Accessibility in Design Education

Accessibility, while largely recognized as important, is not thoroughly explained or practiced within modern design education. This has resulted in a number of issues regarding inaccessibility and a misunderstanding of disability in the professional field as well as academia. This thesis investigates through literature/artifact reviews, surveys, and interviews in order to understand the values and impressions of designers as it relates to accessibility and the careers of the designers. Through this research I was able to identify a number of issues faced by professional designers, design educators and students who aim to work in user experience/user interface (UX/UI) or a related field after graduation. Some issues arose from the mindset of participants while others were the result of gaps in knowledge and skill that were compensated for in a variety of ways. I then synthesized the information I gathered from my research and applied it in the creation of a number of concepts for shifting designers’ mindsets, as well as tools to aid in reflection/ learning. I have documented a number of ways that these concepts could be applied and expanded upon in future research to further shift the design community towards considering digital accessibility.