Background: Prior research about lecturing practices in computer science (CS) have not focused on the accessibility of those practices.

Purpose: We aim to understand Deaf people’s experiences with CS lectures and live coding to identify ways we can improve the accessibility of CS learning environments.

Methods: We qualitatively analyzed eight semi-structured interviews with Deaf people to understand their experiences and their insights into how those experiences could be improved.

Findings: Our participants reported that lectures and live coding often created accessibility barriers, especially when they had to split their attention between instructors, slides, their notes, and interpreters/captions. These barriers led to students missing important content and were not due to a lack of accommodations. Instead, barriers emerged from the interplay between their instructors’ actions, their accommodations, and the orientation of people and information within the classroom.

Implications: These findings suggest that accessibility in CS education should move beyond viewing accessibility as solely the presence of accommodations. Instead, researchers and educators should seek to understand what inaccessibility emerges within CS classrooms and should work with students to imagine and create more accessible learning environments.