Ph.D. in Accessible Human-Centered Computing and Policy

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Overview

The Accessible Human-Centered Computing and Policy (AHCP) Ph.D. program at Gallaudet University prepares scholars and practitioners to lead in the design, development, and evaluation of technologies, policies, and systems that advance accessibility and inclusion. Building on Gallaudet’s mission as the world’s premier bilingual ASL–English institution for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the program uniquely integrates computing, design, accessibility, and public policy to address the accessibility challenges of our digital society. The curriculum combines advanced coursework in computing and policy with independent research. Students are expected to produce original, impactful research that addresses real-world accessibility problems, sometimes in collaboration with federal agencies, industry leaders and advocacy organizations.

Ph.D. students have the opportunity to work within world-class research centers, including the Artificial Intelligence, Accessibility, and Sign Languages (AIASL) Center, focusing on AI-driven sign language recognition, generation, and multimodal accessibility, and the Technology Access Program (TAP), that focuses on telecommunications policy, standards, and accessible communication technologies.

The proposed curriculum for the 4-6-year long Ph.D. in Accessible Human-Centered Computing program requires at least 42 course credits and 15 dissertation research credits for a total of 57 credits. Additional requirements include a dissertation proposal and dissertation that address accessible human-centered computing or policy questions.

Courses & Requirements

Summary of Requirements

Year 1

AHC-601

Accessible Human-Computer Interaction

This course examines the practical and theoretical issues of how diverse people interact with personal devices. Students are introduced to an overview of accessible and user-centered design principles and tools that help them develop effective and efficient user interfaces in subsequent courses and in their careers. Topics include HCI history, accessibility, cognitive psychology, and styles assessment, user analysis, task analysis, interaction design, prototyping, and human-centered evaluation.

Credits: 3

Distribution: Graduate

AHC-602

Communication Accessibility

The course explores the impact of hearing differences on communication, education, participation, and quality of life. A special emphasis is placed on the diversity of communication needs and choices among deaf and hard of hearing people. Then it will examine how communication accessibility is achieved through study of current and emerging technology, trends in industry, public policies, and the government agencies that enforce these policies. Access to telecommunications (including Internet and wireless communications, relay services, etc.), information, video media, emergency services, public accommodations, employment, education, and other contexts are included.

Credits: 3

Distribution: Graduate

AHC-603

Applied Communication Accessibility

This course will provide an overview of accessible communication devices, ranging from auditory, visual, and vibrotactile receptive communication modalities designed to meet the needs of deaf and hard of hearing individuals as well as other populations, at home, in the workplace, in educational settings, and for recreational purposes. Communication technologies include systems to facilitate (1) face-to-face communication, (2) the reception of media, (3) telephone reception, and (4) the awareness of environmental sounds. Review and practice with actual volunteer clients of the needs assessment, selection, and verification process will be provided in two hands-on one-day workshops in the Gallaudet Assistive Devices Demonstration Center.

Credits: 3

Distribution: Graduate

AHC-604

Applied Information Accessibility

This course will provide an overview of accessible information devices, ranging from auditory and visual information modalities designed to meet the needs of deaf and hard of hearing individuals as well as other populations, at home, in the workplace, in educational settings, and for recreational purposes including broadcast multimedia or video blogging. Review and practice with actual volunteer clients of the needs assessment, selection, and verification process will be provided in two hands-on one-day workshops in the Gallaudet 21st Century Captioning Research Lab.

Credits: 3

Distribution: Graduate, Masters

AHC-605

Accessibility Standards I

This course covers in depth WCAG (Global), Section 508 (US) and EN 301 549 (EU) from an applied and practical point of view. Students will be introduced to basic approaches on how to apply these standards to widely used information technologies such as web accessibility, PDF accessibility and epub3 to provide access to multimedia such as image or audio.

Credits: 3

Distribution: Graduate, Masters

AHC-606

Accessibility Standards II

This course covers in depth widely used standards such as WCAG, Section 508 (US) and EN 301 549 (EU) from an applied and practical point of view. Students will learn how to apply these standards to emerging accessibility fields, such as Extended Reality (XR) accessibility, and to apply these to the software ecosystem and toolchains for documents in Word, PDF and multimedia.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

AHC 605

Distribution: Graduate, Masters

AHC-611

Principles of Statistics

This is a graduate-level introduction to statistics for human-computer interaction. Topics include principles of inferential statistics, hypothesis testing, and experimental design; data handling, description, and visualization; probability; confidence intervals and t-tests; chi-square test, analysis of variance, and multiple comparisons; and simple linear regression. Students will learn to apply these tools to real-world data using R, and how to interpret and communicate the results of their analyses. No prior statistics or programming knowledge is required.

