Implementing Impact: a Lesson on mySQL Databases and Accessibility

An introduction to the underlying data models and theory of database systems and the design, implementation and manipulation of relational databases. Use mySQL programming to query database of different cases for accessibility: ethical, legal, and business.

Important Notes

This assignment is an individual assignment because the goal is to help you personally understand the impacts of having or not having accessibility guidelines.

Document your code with an inline comment with the task number.

Remember to also submit the reflection questions with the zip file of your code.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this individual assignment, you will gain:

Overview

Imagine you are a software engineer at a software company that wants to build technology that is inclusive and accessible.
In this programming assignment, you will learn about important cases and statistics around people with disabilities. In order to help you succeed in this assignment, let’s understand critical definitions that will be mentioned throughout this assignment. There are two definitions of disability. There is the medical definition and then there is the social model definition of disability.

Medical Disability: “a disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions). These include, but not limited to: vision, mental health, social relationships, and more” (CDC). This medical model, however, focuses on what’s wrong with the individual rather than the environment around them.

Social model of disability: This focuses on what’s wrong with the individual’s environment in response to their disability. Suppose a person with a visual impairment is trying to access a website on a computer. On that computer, there is no screen reader installed. A screen reader helps individuals that are blind or have low vision read the text on a screen. As such, this is the fault of the technology, not the person. Consequently, people with disabilities can feel isolated, excluded, pitied, and undervalued. As a collective society, we must create inclusive environments that promote equal access.

Disability inclusion: This concept encompasses the idea of equal access. In short, disability inclusion is “making sure everybody has the same opportunities to participate in every aspect of life to the best of their abilities and desires” (CDC).

Digital Accessibility: In light of the example above, “refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, digital tools and technologies, by people with disabilities” (Georgetown Law)

Additionally, this data comes from real sources across the World Health Organization (WHO) and more. In the tables, you will see links to the sources in the last column. By learning about these facts, you will better understand the importance of inclusivity for different groups of people.

Getting Started with the Assignment

Database Schema

Tables:

Columns:

Each table contains the CaseID, the description of the case (Human_Ethical_Case, Legal_Case, Business_Case), the source of the case, and the url of the source.

Primary Key

The primary key is the CaseID which helps us differentiate between different cases.

Foreign Key

The foreign key is the ContextID which maps to the CaseID in the Human_Ethical_Cases_Table to help us derive new insights from the motivations of needing accessibility.

Table Name Columns Primary Key Foreign Key
Human_and_Ethical_Cases_Table CaseID
Human_Ethical_Case_Data
SourceTitle
SourceURL
CaseID -
Legal_Cases_Table CaseID
Legal_Case_Data
SourceTitle
SourceURL
CaseID ContextID
Business_Cases_Table CaseID
Business_Case_Data
SourceTitle
SourceURL
CaseID ContextID

Tasks

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3 Questions

Reflection Questions

There are statistics about the prevalence of disabilities. In order to reflect on what you learn, please write 1-2 paragraphs for the following questions:

Write these in a document called reflection.txt and turn it in along with your solution code.

What to Turn In

Turn in your source code file and title it “Lastname_Assignment” and reflection.txt

Need some Help?

References