FACULTY

Tripta Velamoor, OTD, OTR/L, ATP

NYU Steinhardt, Department of Occupational Therapy (OT), tripta.velamoor@nyu.edu

Amy Hurst, PhD

NYU Steinhardt, Department of Occupational Therapy (OT), amyhurst@nyu.edu 

NYU Tandon, Department of Technology, Culture, and Society; Integrated Digital Media (IDM)

CLASS MEETING TIME & LOCATION

Tuesday, 5-7:50pm

Ability Project Classroom, 316C 370 Jay Street, and Zoom (link in Brightspace)

COURSE WEBSITE: https://wp.nyu.edu/ap_classes_museums_s24/ 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This multidisciplinary course allows students from a variety of backgrounds to work together to learn about and develop assistive technology for historical sites and museums. Students will work in teams to develop prototypes for individuals with diverse motor, cognitive, sensory, and behavior-emotional abilities.

PREREQUISITES

None

This graduate level course is open to all undergraduates who have taken Disability Studies or Occupational Therapy Courses; and Gallatin Majors.

RELATIONSHIP TO THE CURRICULUM DESIGN

This elective course gives students the opportunity to develop and assess assistive technologies in an informal education context. This course is designed for students with special interest in assistive technology, informal education, museum studies, and developing prototypes through fabrication and development.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

At the completion of this course, students will have beginning skills to: Demonstrate an understanding of the accessibility needs of people with sensory, cognitive, and vision impairments in relation to historic sites and museums.

• Working in a team to create a prototype solution to address a barrier to access in a museum or historic site.
• Develop accessible documentation for a project.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate with co-workers from various fields.
• Describe the impact of sensory, cognitive, vision disabilities on participation in museums or historic sites.
• Demonstrate critical and creative thinking in researching solutions to accessibility problems.
• Demonstrate an understanding of various technologies used by people with disabilities.

TOPIC OUTLINE (tentative and subject to change)

Class 1 – Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024

Class 2 – Tuesday, January 30th, 2024

Note: Last day to Add/drop: February 4th 

Class 3 – Tuesday, February 6th, 2024

Class 4 – Tuesday, February 13th, 2024

Class 5 – Tuesday, February 20th, 2024

Class 6 – Tuesday, February 27th, 2024

Class 7 –  Tuesday, March 5th, 2024

Class 8 –  Tuesday, March 13th, 2024

Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 – Spring break, no class

Class 9 –  Tuesday, March 26th, 2024 (Zoom Class)

Class 10 – Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024 (Zoom Class)

Class 11 – Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Class 12 – Tuesday, April 16th, 2024

Class 13 – Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024

Class 14 –Tuesday, April 30th, 2024

Class 15 – Tuesday, May 7th, 2023

Last date to submit revised and final materials– Tuesday May 14th

EVALUATION METHODS

30% Assignments

• 10% Museum audit
• 10% Creating DIY Touch Object
• 10% Reading presentation and discussion

60% Group Prototype Project

• 20% Weekly updates on project website
• 10% Midterm Presentation and Website Documentation
• 30% Final Presentation, Website Documentation, Prototype

10% Class participation

• Actively participating in class discussions (voice and zoom chat) and the class google chat outside of class
• Self Assessments

Extra Credit: A small amount of extra credit is available for attending relevant events and writing about them. Each event is worth up to ½% on the final grade, up to a max of 3% (for attending 6 events).

READING PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION

Students will work in pairs to select a reading that is interesting to them and relevant to this class. These readings should be selected from the class resources page.

Presentations should be 15-20 minutes and include a pre-recorded summary of key points discussed in the reading and an interactive component with either discussion topics for the class or an activity based on the reading.

 A schedule for these reading summaries will be posted to the class website.

ASSIGNMENT AND WORKSHEETS

Students will complete two assignments at the start of the class to develop fundamental skills they will use throughout the semester.

GROUP PROTOTYPE PROJECT

Students will work in small groups to bring their prototype technology to the next level. All projects continue from last year and address an accessibility interpretation challenge. Groups will be advised by faculty and project mentors. Multiple checkpoints have been designed into the semester schedule to ensure students are following an iterative design process with multiple rounds of feedback from stakeholders, faculty experts, and their classmates.

Midterm Presentation: Each group will upload their project status video. These presentations will be posted to the class website and shared with project mentors. Midterm presentations should include the following information:

• a clear description of the project’s goals

• competitive analysis of similar approaches and related literature
• a status update and plans for the rest of the semester plans,
• questions for audience feedback

Final Presentation: Each group will upload their final prototype project video before the last class in prep for discussions during the last class session. These presentations will be publicly. 

Project Website and Documentation: Groups are expected to consistently document all aspects of this project on a public facing website, using a template that will be provided by the instructors. This documentation is necessary to ensure steady progress during the semester and to project mentors are aware of project status.

Self-Assessment: Each student will submit reflections of their own work and role(s) in their group(s) at various points in the semester. These will be graded based on completeness, thoughtfulness, and on-time submission.

CLASS PARTICIPATION:

Attendance: Arriving more than 5 minutes after class starts, is “late.” Two “lates” equal one absence. Each absence from class will result in a deduction of 2 points from the final course grade.

Students are expected to engage in discussion with each other, invited speakers and at on-site visits. And of course, except for note taking, please refrain from  using your computer or the Internet. Use of such tech will limit your ability to participate in discussions. Participation grades will be determined by the instructors using this rubric:  

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS/READINGS

No required textbook.

Required readings will be posted to the class website, along with suggested readings.

ACCOMMODATIONS

If you are a student with a disability who is requesting accommodations, please contact NYU's Moses Center for Student Accessibility. You must be registered with the Moses Center to receive accommodations.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The NYU Tandon School values an inclusive and equitable environment for all our students. We hope to foster a sense of community in this class and consider it a place where individuals of all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, religious and political affiliations, and abilities will be treated with respect.   It is our intent that all students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit.  If this standard is not being upheld, please feel free to speak with the instructors.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

All students are responsible for understanding and complying with the University’s code for Academic Integrity along with any additional requirements for a student’s home department.

• Academic Integrity for Students at NYU
• Steinhardt policy on academic integrity 
• Tandon Student Code of Conduct 

ACKNOWLEDGING TOOLS
Students should cite all resources used to create all work in this class. We strongly encourage students to leverage personal connections, online resources, and tools in these projects, but be sure to acknowledge all sources. For example, the project websites and presentations should include citations for any relevant articles, and image credits for all images.

Students are welcome to leverage AI generative tools (such as Chat GPT, Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, etc.), but should cite the use of any tools used in their assignments and also the prompts they used to generate this content.

ZOOM GUIDELINES

• Use of camera is strongly encouraged but not required
• Stay muted when not speaking
• Speaker should describe any slides or other screen shares
• Minimize use of chat to “everyone” during presentations to reduce interference for folks using screen readers (speakers should pause and allow for people to respond if they want responses in the chat)
• Take breaks as needed (class will be recorded)

Class Behavior

Students and instructor /guest lecturers are expected to help create an environment conducive to effective teaching and learning for all participants. Discussion and interaction in class and on discussion boards should be civilized, respectful, and relevant to the topic. Behavior that disrupts teaching and learning has no place in the classroom.  Diverse opinions and engaging debate are critical to the higher learning endeavor, but inappropriate behavior that disrespects others or inhibits others from learning is not unacceptable

Supplementary Time

For 3-credit courses, students should expect to do 5 hours per week of supplemental time working on reading, studying, homework assignments, and group meetings.