Teachers' Perceptions of Barriers Influencing African American and Hispanic Students with Disabilities' Participation in K-12 Computer Science Education

The Students with Disabilities in Computer Science (SWDCS) Research Alliance is conducting an NSF-funded study on teachers' perceptions about the barriers to increasing computer science (CS) awareness among African American and Hispanic students with disabilities (SWD). The SWDCS Research Alliance is a research-practitioner partnership of computer science and special educators. The purpose of this preliminary study is to increase African American and Hispanic students with disabilities' interest, engagement, learning, knowledge, and persistence in CS and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. This project employs a project-based voice user interface (VUI) and artificial intelligence (AI) instruction, and tech mentoring. Of the 21 teachers participating in the Alliance, the research team identified a convenience sample of eight teachers to participate in semi-structured, focus group interviews. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach, the researchers identified the following emergent themes: limitations of school or administrative policies for African American and Hispanic SWD enrolling in CS classes, lack of CS-focused interventions for African American and Hispanic SWD, lack of formal teacher preparation for CS teachers to work with SWD, and structural barriers limiting SWD, Hispanic, and Black students' enrollment in CS classes. This study fills the gap in the literature concerning minority SWD's experiences in CS education.