University of Illinois (University of Illinois, School of Information Sciences)

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab, in partnership with the American Printing House for the Blind, Young Adult Library Services Association, and Reaching Across Illinois Library System Makerspace Networking Group, will conduct participatory design research to promote computational thinking skills for blind and visually impaired (BVI) teens through accessible library makerspaces. Project activities will include training maker professionals and conducting an accessibility status assessment; hosting a summer camp with BVI teens to co-design accessible maker curriculum; testing the developed accessible maker programs in four Illinois library makerspaces; and training librarians through webinars and workshops. Project beneficiaries will include BVI teens, librarians with enhanced competencies for serving diverse youth, and all makers and library users who will benefit from a more inclusive and accessible library makerspace.