The Wicked Problem of Accessibility is an innovative, interdisciplinary course, providing upper year undergraduate students an opportunity to learn from a team of PhD students completing research on accessibility topics.
Course Overview
This interdisciplinary course provides a comprehensive overview of the wicked problem of accessibility. Unlike ordinary problems, which are well-defined, self-contained, and come with a limited set of potential solutions, wicked problems resist definition, are mixed up with and compounded by other problems, and cannot be solved in a way that is simple or final.
Accessibility, when viewed through this lens, can be identified as a wicked problem, as it requires interdisciplinary approaches to understand it, including social, political, economic, technological, policy-oriented, scientific, and health related. When designing with accessibility in mind, what works for one group may not work for another. Developing and supporting accessible experiences, environments, and opportunities for people with disabilities requires substantive and interdisciplinary solutions.
The Wicked Problem of Accessibility
This course approaches the wicked problem of accessibility from diverse disciplinary perspectives (e.g., applied sciences, social sciences, health sciences, humanities, engineering, technology, policy, and planning) to address the various dimensions of this global challenge. Topics covered in this course may include: intersectionality and disability identities; historical and cultural representations of disability and accessibility; technological advances to support access and inclusion; integrating accessibility into the design of programs, buildings, cities, and community areas; considering physical, developmental, cognitive, and learning disabilities; mental health; social justice; policy development; the representation of accessibility and disability in media and literature; disability advocacy, among others. The course prepares students to analyze the wicked problem of accessibility from an interdisciplinary perspective, to evaluate and critique diverse perspectives on the issue, and to devise potential solutions to support access for disabled individuals.
Graduate students at the University of Waterloo are engaged in research that is advancing our understanding of - and developing solutions to - some of society’s most challenging problems. As part of the University’s strategic plans to develop talent for a complex world and focus on interdisciplinary scholarship, this initiative sees a team of PhD candidates come together to design, develop, and offer a course related to contemporary Wicked Problems. The course will be offered to upper-year undergraduate students from across the University to create a community of scholars, sharing different perspectives from the PhD candidate instructors and the learners in the classroom.
Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the core concepts of accessibility and current mitigation and adaptation approaches.
- Examine the wicked problem of accessibility across applied sciences, humanities, social sciences, and health sciences, including interconnections between and limitations of each discipline.
- Assess the impact of accessibility in culture, societies, economies, technology, and the natural environment.
- Compare diverse perspectives to articulate and evaluate your own position on accessibility.
- Collaborate with other students and combine disciplinary approaches to propose solutions to an accessibility problem of your choice.
- Develop interdisciplinary skills and identify how those skills can be used in your future studies and/or career.
Register for the Wicked Problem of Accessibility using course code(s):
-
ARTS 390
-
ENVS 374
-
GENE 399
-
HEALTH 490
-
MTHEL 398
-
SCI 300-003
Note: this course is offered as a blended course. The Registrar's Office defines a blended class, designated by a campus code of BLND, as "a class normally scheduled with both an online and in-person activity (students must be available to come to campus)."
Who can register?
This course is open to all upper-year undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo (3A or higher) regardless of your faculty and discipline. All students from all Faculties/disciplines are welcome. Course registration opens on January 27, 2025.
Meet the Instructors
These PhD candidates are spending the Winter 2025 term in the Teaching Innovation Incubator, receiving input and insight from colleagues in the Centre for Teaching Excellence, Centre for Extended Learning's Agile Development Team, and Instructional Technologies and Media Services, to re-design and develop the Wicked Problem of Accessibility course.
Emma Littler
Emma Littler (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Public Health Sciences, whose research focuses on the experiences of children with a chronic physical illness. Specifically, her dissertation explores the relationship between chronic stress and psychopathology in children with a chronic physical illness, using hair cortisol concentration as a biomarker. Prior to starting her PhD at Waterloo, she earned a BA in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Guelph, and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from Queen’s University. Emma looks forward to exploring the wicked problem of accessibility by focusing on how disability impacts physical health and mental well-being, and how unmet accessibility needs are harmful for individual-level and population-level health. She looks forward to bringing her interdisciplinary research and teaching experience to this course!
Guiseppe Femia
Giuseppe Femia (he/him) is an English PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo. He previously completed a double major for his Bachelor of Arts, in English, Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication & Honours Arts and Business, as well as a Master of Arts, in Rhetoric and Communication Design, both at Waterloo. Giuseppe’s current research in game studies, media studies, queer studies, disability studies, and performance studies observes different types of gaming media and the appeal it has to its audience. As a research assistant, Giuseppe has been supporting Adan Jerreat-Poole in bringing together disabled scholars, artists, and activists for a series of zine-making workshops investigating our experiences being online, virtual, or hybrid throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, he has conducted his own research by bringing together neurodivergent scholars, artists, and activists as part of a TTRPG design workshop to share our stories as experiences of neurodivergent identity within the medium and uncover how neurodivergence can be represented in the narrative and game mechanics of TTRPGs. Giuseppe is now partnering up with other scholars researching the intersection of disability studies and game studies to broaden the horizons of the growing field.
Ryan Tennant
Ryan Tennant (he/him) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Systems Design Engineering. He holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Systems Design Engineering from the same institution. Ryan’s research interests are diverse and interdisciplinary, blending expertise from engineering, healthcare, and human factors in research hospitals and medical device companies domestically and internationally. While his doctoral research examines the design and integration of pediatric sepsis AI tools in healthcare, he is increasingly involved in higher education research. He is currently applying his expertise to develop a framework focused on health inclusion in higher education to address the challenges learners of various abilities face. Drawing from systems thinking and design methodologies, Ryan’s research in higher education examines how institutional, technological, and individual factors interact to shape accessibility and inclusion, particularly in response to ongoing and emerging public health threats. His teaching interests align with these research goals, as he aims to foster interdisciplinary problem-solving skills and inspire learners to design equitable solutions for real-world challenges. Ryan is excited to co-design and co-teach this interdisciplinary course and guide students in applying systems thinking to create learning (and other) environments that prioritize adaptability, empathy, and well-being, ensuring higher education is a space where everyone can thrive.