Blaser, B., & Steele, K. M., & Burgstahler, S. E. (2015, June), Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract Diverse Students  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24272

\bibitem{asee_peer_24272}
  Blaser, B., \& Steele, K. M., \& Burgstahler, S. E. (2015, June), \emph{Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract Diverse Students}
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.24272

Brianna Blaser, Katherine M. Steele, and Sheryl Elaine Burgstahler.  "Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract Diverse Students".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://peer.asee.org/24272 Internet.  28 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_24272}
  Brianna Blaser, Katherine M. Steele, and Sheryl Elaine Burgstahler.
  "Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract Diverse Students".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://peer.asee.org/24272 Internet.  28 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_24272
author = "Brianna Blaser, Katherine M. Steele, and Sheryl Elaine Burgstahler"
title = "Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract Diverse Students"
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/24272}
number = {10.18260/p.24272}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -               Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract                                   Diverse StudentsResearch has shown that women and other under-represented groups are interested in usingtechnology in order to improve the world around them. For example, Margolis and Fisher (2002)found that women were interested in using computers in order to do something useful for society.Likewise, students with disabilities have demonstrated an interest in using design in order toimprove the experiences of individuals with disabilities (Blaser, Braitmayer, & Burgstahler2012). Teaching engineering students about universal design helps students develop skills thatallow them to improve the world around them. In doing so, it can help to attract a more diverseset of students to study engineering.Universal design (UD) is the process of designing products or environments to ensure that theyare usable by the widest audience possible, including audiences that are diverse with respect torace, gender, abilities, national origin, age, and other characteristics (Burgstahler 2008a). Aclassic example of universal design is a curb cut that allows a wide range of individuals to betteraccess sidewalks, including individuals using wheelchairs, pushing strollers, or pulling rollingsuitcases. Likewise, universally designing videos would call for them to be captioned in order tobe more usable to individuals with hearing impairments, non-native speakers of English, andviewers who are in noisy environments.Including universal design in engineering courses not only appeals to women and students withdisabilities, but also serves to ensure that the next generation of engineers is better prepared todesign products that are usable to the widest audience possible. The authors of this project areworking with engineering faculty nationwide to develop curricula that teach aspects of UD inengineering courses. This paper includes a variety of ways that faculty members have includedcurricula on UD in their engineering courses. Capstone  or  cornerstone  engineering  design  classes  are  a  natural  fit  for  incorporating  UD  concepts  into  the  engineering  curriculum,  challenging  students  to  design  for  individuals  of  diverse  backgrounds.  UD  can  also  be  a  valuable  addition  to  other  core  engineering  courses,  such  as  evaluating  the  stability  of  devices  for  individuals  of  different  sizes  in  statics  or  dynamics,  creating  design  modifications  for  diverse  users  in  CAD,  or  challenging  students  to  redesign  a  portion  of  one  of  their  lab  activities  to  be  accessible  to  students  with  disabilities.Moreover, it is important that courses are also universally designed in order to ensure that theyare accessible to the widest audience possible, including women, students with disabilities,under-represented minorities, and other under-represented groups. In order to ensure that coursesare universally designed, faculty should consider the class climate, their interactions withstudents and interactions among students, classrooms and products, delivery methods used,information technology, and assessments (Burgstahler 2008b). By providing an example of UDin action in the classroom, engineering faculty can make their courses accessible to a wideaudience and inspire students to do the same within their own engineering careers.ReferencesBlaser, B., Burgstahler, S., & Braitmayer, K. (2012). AccessDesign: A two-day workshop forstudents with disabilities exploring design careers, Journal of Postsecondary Education andDisability, 25(2), 197-201.Burgstahler, S. (2008a). Universal design in higher education. In Universal design in highereducation: From principles to practice (pp. 3-20). Boston: Harvard Education Press.Burgstahler, S. (2008b). Universal design of instruction: From principles to practice. InUniversal design in higher education: From principles to practice (pp. 23-44). Boston: HarvardEducation Press.Margolis, J. & Fisher, A. (2002). Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.
AU  - Brianna Blaser
AU  - Katherine M. Steele
AU  - Sheryl Elaine Burgstahler
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Including Universal Design in Engineering Courses to Attract Diverse Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24272
DO  - 10.18260/p.24272
ER  -