

The Swedish government recently announced a national Accessibility Directive [2] to ensure that the EU directive 2019/882 "Accessibility requirements for products and services" [3] is implemented by June 28, 2025. The directive covers both products and services with a strong connection to topics we teach at KTH, such as computer hardware systems for consumers, operating systems, interactive self-service terminals and vending machines, audiovisual media services, electronic communications services, and elements of transport services.

In 2021, we ran a project to map accessibility education at Swedish universities and concluded that the range of courses is meager. Furthermore, it is complicated and in many cases not feasible to institute enough courses to cover the needs. There is little mobility and contact between the higher education institutions, and the expertise is spread both geographically and subject-wise.

We are thus faced with a number of challenges: How can we ensure students' employability in the future? How can and should our students include accessibility in their education? How can we develop the skills of teachers to teach about accessibility?

The main purposes of this work presented here are twofold; partly in curriculum development, and partly in systematically mapping existing course activities. To approach the challenges, we devised a study to chart course and learning activities throughout the university with relation to accessibility. In addition, we interviewed teachers and students involved in the courses and explored possibilities for competence development.

One challenge we found is that many students want to learn about accessibility, but the need for individual adaptations is great. Evaluations signal that the only devoted accessibility course at KTH is not prioritized over other courses that are closer to the program they are studying. However, our students must be prepared for the requirements of their professions such as compliance to the WACG 2.3 standard, providing materials following regulations for authorities, and also designing our physical environment for access with sensory, motor, and cognitive impairments.

In order for students to be employable, current and future requirements from authorities, industry, and society must be reflected in the range of courses, and teachers must have the competence to conduct that teaching. While the present study is specific to one Swedish university, the results are generalizable to other universities in Sweden, and in all probability even to institutions in countries elsewhere in the EU who are powered by the same accessible directive 2019/882.

References:
[1] Vision 2027, https://intra.kth.se/styrning/styrdokument/mal/vision2027
[2] SOU 2021:44, https://www.regeringen.se/4a114e/globalassets/regeringen/dokument/socialdepartementet/funktionshinder/tillganglighetsdirektivet.pdf
[3] Directive 2019/882, https://www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vkz686pm8ozr

Keywords:

Accessibility, curriculum, design for all, universal design, competence development, life-long learning.