waashk/acm huggingface dataset:
computer accessibility for federal workers with disabilities: it's the law  in 1986, congress passed public law 99-506, the "rehabilitation act amendments of 1986." this law, amending the famous rehabilitation act of 1973, contains a small section, titled "electronic equipment accessibility," section 508, which may have significant impact on the design of computer systems and their accessibility by workers with disabilities. the bill became law when it was signed by former president reagan on october 21, 1986.  the purpose of this article is to inform concerned computer professionals of section 508, outline the guidelines and regulations pursuant to the law, describe some of the reaction to the guidelines and regulations, and describe some of the challenges for the future in meeting the computer accessibility needs of users with disabilities.  section 508 was developed because it was realized that government offices were rapidly changing into electronic offices with microcomputers on every desk. in order for persons with disabilities to keep their jobs or gain new employment in the government, congress decided it was necessary to make provisions to guarantee accessibility to microcomputers and other electronic office equipment. the driving principle behind section 508 can be found in section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 which states:  no otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the united states . . . shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.  it should be stated off the top that the scope of section 508 is not as broad as section 504. in particular, section 508 only applies to direct purchases by the federal government and not to purchases made by all programs receiving government funding.  section 508 does not specify what the guidelines should be nor does it delineate a philosophy on which to base the guidelines. a committee established by the national institute on disability and rehabilitation research (nidrr) and the general services, administration (gsa), in consultation with the electronics industry, rehabilitation engineers, and disabled computer professionals worked for a year developing the philosophy and guidelines which will significantly affect the purchase of electronic office equipment, including computers and software, by the federal government, the largest computer customer in the world.  richard e. ladner
quo vadimus: computer science in a decade  a panel discussion was held during the third biennial meeting of chairmen of ph.d.-granting computer science departments in june, 1978 at snowbird, utah, a meeting sponsored by the computer science board. invitees from industry and government were also present. a report was prepared from tapes made of the discussion (department of computer science, carnegie-mellon university: report #cmu-cs-80-127, june 1980). it contained all the prepared statements of the panelists, lightly edited, and the panelists' discussion in its entirety. a selection of the audience discussion was also included, rather heavily edited. the following presentation is derived from that report.  j. f. traub
a successful support model for student consultants at rutgers university  in january 1986, a program which provided non-curriculum, general academic microcomputing for students began at rutgers university. this consisted of 25 apple macintoshes, 24 at&amp;t; 6300s, laser printers, software, and consultants at four libraries on the new brunswick campus.  a support plan consisting of two full-time staff and approximately 40 students developed from the philosophy of a) you need technically qualified, personable consultants and staff to serve the users and associated departments, b) satisfied, challenged, and rewarded consultants have a higher probability of desiring continued employment, and c) if the consultants aren't happy, neither are your users. student positions included clerical assistant, consultant, programmer, site manager, software preparer and technical writer.  four steps were used in managing the student staff: obtaining students with the necessary technical and people skills, training and maintaining the skills of the workers, retaining student employees, and evaluation. obtaining student personnel involved determining job requirements, soliciting the appropriate potential applicants, interviewing and selective hiring. interpersonal and communications skills were more important that technical skill for perspective student consultants. humanities and liberal arts majors were encouraged to apply. all potential employees were subjected to a standardized interview for the job applied. all exceptional students were hired. additional staff were hired to compensate for attrition and for substitution.  extensive training of student consultants was done. this included initial workshops, a consultant's handbook, monthly meetings, and training exercises.  the ability to retain student employees depended on hiring the correct candidate, attractiveness of the job, and fate. prioritizing work before social life, reporting to work faithfully, and carrying a reasonable course load were characteristics found in returning students.  blair c. brenner
a spiral approach to software engineering project management education  this paper describes the experiences of an instructor, experienced in management, teaching a software engineering project management course at a school that specializes in software education. a "spiral approach" was used to provide for the parallel acquisition of management knowledge and experience, while building on recently acquired skills in software technology and developing confidence through the successful development of a software product. this paper describes the reason for selecting the approach, the course content, the observation of the students and the instructor, the advantages and disadvantages of the approach as applied, and conclusions. course objectives were met and course evaluations by students indicated a much higher level of acceptance than previous traditional approaches. the observations indicated that the approach may extend beyond the classroom to the industrial setting where on the job training, career path planning, and management development are of concern.  joseph c. spicer
