Motivation: Many university CS programs have begun teaching various types of CS-related societal issues using approaches such as ethics, Responsible CS, inclusive design, and more. However, some recent research suggests that, although these programs have been able to teach awareness, students often fail to act upon this awareness. To address this problem, University X's CS program tried an unusual approach—integrating hands-on inclusive design skills in small ways across all four years of the CS major. But did it work? That is, did the students who experienced this change across the major actually build more inclusive technology than the students who did not experience it?

Computer science (CS) and information technology (IT) curricula are grounded in theoretical and technical skills. Topics like equity and inclusive design are rarely found in mainstream student studies. This results in graduates with outdated practices and limitations in software development. A research project was conducted to educate the faculty to integrate inclusive software design into the CS undergraduate curriculum. The objective is to produce graduates with the ability to develop inclusive software.

Computer science (CS) students' curricula is heavily focused on technical skills, and CS ethics, usability, equity, and people/society considerations are not well-integrated into the CS curriculum. If these topics are introduced, they are disconnected from the core courses. As a result, students do not learn to incorporate inclusive practices into their software designs. Thus, students create software through the perspective of a computer scientist - when the important perspective is that of the intended users. As a result, students entering the workforce are inclined to design software that is non-inclusive. We propose the integration of inclusive design in the undergraduate curriculum will result in students creating inclusive software. This research, based on the foundations of inclusive design methods, investigates a new approach to teaching CS. Inclusive software design is embedded into computing courses for all four years of the undergraduate CS curriculum. This new approach is "minimally invasive", occupying very little classroom time, instead it is integrated into the course work that is already assigned. With this work, we hope to answer the following questions: (1) Will this new approach improve students' ability to design inclusive software? (2) Will this approach create an inclusive climate among peers? (3) Will it affect student's success or lack thereof? (4) How and to what extent is this embedded inclusive design curriculum feasible to use?

What if “regular” Computer Science (CS) faculty each taught elements of inclusive design in “regular” CS courses across an undergraduate curriculum? Would it affect the CS program's climate and inclusiveness to diverse students? Would it improve retention? Would students learn less CS? Would they actually learn any inclusive design? To answer these questions, we conducted a year-long Action Research investigation, in which 13 CS faculty integrated elements of inclusive design into 44 CS/IT offerings across a 4-year curriculum. The 613 affected students’ educational work products, grades, and/or climate questionnaire responses revealed significant improvements in students’ course outcomes (higher course grades and fewer course fails/incompletes/withdrawals), especially for marginalized groups; revealed that most students did learn and apply inclusive design concepts to their CS activities; and revealed that inclusion and teamwork in the courses significantly improved. These results suggest a new pathway for significantly improving students’ retention, their knowledge and usage of inclusive design, and their experiences across CS education—for marginalized groups and for all students.