Computers should be accessible to everyone. Let’s teach every computer scientist how.

Teaching Accessible Computing

edited by Alannah Oleson, Amy J. Ko, Richard E. Ladner

2nd edition

For computing to work for everyone, it must be accessible to everyone. Alas, it is not: people with disabilities in mobility, vision, hearing, learning, attention, and more regularly face software that is hard or impossible for them to use. One reason for this is that when we educate future software engineers, we rarely teach them anything about accessibility. This limits their ability to find and fix accessibility defects and advocate to their organization to prioritize those fixes. More importantly, it limits the capacity of software organizations to design software that is accessible from day one.

This book addresses this problem by offering concrete pedagogical ideas for educators about how to integrate accessibility into their computer science classes. It teaches basic foundations of accessibility that are relevant to major areas of computer science teaching, and then presents teaching methods for integrating those topics into course designs. Our hope is that computer science teachers will be able to read the first few introductory chapters, and the chapters relevant to their teaching, and use their learning to teach accessible computing in their classes.

This book is a living document! If you’d like to be notified of future updates, or if you’re interested in contributing a chapter in your area of expertise, please let us know through the Teaching Accessible Computing book Interest Form. If you have suggestions for improvement, send them to our lead editor, Alannah Oleson.

Many people contributed time, effort, and expertise to this book beyond just the authors and editors, including those listed in the Acknowledgments chapter. 

Chapters

A person using a sip and puff device to navigate a desktop computer screen.

Introduction

by Alannah Oleson, Amy J. Ko, Richard E. Ladner

Foundations

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Foundations: Disability & Accessibility

by Richard E. Ladner, Stephanie Ludi

Foundations

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A teacher pointing to a laptop screen while two students type and look at it.

Foundations: Teaching Inclusively

by Jennifer Mankoff, Kelly Avery Mack

Foundations

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Two people, one in a wheelchair, looking at a monitor , showing a zoomed in Facebook logo.

Introduction to CS (CS0) + Accessibility

by Paula Gabbert, Richard E. Ladner

Courses

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A person using a small laptop with a resizable window showing its resize handles.

Introductory Programming (CS1) + Accessibility

by Anne Spencer Ross

Courses

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Two people using a laptop, one pointing and the other looking.

Data Structures + Accessibility

by Catherine M. Baker, Yasmine N. Elglaly, Kristen Shinohara

Courses

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A blind person with headphones looking downward, using a desktop computer and a keyboard.

Web Development + Accessibility

by Joslenne Peña , Lauren R. Milne

Courses

function($$renderer5) { $$renderer5.push(`<span class="etc svelte-1tcvxk9">`); Muted($$renderer5, { children: ($$renderer6) => { if (editable) { $$renderer6.push("<!--[0-->"); Toggle($$renderer6, { on: chapter.isForthcoming(), save: (on) => setChapter(edition, chapter, chapter.asForthcoming(on)), children: ($$renderer7) => { $$renderer7.push(`<!---->${escape_html(etc)}`); } }); } else { $$renderer6.push(`<!--[-1-->${escape_html(etc)}`); } $$renderer6.push(`<!--]-->`); } }); $$renderer5.push(`<!----></span>`); }
A Deaf South Asian student signs a message in front of a laptop computer.

Operating Systems + Accessibility

by P D Parthasarathy, Swaroop Joshi

Courses

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A person using a smartphone very close to their face, showing a time and notification.

Mobile Development + Accessibility

by Shaun Kane

Courses

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Two people on separate laptops, both with sunglasses, one smiling and the other typing.

Software Engineering + Accessibility

by Amy J. Ko

Courses

function($$renderer5) { $$renderer5.push(`<span class="etc svelte-1tcvxk9">`); Muted($$renderer5, { children: ($$renderer6) => { if (editable) { $$renderer6.push("<!--[0-->"); Toggle($$renderer6, { on: chapter.isForthcoming(), save: (on) => setChapter(edition, chapter, chapter.asForthcoming(on)), children: ($$renderer7) => { $$renderer7.push(`<!---->${escape_html(etc)}`); } }); } else { $$renderer6.push(`<!--[-1-->${escape_html(etc)}`); } $$renderer6.push(`<!--]-->`); } }); $$renderer5.push(`<!----></span>`); }
A person in a wheelchair with a sip and puff device using a laptop propped up on a stand.

Accessible Human-Computer Interaction + Inclusive Design

by Annuska Zolyomi

Courses

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Four students and an instructor collaborate using a tablet device.

Computing and Society + Design Justice

by Elena Kalodner-Martin, Thomas Pickering

Courses

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A student holds a laptop computer and shows something to their instructor. The instructor is holding a tablet and pointing at something on the student’s screen.

Sustainable Computing + Accessibility

by Bedour Alshaigy

Courses

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Two people staring at a data visualization above a stack of hardware with many controls.