elementary computer literacy (sigcas)  computer science departments have spent a large percentage of their efforts on educating majors. this is as it should have been since there was a need to establish an identity for computer science. this task is by no means complete, but it is far enough along that more attention can be directed to the large numbers of students who do not want to be majors. departments are beginning to respond to students who want a minor - particularly those who are majoring in the sciences. but, other than providing what might be labeled "computer appreciation" courses or introductory programming courses, little has been done for the large body of non-science majors. the challenge is; what should be the content of a course in which the assumption must be made that this is the only opportunity for the student to study commuter science as an undergraduate? my remarks will be directed toward answering this question.  gerald l. engel orrin taulbee philip l. miller robert hare
computer backup pools, disaster recovery, and default risk  there is a growing popularity of computer backup pools, where a few members share the ownership, or right for service, of a computer center. such a center stands by to provide for the lost computing capacity of a member suffering a computer breakdown and disaster recovery. the efficiency of such a solution may be examined from various points of view, such as costs, response time, reliability etc. we focus on the reliability of such an arrangement. two types of default risks are discussed: the probability that the center itself will break down when needed, so that it would be unable to provide service (this is similar to the traditional measure of a "probability of ruin") and a "perceived probability of ruin" (the probability that a member will be affected by the failure of the center). we borrow the concepts of probability of ruin from the risk management and insurance literature, in order to reach explicit relationships between these probabilities and the pricing of a mutual computer pool. it is shown that the membership fee for each participant must be a function of both the payments of all members and their loss (call for service) distributions, reflecting thereby the simultaneity of and mutual interdependence of members.  yehuda kahane seev neumann charles s. tapiero
no-nonsense guide to csab/csac accreditation  csab/csac provides professional accreditation of computer science bachelor's degree programs in the united states. as of october 2000, 159 institutions held this accreditation. by our count, over 80% of the accredited programs were offered by departments which also offer graduate programs in computer science. this means that few small colleges are represented. our intent in this work is to give the small college audience an up-to-date guide to the recently-revised csab/csac accreditation standards. the guide is not comprehensive; we emphasize those issues we believe to be of greatest interest to small colleges and address them from the perspective we have gained from our own recent accreditation evaluation.  pete sanderson
a major in information systems  an information systems major is presented as a second offering by a computer science department. the rationale for the degree program is based upon the demands of industry for graduates skilled in database and information systems. courses in cobol, business data processing, database management, and systems analysis are included in the information systems curriculum to prepare the student for employment in the business systems area. the contents of the courses in the information systems core curriculum at kansas state university are presented as an example of an implemented degree program. in addition, the information systems curriculum is analyzed in terms of its differences with the curriculum 78 computer science curriculum and of the resources required for its implementation.  fred j. maryanski elizabeth a. unger
visualizing algorithms and processes with the aid of a computer  communicating algorithms and processes is an integral part of computer science education yet in many instances is difficult to carry out effectively using traditional techniques. using the computer as an aid in visualizing and understanding an algorithm is one way to improve this communication process. with the computer technology available to us today, it would be unfortunate if we did not make effective use of it in computer science education. (we don't want to be like the shoemaker's children.)  the prototype systems described in this paper exemplify how a computer might be used as an instructional aid; the observations resulting from their application suggest further experimentation and use.  jeffrey w. mincy alan l. tharp kuo-chung tai
computing: taking the first byte  last year, the computing planning task force of the university of delaware recommended that the university adopt a goal for its 18,000 students. they proposed that "60 percent of students should have some familiarity with computers, 20 percent should make significant use of them, [and] 20 percent should be fully conversant with all aspects of computing."1 at about the same time the provost and vice president for academic affairs directed academic computing services to develop a program to promote computing awareness among the faculty. in addition, an anonymous grant to the humanities faculty for the purchase of microcomputers sparked new interest in computing among this group.  this paper describes the on-going development of the "computing: taking the first byte" program, a series of seminars and workshops for faculty in fields that are not historically associated with computing.  anne webster leila lyons
