[Blindmath] computer code

Fri Sep 23 22:35:59 UTC 2016

Hi all,

I agree with Bill on the indentation announcement being available, but I use JAWS for practically everything until it fails me and NVDA is my backup plan.
I find the Jaws announcements easy enough to deal with in sound, although the white space thing does my head in on a braille display.

It seems that many programming standards are making use of white space important for  clarity and making it easier to read, while some programs rely on it as a fundamental (notably Python). I had to re-format a whole bunch of my code because of this issue a few months ago. I was lucky that someone had written a package to do it for me in accordance with the Google standard guide for the code I had developed.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bill Dengler via Blindmath
Sent: Saturday, 24 September 2016 10:15 a.m.
To: Sabra Ewing
Cc: Bill Dengler; Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] computer code

Yes, indentation is part of the language, but many editors have auto-indent and NVDA supports indentation announcement so it really isn’t an issue. And yes, this comes from someone with spatial issues.

Bill
> On Sep 23, 2016, at 10:12 PM, Sabra Ewing <sabra1023 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I tried it. The website is accessible, but the puzzles or not. Python is bad for someone with spatial difficulties because indentation is an actual part of the language instead of just a stylistic thing. There is a language called visual basic, which might be more of what you want. The environment does a lot of the work for you, and you only have to write some of the code. I don't know of any websites, but I think there are some apps for the iPhone that teach it. I can't remember what they are called though. If you can't find anything, another thing you could try is having code template for the student to fill-in. Maybe the website the instructor is using does have some accessible courses though. They have a link on there called student diversity, so it would be ironic if they supposedly care about that, but their stuff isn't accessible. I think you would have better luck with an Apple device though. I really wish I remembered what it was called, but there is this thing where you can use voiceover to move things around on the screen the same way they teach it on these coding websites. There is a computer science list like this one, so maybe they have more information there.
> 
> Sabra Ewing
> 
>> On Sep 23, 2016, at 4:49 PM, Bill Dengler via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Personally, I love the books available on Green Tea press <http://greenteapress.com <http://greenteapress.com/> <http://greenteapress.com/ <http://greenteapress.com/>>>.
>> Think Python is great and teaches lots of core programming concepts. The problems are challenging, but if your student gives them their best effort and compares their solutions to the author-provided ones, they will definitely become a better programmer.
>> The Turtle World section is (obviously) inaccessible; if your student has no vision, they will either need to skip that section, or (ideally) have a sighted person describe what’s happening when they run their programs.
>> The GUI programming section is also inaccessible, since it uses the Tkinter framework.
>> The books are available in LaTeX and HTML. The HTML version is probably your best bet, but you could probably convert the LaTeX version to Braille if your student prefers that.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Bill
>>> On Sep 23, 2016, at 9:39 PM, Lewicki, Maureen via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thanks! Yes bookshare is great but I was hoping to find websites 
>>> that are accessible that a student could use to learn some things 
>>> such as are presented on code.org<http://code.org>
>>> 
>>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>>> Teacher of the Visually Impaired
>>> Bethlehem Central Schools
>>> 700 Delaware Avenue<x-apple-data-detectors://1/0>
>>> Delmar, NY 12054<x-apple-data-detectors://1/0>
>>> http://bcsd.k12.ny.us/
>>> 
>>> On Sep 23, 2016, at 4:04 PM, Smith, Andrew via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Bookshare is indeed a fantastic resource.  Many books on many 
>>> different languages.
>>> 
>>> On 9/23/16, Martin, Vincent F via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>>> I have been using the programming books on Bookshare for years.
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
>>> Louis Maher via Blindmath
>>> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2016 3:40 PM
>>> To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
>>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>>
>>> Cc: Louis Maher <ljmaher at swbell.net<mailto:ljmaher at swbell.net>>
>>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] computer code
>>> 
>>> Maureen,
>>> 
>>> An excellent source is bookshare.org<http://bookshare.org>.  Search 
>>> for the computer language you want to learn.
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> Louis Maher
>>> Phone: 713-444-7838
>>> E-mail: ljmaher at swbell.net<mailto:ljmaher at swbell.net>
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
>>> Lewicki, Maureen via Blindmath
>>> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2016 2:02 PM
>>> To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
>>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>>
>>> Cc: Lewicki, Maureen 
>>> <MLewicki at bcsd.neric.org<mailto:MLewicki at bcsd.neric.org>>
>>> Subject: [Blindmath] computer code
>>> 
>>> Can anyone direct me to resources for blind students who want to 
>>> learn computer code please? A teacher uses 
>>> Code.org<http://Code.org>. Is it accessible? Can you direct me to things and websites that are please?
>>> 
>>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>>> Teacher of the Visually Impaired
>>> Bethlehem Central School District
>>> Bethlehem High School
>>> 700 Delaware Ave
>>> Delmar, NY 12054
>>> http://www.bethlehemschools.org<http://www.bethlehemschools.org/>
>>> Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over 
>>> again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a 
>>> purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad 
>>> to remember. Anne Sullivan
>>> 
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>> 
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