This article compares two methods of employing novice Web workers to author descriptions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics images to make them accessible to individuals with visual and print-reading disabilities. The goal is to identify methods of creating image descriptions that are inexpensive, effective, and follow established accessibility guidelines. The first method explicitly presented the guidelines to the worker, then the worker constructed the image description in an empty text box and table. The second method queried the worker for image information and then used responses to construct a templatebased description according to established guidelines. The descriptions generated through queried image description (QID) were more likely to include information on the image category, title, caption, and units. They were also more similar to one another, based on Jaccard distances of q-grams, indicating that their word usage and structure were more standardized. Last, the workers preferred describing images using QID and found the task easier. Therefore, explicit instruction on image-description guidelines is not sufficient to produce quality image descriptions when using novice Web workers. Instead, it is better to provide information about images, then generate descriptions from responses using templates.

Blind and visually impaired mathematics students must rely on accessible materials such as tactile diagrams to learn mathematics. However, these compensatory materials are frequently found to offer students inferior opportunities for engaging in mathematical practice and do not allow sensorily heterogenous students to collaborate. Such prevailing problems of access and interaction are central concerns of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an engineering paradigm for inclusive participation in cultural praxis like mathematics. Rather than directly adapt existing artifacts for broader usage, UDL process begins by interrogating the praxis these artifacts serve and then radically re-imagining tools and ecologies to optimize usability for all learners. We argue for the utility of two additional frameworks to enhance UDL efforts: (a) enactivism, a cognitive-sciences view of learning, knowing, and reasoning as modal activity; and (b) ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA), which investigates participants' multimodal methods for coordinating action and meaning. Combined, these approaches help frame the design and evaluation of opportunities for heterogeneous students to learn mathematics collaboratively in inclusive classrooms by coordinating perceptuo-motor solutions to joint manipulation problems. We contextualize the thesis with a proposal for a pluralist design for proportions, in which a pair of students jointly operate an interactive technological device.

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Assistive technology (AT) is critical for K-12 students who have visual impairments to engage with their education and is predictive of positive postsecondary outcomes and future employment. Teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) act as the primary gatekeepers of AT for these students. Unfortunately, only about 40% of TVIs integrate AT into their practice. Efforts to predict TVIs’ AT proficiency based on their preservice training have been unsuccessful. The current study proposes and confirms that TVIs’ AT proficiency is related to their identification with a social community of practice (CoP) that values AT. Results from n = 505 North American TVIs produced a Spearman’s correlation of ρ = 0.49 between estimated AT proficiency and CoP identification. The relationship was strongest among TVIs with lower AT proficiency and CoP identification. Results have implications for industry, researchers, teacher preparation programs, personnel who administer and train assistive technologies, and policymakers concerned with ensuring that AT is available to students who have visual impairments. Mere availability of AT is insufficient to ensure its successful introduction to K-12 students with visual impairments, which relies on TVIs’ AT proficiency for meaningful implementation. Developers and advocates of AT for K-12 students with visual impairments must consider the social context in which AT proficiency develops and provide appropriate social supports.