SHAKTI: A Storytelling Collective of Professional Practices in Digital Accessibility

Faculty: 
Dr. Carrie Bruce
Students: 
Nandita Gupta

This project aims to provide resources for someone interested in a career in accessibility and inclusive design. Using storytelling, it aims to show people the varied paths that others have taken to achieve their goals, tools they have used, lessons learned and recommendations on how they may integrate accessibility practices into their current workflow.

Accessibility and inclusive design are practiced in many ways across the technology industry; each company has a unique perspective towards how they view accessible design practices within their organization as well as the processes and tools that they use to implement these practices. These individuals use a plethora of tools and guidelines that vary based on industry, company size, resources, roles, and responsibilities. These resources can become overwhelming for students and other professionals who are interested in pursuing a career within the accessibility field; they are faced with the challenge of sorting through these resources to figure out guidelines on how to approach issues in this field and make an impact towards creating inclusive products.

Based on the research and the findings, we are developing a storytelling collective that comprises people who are currently working within the accessibility field. Their stories and recommended resources will be shared in an accessible format, and the findings from the research will be communicated through this web-based platform.

Lab: 
Faculty: 
Richard Henneman, Carrie Bruce
Students: 
Nearly 100

Students in Georgia Tech's interdisciplinary MS in Human-Computer Interaction program do multiple group class projects, and a capstone individual project. Some projects are presented as part of other labs listed here; others are showcased in the MS-HCI Project Lab.

The two-year program spans four schools: Industrial Design; Interactive Computing; Literature, Media and Communications (Digital Media Program); and Psychology. Approximately 50 new students enroll each fall semester.