This experience report presents the development and evaluation of a virtual reality (VR)-based, gamified platform designed to teach accessibility concepts in an engaging and immersive manner. The system integrates interactive scenarios and game elements to enhance student motivation and support knowledge retention. To assess its effectiveness, we conducted a study with 35 students who used the VR platform and provided feedback through a post-intervention survey. The findings indicate positive perceptions of the learning experience, with participants reporting increased awareness and understanding of accessibility principles. Drawing on the design and evaluation process, this report highlights the value of an embodied learning approach that integrates VR and gamification to enhance the impact of accessibility education. It offers practical insights into the design, implementation, and pedagogical potential of VR-based, gamified tools for enhancing accessibility in computer learning education.

Teaching accessibility is an essential step towards supporting the integration of accessibility principles in software and other technologies, especially as ADA Title II regulations increase awareness around educational accessibility considerations.While existing literature captures the prevalence of accessibility in computing curriculums, understanding how accessibility can be taught across different disciplines is critical to effective accessibility education.This interdisciplinary workshop invites researchers and educators to discuss approaches to teaching accessibility in different disciplines, especially with respect to Title II compliance.Through sharing experiences and lessons learned, this workshop consolidates accessibility education methods while analyzing the role of teaching accessibility in developing accessible courses, classrooms, and technologies.

The growing reliance on technology to support older adults underscores the urgent need to improve eHealth literacy within this demographic, which generally has lower health literacy and digital skills compared to younger populations. This paper explores the barriers older adults face in adopting eHealth technologies and examines how a user-centered design (UCD) approach can enhance their self-efficacy and engagement. Through a narrative literature review, the study identifies barriers such as low self-efficacy, mistrust, and the digital divide, emphasizing the importance of designing inclusive technologies that address these issues. The findings suggest that involving older adults in the design process and focusing on increasing their self-efficacy can improve adoption rates and overall health management by enhancing confidence and trust in eHealth solutions.

Accessibility is a critical topic in computing education, yet its integration into K-12 curricula has been limited. This gap highlights a significant need to introduce knowledge, awareness, and empathy regarding the challenges people with disabilities face with inaccessible software to K-8 students, as well as to present accessible software solutions. We conducted interviews with 21 K-8 students to gauge their current accessibility knowledge, observed their performance when playing simulation games developed to teach accessibility, and asked them about their experience with the gameplay and its impact on their accessibility awareness. Our findings revealed a notable lack of accessibility education in current K-8 curricula. However, after engaging with the accessibility games, participants showed a marked increase in their curiosity and awareness of the need for accessible design. Our study advances the goal of integrating accessibility education into early computer science education to foster a more inclusive future technological landscape.

Recent advances in AI have significantly changed people’s lives, yet sometimes their inherent risks deter adoption. Risk preference and perception in AI remain understudied. We surveyed 406 participants to explore how risk preferences, risk perceptions, and socioeconomic variables influence AI adoption in high-risk (autonomous vehicles) and low-risk (recommendation algorithms) contexts. Socioeconomic groups overall show different levels of risk aversion and seeking across scenarios. For high-risk autonomous driving, the risk aspects tend to be centralized. In contrast, the risk aspects of recommendation algorithms are more dispersed. These findings indicate a prevailing inclination among individuals toward caution regarding risks, highlighting the need for government policies that distinguish high- and low-risk AI. Regulations for autonomous vehicles should be strengthened to ensure safety and clarify liability, while those for recommendation algorithms should be expanded to enhance public risk awareness. This study aims to support policymakers toward more targeted AI risk management.

Cancer survivors experience a wide range of impairments arising from cancer or its treatment, such as chemo brain, visual impairments, and physical impairments. These impairments degrade their quality of life and potentially make software use more challenging for them. However, there has been limited research on designing accessible software for cancer survivors, despite the rich literature on CSCW technologies for cancer survivors. To bridge this research gap, we conducted a formative study including a survey (n=46), semi-structured interviews (n=20), and a diary study (n=10) with cancer survivors. Our results revealed a wide range of impairments experienced by cancer survivors, including chemo brain, neuropathy, and visual impairments. Cancer survivors heavily relied on software for socialization, health purposes, and cancer advocacy, but their impairments made software use more challenging for them. Based on the results, we offer a set of accessibility guidelines that software designers can utilize when creating applications for cancer survivors. Further, we suggest design features for inclusion, such as health resources, socialization tools, and games, tailored to the needs of cancer survivors. This research aims to spotlight cancer survivors' software accessibility challenges and software needs and invite more research in this important yet under-investigated domain.