Data Science + Accessibility

by JooYoung Seo, Mine Dogucu

Courses

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A person reading a very large page of braille text with their fingers.

Graphics + Accessibility

by William Bares

Courses

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A person with an assistive dog using a very small laptop at a table.

Security and Privacy + Accessibility

by Vivian Genaro Motti

Courses

function($$renderer5) { $$renderer5.push(`<span class="etc svelte-1tcvxk9">`); Muted($$renderer5, { children: ($$renderer6) => { if (editable) { $$renderer6.push("<!--[0-->"); Toggle($$renderer6, { on: chapter.isForthcoming(), save: (on) => setChapter(edition, chapter, chapter.asForthcoming(on)), children: ($$renderer7) => { $$renderer7.push(`<!---->${escape_html(etc)}`); } }); } else { $$renderer6.push(`<!--[-1-->${escape_html(etc)}`); } $$renderer6.push(`<!--]-->`); } }); $$renderer5.push(`<!----></span>`); }
A person in a wheelchair using a headset to control a laptop and display hands free.

Robotics + Accessibility

by Elaine Schaertl Short

Courses

function($$renderer5) { $$renderer5.push(`<span class="etc svelte-1tcvxk9">`); Muted($$renderer5, { children: ($$renderer6) => { if (editable) { $$renderer6.push("<!--[0-->"); Toggle($$renderer6, { on: chapter.isForthcoming(), save: (on) => setChapter(edition, chapter, chapter.asForthcoming(on)), children: ($$renderer7) => { $$renderer7.push(`<!---->${escape_html(etc)}`); } }); } else { $$renderer6.push(`<!--[-1-->${escape_html(etc)}`); } $$renderer6.push(`<!--]-->`); } }); $$renderer5.push(`<!----></span>`); }
A zoom call with a woman signing and a man signing back to her.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning + Accessibility

by Jeffrey P. Bigham

Courses

function($$renderer5) { $$renderer5.push(`<span class="etc svelte-1tcvxk9">`); Muted($$renderer5, { children: ($$renderer6) => { if (editable) { $$renderer6.push("<!--[0-->"); Toggle($$renderer6, { on: chapter.isForthcoming(), save: (on) => setChapter(edition, chapter, chapter.asForthcoming(on)), children: ($$renderer7) => { $$renderer7.push(`<!---->${escape_html(etc)}`); } }); } else { $$renderer6.push(`<!--[-1-->${escape_html(etc)}`); } $$renderer6.push(`<!--]-->`); } }); $$renderer5.push(`<!----></span>`); }
A person interacting with a text entry device to control a Zoom chat room.

Computer Vision + Accessibility

by Richard E. Ladner

Courses

function($$renderer5) { $$renderer5.push(`<span class="etc svelte-1tcvxk9">`); Muted($$renderer5, { children: ($$renderer6) => { if (editable) { $$renderer6.push("<!--[0-->"); Toggle($$renderer6, { on: chapter.isForthcoming(), save: (on) => setChapter(edition, chapter, chapter.asForthcoming(on)), children: ($$renderer7) => { $$renderer7.push(`<!---->${escape_html(etc)}`); } }); } else { $$renderer6.push(`<!--[-1-->${escape_html(etc)}`); } $$renderer6.push(`<!--]-->`); } }); $$renderer5.push(`<!----></span>`); }
A student with a headset uses a computer, smiling up at it, while the instructor looks on.

Final-Year Projects + Accessibility

by Bedour Alshaigy

Courses

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Two students are laughing and working together on a laptop computer while an instructor looks on. The student using the computer, who does not have legs, is using a mobility aid.

Acknowledgments

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A person reading a stack of braille pages.

References

Everything cited

Two people with tablet computers, one pointing to the other’s screen.

Glossary

Definitions

A person reading a sheet of braille text.

Index

Common words and where they are

A person wearing a headset using a laptop.

Search

Find where words occur

A person smiling while watching a display with text and images.

Media

Images and video in the book

Acknowledgements

This book is a labor of love created through the hard work of many people who are passionate about teaching accessible computing. Many (though not all) of them are listed on our Acknowledgements page, and we thank all our community members who contributed their expertise to shaping this resource. This book is freely available due to the support of the National Science Foundation Grant CNS-2137312, which funds the AccessComputing project.

License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International [Learn more]

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Citation

Alannah Oleson, Amy J. Ko, Richard E. Ladner (2026). Teaching Accessible Computing. …, retrieved 9/13/2026.

Editions

2nd 4/27/2026   read

The second edition of the book adds three new chapters on how to integrate accessibility into Operating Systems, Sustainable Computing, and Final-Year Projects like theses and capstones. 

1st 1/17/2026   read

Launch of the first edition of the Teaching Accessible Computing book, with 16 chapters on how to integrate accessibility topics into CS courses.