micros and minis - conflict resolution  micro computers situated in micro computer labs and the desire of faculty to switch to using micro computers and micro-based packages as a tool for teaching is growing rapidly on campuses. this can have its advantages but also, from an economic as well as a practical point of view, is often loaded with disadvantages which can far outweigh the advantages of using a mini or mainframe computer.  this paper will focus on some of the advantages and disadvantages, both the obvious and the sometimes obscure, which surround the micro vs. mini or mainframe tool for teaching. from an economic standpoint the discussion will point out the costs of maintaining a micro lab on a cost per student basis taking into account not only the initial hardware and software costs, but also the cost of system administration and hardware maintenance. from a practical standpoint the discussion will point out what little differences there are between packages which can be used on a micro and similar packages that can be used on a mainframe and how easily a student can adapt to using a slightly different but similar-in-purpose package. while it is important that a student be taught how to use tools such as a fourth generation language and a spreadsheet package, that fourth generation language or spreadsheet package does not have to be the most popular package being used on micros. there are very good fourth generation packages and spreadsheet packages available for minis and mainframes.  allan haverkamp
user's groups - a source of information  this paper looks at the ways one of the user's groups on campus provides information and sources of information to the campus community. it describes the activities and instruments the group uses to gather and disseminate this information to its members. it also discusses methods being used to increase user participation in the user's group.  the user's group uses a variety of techniques to accomplish its goal of being a source of information to the campus community, including: a newsletter covering general information of interest to the campus community and software and hardware reviews by members of the user's group; hardware and software presentations by vendors and user group members during meetings; maintenance of a public domain software library at a central site for use by members; and the use of a database containing the software and hardware currently being used by individual members and their expertise with each product.  alan albertus
predicting student performance in a beginning computer science class  this study investigated the relationship between the student's grade in a beginning computer science course and their sex, age, high school and college academic performance, number of mathematics courses, and work experience. standard measures of cognitive development, cognitive style, and personality factors were also given to 58 students in three sections of the beginning pascal programming class.  significant relationships were found between the letter grade and the students' college grades, the number of hours worked and the number of high school mathematics classes. both the group embedded figures test (geft) and the measure of piagetian intellectual development stages were also significantly correlated with grade in the course. there was no relationship between grade and the personality type, as measured by the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti); however, an interesting and distinctive personality profile was evident.  laurie honour werth
long-range planning in computer chess  a serious deficiency in game- playing, tree-searching programs is their short- sightedness. program strategy revolves around the maximization/minimization of what is attainable within the scope of the search tree with little consideration of what lies beyond. this paper describes planner, a long-range chess strategist that assesses positions, determines a long-range strategy, and makes moves in the short-term (within the scope of the search tree) consistent with a long-term objective (beyond the depth of the search tree). in effect then, planner allows the program to "see" beyond the limitations of the search tree.  jonathan schaeffer
an international common project: implementation phase  to better prepare students to work in globally distributed organizations, to develop effective communication skills to deal with the communication barriers that are inherent in such settings and to provide students with the opportunity to be involved in a complete software development cycle of a "real- world" project, from design to integration and testing, we have developed a course based on an "international common project" (icp) model [3] of the us-ec (european community) consortium "towards a common computer science curriculum and mutual degree recognition" [1]. the course is scheduled for the spring semester, 2001, and towson university, maryland, usa and evry university, france, will participate in this project.  shiva azadegan chao lu
