Where are the Disabled Students?: A Literature Review of Disability Inclusion in Computing Education Research
Computing Education Research (CER) is increasingly considering digital accessibility, yet the current state of disability inclusion remains unexplored. To understand how and to what extent disabled people and their voices are involved in CER, we conducted a systematic literature review of 68 full papers about accessibility published between 2008 and 2025 in the SIGCSE Technical Symposium, the premiere CER venue. Our analysis reveals that less than half of papers about accessibility involve disabled participants, accessibility research papers are more likely to address visual disabilities or accessibility topics more generally, and use of disability-focused theories or frameworks is uncommon. Based on these findings, we advocate for increased involvement of disabled people in all aspects of computing education research, including in designing and evaluating accessible curricula and prototypes, examining disabled experiences in the classroom, and conducting research itself. We conclude with specific recommendations for methods and frameworks that computing education researchers and teachers can use to meaningfully incorporate disabled perspectives into their practices.
Thu 19 FebDisplayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change
13:40 - 15:00 | Accessible ComputingPapers at Meeting Room 260-267 Chair(s): Trent Dawson University of Nevada, Las Vegas | ||
13:40 20mTalk | Debugging Support for Students with Blindness and Visual Impairments on Notebook-based Programming Environments Papers God'Salvation Oguibe The University of Texas at San Antonio, Lauryn Castro The University of Texas at San Antonio, Katherine Holloway University of Texas at San Antonio, Kathy Ewoldt The University of Texas at San Antonio, Leslie Neely The University of Texas at San Antonio, Taslima Akter UTSA, Wei Wang University of Texas at San Antonio, USA | ||
14:00 20mTalk | Where are the Disabled Students?: A Literature Review of Disability Inclusion in Computing Education Research Papers Isabela Figueira University of California, Irvine, Josahandi Cisneros University of California, Irvine, Jason Weber University of California, Irvine, Wendy Sanka University of California, Irvine, Karen Phan University of California, Irvine, Jennifer Wong-Ma University of California, Irvine, Stacy Branham University of California, Irvine | ||
14:20 20mTalk | Students with Disabilities in Computer Science Principles: An Examination of Capacity, Access, and Participation Papers Sara Frey Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network, Hannah Williams University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Andreas Stefik University of Nevada at Las Vegas, USA | ||
14:40 20mTalk | Examining Inclusive Computing Education for Blind Students in India Papers Akshay Kolgar Nayak pc, Yash Prakash pc, Md Javedul Ferdous Old Dominion University, Sampath Jayarathna Old Dominion University, Hae-Na Lee Michigan State University, Vikas Ashok Old Dominion University | ||