Credits: 3

Distribution: Graduate, In-person, Masters

Year 2

AHC-621

Interactive Design for Accessibility

Designing meaningful relationships among people and the products they use to ensure that they are accessible is both an art and a science. This course will focus on the unique design practice of representing and organizing information in such a way as to facilitate perception and understanding of accessibility (information architecture) and specifying the appropriate mechanisms for accessing and manipulating task information (interaction design). This course will also explore the various design patterns (design solutions to problems) that are appropriate for the HCI professional. Students will need prior knowledge of an interface prototyping tool.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

AHC 601 or permission of the instructor

Distribution: Graduate, Masters

AHC-622

Accessible Data Visualization

Data visualization is the art and science of turning data into readable graphics. We’ll explore how to design and create accessible data visualizations based on data available and tasks to be achieved that are accessible to people with diverse sensory abilities. This process includes data modeling, data processing (such as aggregation and filtering), mapping data attributes to graphical attributes, and strategic visual encoding based on known properties of visual perception as well as the task(s) at hand. Students will also learn to evaluate the effectiveness of visualization designs, and think critically about each design decision, such as choice of color and choice of visual encoding. Students will create their own data visualizations, and learn to use Open Source data visualization tools. Students will also read papers from the current and past visualization literature and create video presentations of their findings.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

AHC 601

Distribution: Graduate, Masters

AHC-695

Special Topics

1-3

Special topics courses address subject matter or content not already included in the existing curriculum. Offered on a temporary basis, special topics may evaluate the demand for a new course or area of study or may cover areas of specific interest.

Credits: 1-3

Requisites:

permission of the instructor

Distribution: Graduate

EDU-806

Seminar in Publishing, Grant, Writing, and Presentation Skills

This seminar addresses professional writing and presentation skills needed by many doctoral level professionals in education. Students analyze and evaluate grant proposals, published articles, and presentations for structure, word choice, voice, and content. They construct short manuscripts that adhere to the American Psychological Association style format. In addition, students prepare media-enhanced presentations for professional audiences, including parent groups, teachers, school administrators, and professional conferences.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

EDU 805 or equivalent

Distribution: Doctorate, Graduate

EDU-830

Doctoral Seminar in University Teaching in Education

This seminar is first in a series and provides a forum for doctoral students to explore and discuss beliefs and practices related to teaching undergraduate and graduate university education courses; topics include course design, course preparation and presentation, use of appropriate technology and media, organizing effective participatory learning, inclusive and equitable practices, developing and using effecting teaching strategies and standards-based assessment techniques, and mentoring for reflective teaching/learning. In addition to seminars, the doctoral student will complete a minimum of 20 (twenty) hours of field experience consisting of classroom observation and conferencing with university faculty.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

Admission to a Gallaudet University doctoral program or permission of the instructor.

Distribution: Doctorate, Graduate

HSL-888

Advanced Research Design I

The main purpose of the Advanced Research Design I course is to facilitate student's integration of theory, research design, and measurement issues with knowledge of statistical procedures needed to plan, accomplish, and evaluate qualitative and quantitative research projects in speech, language and hearing sciences. Students will develop their ability to locate, review, and critically evaluate research studies. The course will cover the proper format for research proposals and reports, measurement issues, and sampling. In addition, the student is introduced to quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. The student will develop critical analysis abilities using the criteria of validity and reliability as explicated in experimental design principles. Specifically, the course will focus on (1) Identifying and formulating research questions, (2) Completing a literature search and literature review, (3) non-experiment (qualitative) research design (case studies, survey research), (3) experimental research and levels of evidence, (4) research participants and sampling, (5) data analysis: describing different types of data, (6) data analysis: inferential statistics, (7) research outcomes.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

Matriculation as a HSLS Ph.D. student, completion of the qualifying examination or permission of the department.

Distribution: Doctorate, Graduate

HSL-889

Advanced Research Design II

This course is intended to develop professional competencies in three areas: (a) knowledge and use of the following approaches to research: experimental, quasiexperimental, causal-comparative, qualitative, and correlational research, and (b) develop knowledge of experimental research design options, (c) development of formal research proposals. This course will address major concepts, issues, and techniques of quantitative research methods.

Credits: 3

Requisites:

Matriculation as a HSLS Ph.D. student and completion of HSL 888 or equivalent

Distribution: Doctorate, Graduate

Year 3 +

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