Technology, Accessibility, and Design
The Course
In spring 2018, Caitrin co-created and co-taught with a course called “Technology, Accessibility, and Design” (TAD), with Paul Ruvolo, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Olin College. Paul taught the course on his own in later semesters. This course is an upper-level design course that serves as one potential option for fulfilling Olin’s “Design Depth” requirement. The course examined the three themes of technology, accessibility, and design through an interdisciplinary lens, drawing engineering, anthropology, computer science, history, and psychology.
Integrating Caitrin's work in a class on design for aging and Paul's experience working with people who are blind—the class required students to work, in teams, with an external client to facilitate accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision. The course serves a vital role in Olin’s curriculum in offering an advanced design experience focused on accessibility and disability. Students came away with a deep sense of the importance of designing technologies for accessibility and ensuring that they are building the right technologies to begin with. This link takes you to information used to recruit community partners.
The very first day of the course offered students immersion into design with and for blind community partners. Working in the Olin dormitory kitchens, students observed either Kate Katulak (Assistant Director of the College Success Program at Perkins School for the Blind) or Jerry Berrier (iCanConnect Manager at Perkins School for the Blind) preparing food in one of the dorm kitchens. Both Kate and Jerry are blind. In this activity students were instructed to use all of their senses and empathize (not sympathize) with Kate and Jerry to understand their experiences cooking. After observing the cooking session, students worked in studio to co-create with their community partners a low-fidelity prototype of some system, product, or artifact that would improve their partner's cooking experience. Some students shed the task-orientation that one might expect of typical engineering solutions: one group designed an apron with a message that read “You think you’re helping. Did you think to ask?” in response to Kate’s frequent experiences of well-meaning, but misguided, people getting in her way when they try to help her.
The early part of the course explored the underlying context (e.g., socio-cultural, economic, environmental, historical) of blindness. During this phase, students created a set of ethical principles for their work in this class and beyond (image included on this page), using an exercise on "OPTICs" created by Caitrin and Rob Martello, Professor of the History of Science and Technology. OPTICs = Olin Principles of Technology, Innovation, and Consequences.
In summer 2018, Caitrin and Paul ran a Summer Institute workshop on the course. The Summer institute is Olin’s annual faculty development institute that draws participants from across the globe. We structured the workshop around a modified version of our Day 1 cooking activity.
Additional Links
Read an Olin College story about cooking with the community partners on the first day of class.
Take a look at photos from the cooking session.