Empathy Development in Digital Accessibility Through Real-Life Practices in a Programming Course: a Case Study

Abstract

This case study adopted a project-based learning approach to a programming course based on real-life practices to help software engineering students develop empathy skills regarding digital accessibility. A project was assigned to first-year students to develop software for people with disabilities. The data were collected from each individual project of thirty-three students over four months. Students' efforts regarding analysis, design and development steps, and project outcomes were analyzed. The study results showed that students' experience level and knowledge about the accessibility domain were quite low initially. Regarding the target disability type in their projects, half of the students selected mental illness, followed by blindness, deafness, and physical illness. The students who gathered requirements from domain experts or target users made their products more accessible, indicating the importance of user involvement in empathy building in the development process. We also measured increased awareness of and knowledge about accessibility at the end of the course, leading us to discuss the effectiveness of real-life practices in teaching digital accessibility in programming courses.