work at home for computer professionals: current attitudes and future prospects  the subject of this paper is work performed in the home with computer and communications technology, also known as telecommuting. the article reports on two studies of work at home: a quasi-experimental field study of organizational telecommuting pilot programs, and an attitude survey comparing computer professionals who work at home to employees doing similar jobs in traditional office settings. the results of the field study demonstrated that working in the home had little impact on employee performance; however, supervisors were not comfortable with remote workers and preferred their employees to be on site. in the survey, work in the home was related to lower job satisfaction, lower organizational commitment, and higher role conflict. the survey also included computer professionals who worked at home in addition to the regular work day. the author suggests that performing additional unpaid work in the home after regular work hours may be an important trend that merits further investigation. the studies demonstrate that while computer and communications technology have the potential to relax constraints on information work in terms of space and time, in today's traditional work environments, corporate culture and management style limit acceptance of telecommuting as a substitute for office work.  margrethe h. olson
can information systems concepts be assimilated into non-is courses? the american assembly of collegiate schools of business (aacsb) is encouraging schools to teach core topics across a spectrum of courses. subjects would not be artificially forced into a certain course because of departmental boundaries but would be introduced according to their relevance to the topic being presented. information systems (is) topics have received attention possibly because the wording of the current aacsb curriculum standards no longer implies that a separate course is required for information systems.many discussions about curriculum changes affecting is have been made without quantitative information. evidence has not been gathered about the qualifications of non-is faculty to teach is topics or even faculty preferences for delivery of is topics. the questionnaire used to gather data for this article revealed that non-is faculty strongly prefer a separate, required is course over integrating is topics into non-is courses. the introductory is course provides the bulk of knowledge that most business students receive about information systems. if students are not well taught by qualified faculty then their ability to use and assimilate is and is technology is diminished. this article brings some quantitative evidence to the debate and argues that is topics beyond computer literacy are best taught by is faculty. george p. schell
treating information as an asset  the fifth generation of computing presents a unique position for the value, protection, and support of information. this session addresses the needs of corporations and organizations by presenting and discussing information being treated as an asset.  robert abbott, in his keynote address, will relate the seriousness and effort that corporations and government agencies expend to protect their information.  k. lucey and t. brannan's paper addresses the corporate power plays that can occur by identifying the checks and balances necessary to assure protection and privacy.  l. becker's paper correlates recent legislative proposals with the impacts and problems of computer security issues.  david persin
a distributed computer approach to i/o rooms  the louisiana state university system is composed of ten campuses, located statewide. each of the ten campuses has some locally installed computer power. on this campus, approximately 25,000 of the students attend and this is also the location of the system network computer center. the system network computer center installed the first ibm 3033 processor complex that was installed in an academic environment. this processor complex is used for research, instruction, and administrative work. the primary use of this is made by the main campus. however, all other campuses use this for large-scale computational support, some administrative supplement, and some instructional support.  on campus, there are many tso terminals for graduate students and faculty and in 1978 there was a single student i/o room which had card input and printer output. there was another i/o room in the main center which was used solely for the faculty and graduate students. this i/o room had a single card reader and printer. the student i/o room had two documentation 600 cpm card readers, two data products printers at 600 lpm, and 24 card punches.  john m. tyler
the impact of developer responsiveness on perceptions of usefulness and ease of use: an extension of the technology acceptance model the technology acceptance model (tam) suggests that the perceived usefulness (pu) and the perceived ease of use (peou) of an information system (is) are major determinants of its use. previous research has demonstrated the validity of this model across a wide variety of is types. however, prior research has not identified antecedents of pu and there has been only limited research on the antecedents of peou. consequently, research has provided little guidance to is managers on methods to increase use by augmenting pu and peou.viewing is development as an instance of social exchange theory (set), this study proposes that is managers can influence both the pu and the peou of an is through a constructive social exchange with the user. one means of building and maintaining a constructive social exchange is through developer responsiveness. the results of this study, examining the adoption of an expert system, indeed support this notion. specifically, developer responsiveness strongly influenced both pu and peou, but only indirectly affected actual behavior --- is use --- in accordance with the predictions of set. an extension of tam based on set is presented and the implications of this extended model are discussed from both a managerial and theoretical perspective. david gefen mark keil