 Broadening participation in engineering to include people with disabilities. Engineers design, create and innovate. From airplanes and cars to robots and electronics, engineers design products we use every day. There's a great demand for skilled engineers with a strong academic background and work experience. Increasing the participation of people with disabilities in engineering can help to meet this demand. People with disabilities are problem solvers and engineering is about solving problems and improving quality of life and designing environments and structures and devices to help people. And we're experts at that because we do it every day in our lives. So a lot of society isn't really built to be accessible for a blind person and so throughout my life I either talk to role models about how they have solved a problem or I have to figure it out myself and I think the problem solving fits really naturally into an engineering discipline. So just increasing when you're thinking about putting together the best possible team to work on an engineering problem you want as many different ideas coming to the table as possible. You will find a lot of individuals with varying levels of disability think differently about solving problems because they have to and just by inserting that into the conversation, inserting that into the way that you practice engineering is going to change the game. It's a game changer and we need that type of game changing attitude in the U.S. to meet those innovation challenges that we're going to face. It's important for people with disabilities to go into engineering field because they've experienced problems themselves and they probably have ideas on how to fix that and what to do. Human ability varies across a wide spectrum including individuals with visual impairments, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficits and mobility impairments. I have a physical disability ride a wheelchair. I have a high functioning autism spectrum disorder. I'm profoundly deaf. I grew up with two hearing aids and then last year when I was 17 I got a cochlear implant on my right side because I wouldn't hear anything through my right ear. Yes, I'm in a wheelchair but being in a wheelchair shouldn't have any impact whatsoever on my ability to do my job. So in that sense I'm just the same as everybody else. So I don't think I should have any sort of, I don't think I should be treated any different. I mean it's, there's a job that has to be done. Yes, I have an engineering background and I can do it just successfully as anyone else. I think one of the challenges for individuals with disabilities is low expectations. We all have different levels of ability but often I think people make assumptions based upon whether you move a certain way or if you use assistive technology during your daily life. I don't meet enough engineers with disabilities. For example, on my campus I am usually kind of the one person that people go to, oh we need your feedback about this, is it accessible? But I think that people with disabilities still have to make a concerted effort to find role models who are engineers. Assistive technology and reasonable accommodations can make it possible for individuals with disabilities to successfully pursue education and careers in engineering. I was able to get more time on examinations which was extremely helpful. Which gave me time to think on the problem, not, you know, be compressed in a very short time span to complete a problem. I have a very dough distraction environment. I was in a room all by myself. In school I use an interpreter, a sign language interpreter, and I also have a note taker for each of my classes whenever I request one. So it's talking calculator. It's a great tool not just for someone with a visual impairment but for someone with dyscapulia who has troubles flipping numbers around. I was even able to attend a machine shop class working with a lathe and an end mill, you know, non-computer controlled, hand controlled. Largely because the faculty who taught that class were open-minded and really allowed me to dictate my limits. Instructors can make their classes accessible to all students by applying universal design. Designing their classes and lessons so all students have equal access to the information. Captioning on videos not only is that great for students who might have hearing loss or are deaf but students who are not native speakers of English often use the captions when they're watching a video. So, you know, that's a great example of universal design that's benefiting all kinds of people. So for a student with learning disability and reading, for example, if they have the opportunity to gain the information from an engineering design perspective instead of just reading a textbook, they're going to excel more and they're going to feel more successful in that area. So many of the new educational techniques that incorporate active learning and involving many different types of educational material really not only help individuals with disabilities but all students. Each year as you teach a class you can introduce some of these changes, hear how students respond and over time create a more accessible environment within your department and in your classroom. Many engineering assignments involve group projects and faculty can encourage classmates to be welcoming. I think traditionally people with disabilities are sometimes marginalized to, for example, write the lab report rather than pouring liquids or using machinery and that's where asserting one self can really come in handy to say no. It's just as important for me to learn how to use the shop equipment as you and so I might need to touch the equipment or be instructed on how to use it but I still need to take part in that process. I don't want a group member to make an assumption about what I may or may not be able to do or in what ways that I could use some help. So I have to be able to communicate my skills and say well this is what I can offer the group and here maybe formatting the PowerPoint slides maybe that's something that someone else in the group could do. But the key there is to make sure that every team member has a role and I suggest the first thing that they should do is ask the student with a disability how they'd like to contribute to the group work and often they'll come up with something that maybe the faculty member and the other students wouldn't have even thought of. Many of our new tools that we use on an everyday basis such as CNC machines which are computer numerically controlled machines where we use them for mills and laves and drills a lot of them are controlled by computers now and so that actually increases access and makes it so that more people can easily build the products that they're wanting to create. Engineering educators who want to make their classrooms more welcoming and accessible to students with disabilities can use multiple methods to present material. Invite all students to discuss their needs and accommodations. Ensure all members of a team are engaged in group work. Set clear expectations for assignments and tests. These are great students. They have a lot to offer. You will learn as much from them as they learn from you if not more. And just the more you work with them it just really moves the field forward in ways that you're not going to expect. To learn more about how you can encourage and support students with disabilities in engineering courses visit the Access Engineering website hosted by the University of Washington. www.edu.com. Access Engineering is supported by National Science Foundation grant number EEC-1444961. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this video are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Copyright 2016. Permission is granted to copy these materials for educational non-commercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged.