Fellowship Spotlight: Pearl Zhang
The following was written by Pearl Zhang as a part of the 2022 TechShift Summer Fellowship program.
This summer, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with the Overbrook School for the Blind in conducting human computer interaction research centered around assistive technologies’ impact on the education of blind/low vision students and was a TechShift fellow. I have a deeply personal connection to this work because I identify with the low vision community. My lived experience as a person with low vision motivates me to do this research, because I do not wish to see others younger than me go through the challenges that my younger self went through in accessing assistive technologies for her education. I thought that if I could utilize my own lived experience as a means of ameliorating technological equity for others in similar positions, then that would be meaningful in of itself. I’m also enormously grateful for my time as a TechShift fellow; I grew so much as a technologist through meeting and interacting with a vibrant cohort of fellows and deeply enjoyed the fellows’ camaraderie and support.
In the past 30 years, educational technology has integrated itself into classrooms, emerging as a useful tool for facilitating student learning, student engagement, and student retention. To ensure accommodations are provided and that classroom instruction is inclusive towards all learners, school districts have followed a similar trend of increasingly incorporating assistive technology tools into general education classrooms because a sizable number of students with disabilities stand to benefit from assistive technology.
However, there has been little qualitative and quantitative research that intersects the fields of education, human computer interaction, disability justice, and inclusive design, especially research that is centered around the access needs of blind students and students with low vision. Often, the conversations around instructional technologies address topics such as equitable access to maker activities, computer science instruction, and game-based learning and have examined the underrepresentation of women, people of color, and people from under-resourced communities, yet disabled people remain absent from the conversations about equity in instructional technologies and discourse in the field of human computer interaction. According to a 2016 survey about individuals’ education attainment conducted by the National Federation of the Blind, 22.3% of blind or low vision people over the age of 25 reported their highest level of educational attainment to be high school graduation, compared to the national average of 86.2%. (National Federation of the Blind, 2016). Furthermore, the data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2022 illuminates a direct association between the higher the level of education attained and a greater median salary. (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). The difference in the percentages between students who are low vision and/or blind and the national averages of students who are not point to a disparity in the educational outcomes for these two populations. Educational equity is fundamental to ensuring accessibility for students with disabilities, so that they have equal access to technologically enhanced learning opportunities as well as additional learning opportunities.
Logo of the Overbrook School for the Blind (Overbrook School)
There are two main categories of visual impairment: low vision and blind. Low vision students usually are print users, but may require special equipment and materials. Consequently, these students utilize assistive technologies to navigate their online interactions. For example, screen readers, such as NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) and JAWS (Job Access With Speech) are utilized by low vision and blind people to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display. The user sends commands by pressing different combinations of keys on the computer keyboard or braille display to instruct the speech synthesizer what to say and to speak automatically when changes occur on the computer screen. A command can instruct the synthesizer to read or spell a word, read a line or full screen of text, find a string of text on the screen, announce the location of the computer's cursor or focused item, and so on. In addition, it allows users to perform more advanced functions, such as locating text displayed in a certain color, reading pre-designated parts of the screen on demand, reading highlighted text, and identifying the active choice in a menu. Users may also use the spell checker in a word processor or read the cells of a spreadsheet with a screen reader. However, a 2022 report by WebAIM analyzing the top 1 million web pages found that only 1% of web pages meets the screen reader accessibility guidelines. (WebAIM, 2022). The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) determine the accessibility standards.
The most common accessibility guidelines are alternative text corresponding to each image, correctly labeled roles and values for links and headings, and accessible color contrast. In order to assess whether or not screen readers met WCAG accessibility guidelines, I conducted 28 tests where the screen reader went through each web page on Overbrook’s educational modules for biology and chemistry and I manually listened for its feedback. If images lacked alternative text, links were incorrectly labeled, and/or color contrast was inaccessible, I added in lines of HTML/CSS, Javascript, and ARIA tags to fix the inaccessible features of the website. By engineering more accessible features to Overbrook’s online educational modules, future students’ learning becomes more equitable and empowering, ultimately fostering student centered inclusivity. These educational modules will be utilized by Overbrook students in future course iterations.
I also completed an Institutional Review Board (IRB) proposal, which enabled me to interact with students and interview students at the Overbrook School. IRBs are required if the research involves human subjects and are designed to protect marginalized and vulnerable populations. I provided a cohesive and clear outline of expected procedures and methods for my research study. I also wrote out my interview questions and provided consent forms for study participants. Additionally, I conducted a literature review of relevant articles around screen reader accessibility and 3D tactile assistive technologies. Engaging with authors and discovering the ways in which their ideas intersected or differed from each other was fun and gave me numerous ideas about how to extend research for future directions. Another component of my summer work was doing qualitative observations and interviews with students and faculty at the Overbrook school. In these observations, I aided Becca Weber, who is a teacher for 9th grade students, by helping students with homework and assisting with screen readers. It was immensely gratifying to collaborate with Rhonda in the classroom: combining my interests in computer science and education felt like a true manifestation of the liberal arts. Although there were many times when I felt discouraged by inaccessible websites and inaccessible journal articles, I grew so much as a researcher and person.
The impact this research has had on me is invaluable. Not only did I learn how to become an unapologetic advocate for my authentic self, but I also felt that committing myself to work that is immensely joyful and personally meaningful is so rewarding. I’m planning on continuing this research for my thesis as I enter my senior year at Swarthmore College, where I will expand on the work begun this summer. This research would not be possible without the support of Professor Lisa Smulyan and Professor Jennifer Phuong from Swarthmore College, Professor John Dougherty from Haverford College, and the Techshift community. I’m enormously grateful to my fellowship cohort for consistently believing in and supporting me throughout the course of this summer, and for providing thoughtful feedback. From asking each other thought provoking questions to debating about the ethics of algorithmic biases and their sociological implications to unleashing our competitive sides in a game of Kahoot, I’m so very thankful for the chance to have learned so much from my fellowship cohort. It’s incredibly meaningful and empowering to know that I have a community of like minded peers who care deeply about the intersection of technology and social good. I’m so grateful for this summer.
Bibliography
National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Students With Disabilities. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.
National Federation of the Blind. (2016). Blindness Statistics. American Printing House for the Blind. Washington. DC.
WebAIM (2022). The WebAIM Million. Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice. Utah State University.
Overbrook School for the Blind Logo (2022). Overbrook School for Blind. Philadelphia, PA