Second Annual Accessing STEM in Higher Education Event Helps Prepare Blind and Low Vision Students for College STEM

Last month, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, ICS held the second annual Accessing STEM in Higher Education event, which aims to support blind and low vision (BLV) high school students as they prepare for STEM majors in college. Over 90 people attended, more than 60 of those in person, including around 20 BLV middle and high school students. The event also included 22 high school level Teachers of the Visually Impaired, 15 high school and postsecondary educators from outside UC Irvine, and 30 educators from UC Irvine.

The event was run by organizers Stacy Branham (Associate Professor of Informatics); INclusive Studio for Innovative Technology and Education (INsite), which is directed by Professor Branham; and the ICS Office of Access and Inclusion. Addressing the varied audience, Professor Braham, who has been researching and designing accessible technologies with blind people for the past decade, said, “[You are all] dedicated to making sure that higher education, and especially STEM education, is accessible to all. So thank you so much for choosing to spend your 2025 Global Accessibility Awareness Day with us today.”

Accessing STEM in Higher Education’s inaugural event was last year, sparked by a conversation Branham had with a teacher for the visually impaired (TVI) in the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD). The teacher had expressed that high school teachers with BLV students were at a loss on how to prepare them adequately for college. Branham, a Co-PI of NSF AccessComputing, a national effort to empower people with disabilities in computing majors, decided to address that gap, creating the Accessing STEM in Higher Education event with the support of the ICS Office of Outreach, Access & Inclusion (OAI) and the UCI Disability Services Center (DSC). 

This year’s opening keynote was given by Dr. Nicholas Giudice, Professor of Spatial Computing in the School of Computing and Information Science at the University of Maine. Dr. Giudice began with a brief introduction about his work’s focus before delving into more about his experience as a researcher. “As a blind guy who got my PhD in a visual neuroscience program, I think about vision…pretty differently than a lot of my sighted colleagues. And this has driven a lot of my research on how to use things like nonvisual and multisensory information to convey traditional visual content,” he shared. “My research is strongly motivated by creating tools in tech that make my life easier, and others like me that have various disabilities. …[My work is] scaffolded on my argument that… the challenges around blindness are mostly about information loss, not vision loss.”

Professor Giudice discussed his journey as a blind scientist, sharing what he’s learned along the way that can be helpful to blind and low vision students interested in STEM education and career paths. His keynote highlighted four key elements for students to focus on for success: 

• Time management. “As a blind or low vision person, you’re using magnification, you’re using a screen reader, you’re using braille or tactile graphics. …Everything you do is going to take longer to access, and usually longer to finish than your sighted peers. …My advice is, the faster that you accept that using that accessibility tool will just end up taking you more time to do things… the easier it is to account for this time and build it into your schedule.”
• Balancing independence and efficiency. “This is a very individual process,” Giudice said. “It’s really this idea of, well, I’ve conflated essentially getting help with something as meaning that I’m not being independent. And this is a fallacy that I think a lot of blind people believe and make. …Yes, it’s important to be able to learn how to do things you want to be able to do independently. …But it’s also important to maximize your time and your effort by being as efficient as possible. …In many cases, there is nothing wrong with finding the path of least resistance to get things done.” 
• Self advocacy. “The most useful thing that I’ve learned throughout university was to ask for what I needed to succeed,” Guidice said. “I’m not saying this is always going to be easy. It absolutely is not. You’re going to face resistance. But my advice is, don’t let that stop you. If you really want to do something, or you really think some piece of technology is needed to support your studies, then don’t take no for an answer.”
• Get involved early with accessible technology design. “If we’re going to solve the many remaining accessibility problems in STEM and beyond… more blind people need to be a part of the assistive technology research and development process. Be willing to provide input on what works and what doesn’t work on new types of assistive devices and new types of interfaces.”

