Accessibility and Inclusivity in I.S. Design for Students in Computing Education

System developers have an important role in designing the functionality and accessibility of Information Systems (IS) to be more inclusive and able to serve a wider range of users. Incorporating inclusive design into computing education should not be seen as an optional topic in the computing curriculum but the topic does not seem to be sufficiently covered. Having identified a gap in computing education regarding the coverage of inclusivity and accessibility issues, this study examined computing curricula to identify courses that should include the above topics. It then developed learning objectives, learning outcomes, and assessment rubrics to integrate accessibility and inclusivity into existing computing courses. Finally, in the form of a case study, the study offers practical ways to engage students in activities that promote inclusivity and accessibility in IS design in the HumanComputer Interaction (HCI) course. The study also shares some of the students' creative suggestions and briefly considers their experiences with the assigned activities. As reported by the students, they were satisfied with the knowledge they gained on how to make IS designs more inclusive and had a positive experience with the specialized activities included in the HCI course. It is found that computing courses with potential interest in topics of accessibility and inclusivity exist in a computing program. The primary barrier to adding these topics is the time available in these courses to incorporate and deliver the additional learning objectives. Integrating the additional content with the current course content and activities can be challenging. Therefore, it is desirable to provide guidance and specific instructions to the instructors of these courses on how to modify the course syllabus. We consider this to be the main contribution of this study. The proposed planning can be easily implemented in any computing program since most of the proposed courses are mainstream in computing education.