Music plays an important role in the personal fulfillment and cognitive performance of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) individuals. Since deafness is a spectrum -- as are DHH individuals' preferences and perceptions of music -- a more situated understanding of their interaction with music is needed. To understand the music experience of this population, we conducted social media analyses, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the deaf and hard of hearing Reddit communities and followed this up with interviews with DHH individuals. Our analysis revealed accessibility challenges, i.e., hearing aids were not customized for music, visual/haptic techniques developed were not widely available and affordable, and accessibility accommodations by music streaming apps and offline events were imperfect -- leading to suboptimal music experiences. In response, DHH individuals leveraged audio, visual, and physical senses to listen to the music -- treating it as a full-body experience; as accessibility heuristics, they may also prefer familiar, non lyrical, instrument-heavy, or loud music, which was perceived as more accessible. The DHH community embodied mutual support among music lovers, evidenced by active information sharing around music. Misconceptions by hearing individuals regarding how DHH individuals listen to music were reported, which is a major hurdle for creating a more accessible music experience. We reflect on design justice for DHH individuals' music experience based on a situated understanding and propose practical design implications to create a more accessible music experience for them.

Teaching accessibility is crucial to ensuring that accessibility principles are integrated into the design and adoption of software and other aspects of lives. The existing literature on accessibility education is largely siloed, appearing primarily in computer science and related disciplines. Understanding the similarities and differences in teaching accessibility across different disciplines is vital for enhancing educational effectiveness by leveraging lessons learned from each field. This workshop aims to serve as an interdisciplinary forum for researchers and education practitioners to discuss topics taught, approaches taken, resources utilized, and challenges encountered when teaching accessibility in different disciplines.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are decentralized digital tokens to represent the unique ownership of items. Recently, NFTs have been gaining popularity and at the same time bringing up issues, such as scams, racism, and sexism. Decentralization, a key attribute of NFT, contributes to some of the issues that are easier to regulate under centralized schemes, which are intentionally left out of the NFT marketplace. In this work, we delved into this centralization-decentralization dilemma in the NFT space through mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. Centralization-decentralization dilemma is the dilemma caused by the conflict between the slogan of decentralization and the interests of stakeholders. We first analyzed over 30,000 NFT-related tweets to obtain a high-level understanding of stakeholders' concerns in the NFT space. We then interviewed 15 NFT stakeholders (both creators and collectors) to obtain their in-depth insights into these concerns and potential solutions. Our findings identify concerning issues among users: financial scams, counterfeit NFTs, hacking, and unethical NFTs. We further reflected on the centralization-decentralization dilemma drawing upon the perspectives of the stakeholders in the interviews. Finally, we gave some inferences to solve the centralization-decentralization dilemma in the NFT market and thought about the future of NFT and decentralization.

Today’s cybersecurity and AI technologies are often fraught with ethical challenges. One promising direction is to teach cybersecurity and AI ethics to today’s youth. However, we know little about how these subjects are taught before college. Drawing from interviews of US high school teachers (n=16) and students (n=11), we find that cybersecurity and AI ethics are often taught in non-technical classes such as social studies and language arts. We also identify relevant topics, of which epistemic norms, privacy, and digital citizenship appeared most often. While teachers leverage traditional and novel teaching strategies including discussions (treating current events as case studies), gamified activities, and content creation, many challenges remain. For example, teachers hesitate to discuss current events out of concern for appearing partisan and angering parents; cyber hygiene instruction appears very ineffective at educating youth and promoting safer online behavior; and generational differences make it difficult for teachers to connect with students. Based on the study results, we offer practical suggestions for educators, school administrators, and cybersecurity practitioners to improve youth education on cybersecurity and AI ethics.

Short-form video sharing platforms (SVSPs) have seen a significant surge in older adult content creators in recent years. This emerging trend adds evidence to challenge the conventional perception of older adults as later technology adopters and passive online recipients. To investigate the reason behind the trend, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 older adult content creators on two of the most popular SVSPs in China, DouYin and KuaiShou. We found that our participants were initially attracted to SVSPs because of perceived ease of participation and the enjoyment they found. However, what kept them engaged was the attention and support they received there. SVSPs offered a low-barrier and equitable platform through their near-automatic use and relatively equal opportunities for recommendations, allowing everyone to reach audiences. Motivated by their passion for performance and the viewers' support, our participants actively acquired new skills for better performance and became more deeply involved on the platforms. Based on the findings, we reflect on how SVSPs' technical affordances support older adults in the transition from lurkers to contributors. We advocate for participation equity and supportive environments to promote more inclusive social media platforms.