Presenter
Helen Sullivan PhD
Rider University, USA
Abstract
In many graduate programs internationally, students in the sciences are unlikely to receive exposure to academic courses focused on accessibility and inclusive design. While efforts such that of Teach Access in the US are showing promise in introducing accessibility to students and faculty, internationally there remains work to do. The University of Jyvaskyla Summer School, now in its 33rd year, provides a two-week program of courses open to graduate students from around the world in subjects including mathematics, physics, biology, computer science, and cognitive science. Since 2017 the Summer School has offered an introductory course in accessible and inclusive design as part of the cognitive science program and in 2022 offered an initial course in Accessible Data Visualizations. Students attending the course come from diverse research areas and are required to attend the introductory course before proceeding to data visualization. In 2023, the data visualization course was adapted into a three-day hackathon format as an experiment with a small number of students. In 2024, we elected to continue with the three-day format with an increase in the number of students (approximately double). This presentation will describe the summer school program in accessible and inclusive design and focus on the hackathon, the student participants and their project work. Given the intensive, three-day format, and the varied backgrounds of the students, we continue to incorporate generative AI as a “coding” apprentice to accelerate prototyping by some students. AI-supported hackathon-based learning opportunities are discussed as a means to develop skills in emerging scientists to support accessible dissemination of their research.