[BlindMath] Programming with young blind and visual impaired students

[Jonathan Godfrey]

Hello Niels,

I'm interested in what others can share on this topic. My children (all sighted but kept anyway) like the idea of programming and I'm wanting to be part of what they do. If they use the options on offer via their schools, I am left out in the cold.

I'd add to Robert's suggestion about a Braille display by noting that while screen readers can announce the indentation quite adequately, they do not read upper and lower case letters within lines of text so easily and the various brackets needed make use of literary Braille less efficient.

My Braille display is set to 8 dot computer Braille all the time because the main reasons I have one is for syntax and spelling accuracy. While that is relevant for coding, it is also relevant for proof-reading prose.

I do think your decisions really should be driven by accessibility on one hand, but equally importantly, the nature of the tasks you want the users to be tackling.

I think for example that if they are to learn about geometric shapes including lengths and angles, that using a turtle graphics implementation might be nice. I wouldn't suggest the R based implementation I use though. Even a task involving regular polygons to prove that you can return to the point of origin has value to an eight year old. An implementation that records coordinate position is required for this idea.

Good luck,
Jonathan




-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Robert Jaquiss via BlindMath
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2023 11:46 AM
To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics' <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: rjaquiss at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Programming with young blind and visual impaired students

Hello Niels:

     The Quorum language is certainly accessible. Learn more at:
https://quorumlanguage.com/

Python can be used, but is harder to work with. Since Python uses
indentation as part of its syntax, it will be easier is students have
braille displays. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Robert


-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Niels Luithardt
via BlindMath
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2023 1:00 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Niels Luithardt <niels.luithardt at googlemail.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] Programming with young blind and visual impaired
students

Hello all,

I have a question that has only limited to do with mathematics, it is more
about computer science.

Is there a particularly well suited programming environment for blind and
visually impaired students and a correspondingly simple programming
language?

Students in this case are children between 8 and 14 years,

I would be very pleased about experiences in this area!

Kind Regards

Niels

Niels

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