Following Dr. Giudice’s keynote, Professor Branham moderated a panel, “Accessing College-Level Math as a BLV Student.” Featured panelists, which included Dr. Karen Arcos (UCI alum, PhD in Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience), Cameron Cassidy (UCI PhD student in Informatics), Arlene Fuentes (UCI BS student in Drama), and Campbell Rutherford (Harvard University BS student in Applied Mathematics), shared how they approach discussing and arranging access with professors and disability services staff, as well as their experiences in using tools like LaTeX and Nemeth code to access college-level math.

The panelists discussed and gave demonstrations of their preferred approaches for math work. Dr. Arcos discussed her preference for typing math in Nemeth Code on her BrailleNote Touch, using the MathType add-in for MS Word. Rutherford shared her own preference for LaTeX on a Focus 40 braille display, also with the MathType add-in for MS Word. Fuentes spoke to her approach – to hand write math using an iPad and stylus in the iOS Notes app. Cassidy, while also preferring to hand write, likes to use a whiteboard and phone camera. The panel’s discussion spoke to the variety of ways and tools with which BLV students can approach college math – underscoring that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to accessibility.

The panel also provided an opportunity for panelists to talk about what they see as key ways to smooth the transition into college-level classes in general. One common theme among the panelists’ advice to prospective BLV students was preparedness. “Familiarize yourself with a lot of the higher level education accommodations that you’re going to go to.” Fuentes shared. “Look into the [disability] service center and see what they can provide, and how you can navigate that system first. And then from there, you get the accommodations for classes. And then from there, you branch to all the other things.” Rutherford also emphasized early prep. “Get your Assistive Technology Training. I’ve seen so many blind students come into college, and they’re incredibly smart, but then they get in here and they’re having to learn assistive tech at the same time as they’re learning their college courses, and it’s not a good situation, especially if you’re in a STEM field. …When it comes to STEM you really need to be on top of your assistive tech,” she said. “I cannot emphasize enough to you how important it is that you make sure that you are fluent in your assistive tech before going to college.” Cassidy also recommended becoming familiar with using assisted technologies while still in high school, and additionally highlighted the importance of experimentation and flexibility to find what works for you. “Be dynamic. The sooner you start trying new things and figure out what works for you in college, the better,” he shared. “Come in with a plan, [but] be willing to change that plan if needed.” 

Panelist Dr. Arcos called attention to the importance of balancing independence with asking for help. “Independence is stressed, but equally as important is interdependence. Learn what your limits are, and how to ask for help. You’re not alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, or to tell people that you don’t need help… Aim high and use the tools available to you.”

The audience was then divided into breakout groups for an activity, “Supporting the College Transition,” where groups were encouraged to discuss challenges and pathways to solutions to create easier, more successful college transitions – like how to adapt to requesting accommodations, or how to navigate the pressure of representing the visually impaired community as a whole in your university’s environment.

The day wrapped up with closing remarks from Professor Branham, Assistant Director of OAI Vinh Luong, and the three 24-25 Access STEM Scholars (who applied to the research program after attending the event last year): Mina Lamarra, Khanh Tran, and Nancy Le; followed by lunch and the opportunity to connect and network with the panelists and other attendees.

Professor Branham has also shared the following resources for students and educators:

• For faculty looking to make digital materials more accessible to students with disabilities at UC Irvine, DTEI has a new support team – Digital Accessibility Support and Help (DASH) – that is on-call for consultations and can perform some of the remediation (e.g., making a Canvas course or PDFs more accessible) for faculty. 
• UC Irvine’s School of ICS Summer Academy 2025 is still accepting applications!
• Learn about the UC Irvine Access STEM scholars program for 2025-26
• If you’re a college student in a computing major, join AccessComputing! If you’re an educator seeking to support disabled students in computing, become an institutional partner!

A captioned recording of the event is available below and on YouTube.

If you would like to contribute to the AccessUCI program, learn more about the ZotFunder campaign.

– Jenna Abrams