College of Education Center for Research and Innovation in Technology-Enhanced Learning

"Interactive Games for Teaching Accessible Design"
More than one billion people worldwide live with a disability, yet few websites are fully accessible. Despite the importance of accessibility, many students receive little formal training in designing technologies that are usable by people with disabilities. This talk presents interactive learning games for introducing accessible design in university and K–12 settings. I will discuss findings from studies involving hundreds of university students, including a recent longitudinal study, and highlight results from K–12 implementations, with a particular focus on a middle school summer camp. The talk concludes with future directions for this work.
Headshot of Dr. Rachel Adler
Rachel F. Adler is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests are in human-computer interaction, accessibility, and computing education. Some of her recent projects include co-designing a mobile health app to empower cancer survivors with disabilities, co-designing a mobile health peer navigator intervention for people newly diagnosed with disabilities, and creating accessibility games to teach both university and K–12 students about accessible design.

Accessibility

To make this event as accessible as possible, we are offering the option to attend online or in-person.

Online

For participants, we will provide:

  • CART captioning during the event
  • The speaker's slides in a screen-reader accessible format, posted on this page prior to the event
  • A recording and transcript of the event, posted on this page following the event

Participants must register to receive a personalized Zoom link via email.

In-person

Room 22 is located in the basement of the Education Building. This building has ADA parking, elevators and bathrooms, plus a lactation room, meditation/prayer room, and all-gender restrooms. More details available on the digital Facility Access map: https://go.illinois.edu/ed-access-map

Contact

If you have questions or need additional disability-related accommodations, please reach out to Logan Lauren, lauren1@illinois.edu.

Join in person or online

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

12:00 PM Central Time

Room 22, Education Building
1310 S. Sixth St., Champaign, Illinois

College of Education Center for Research and Innovation in Technology-Enhanced Learning