[BlindMath] Programming with young blind and visual impaired students

[Bill Dengler]

Speaking from personal experience, the closest thing to a programming
language I played with at around age 8 was Windows batch scripting. The
syntax is fairly simple and I made some little scripts that'd, for instance,
pop up message boxes or ask the user multi-choice questions. I'm not sure if
I'd recommend it in 2023 (and admittedly I'm a bit of an odd duck), but it
fascinated me enough in 2008 that I ended up keeping going, getting a
computer science degree, and contributing to accessibility tooling (both
NVDA and at Microsoft)!
As a far more advanced (though arguably more useful) resource, I suggest
Think Python[0], which teaches basic computer science concepts through
programming. I went through the book with a friend at around age 15
(skipping some of the visual exercises) which was an extremely educational
experience. Interestingly, Swarthmore College (where I did my undergrad)
uses a close cousin[1] of that book in its introductory course.

Bill
[0]: The book can be found at https://greenteapress.com. I've built a more
accessible HTML version from the (freely available) LaTeX source. You can
build it yourself with Pandoc (pass --mathml and output HTML or Epub), or my
accessible version is available on request.
[1]: https://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/courses/CS21Book/
-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Robin Williams
via BlindMath
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2023 12:01 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Robin Williams <Robin.Williams at atass-sports.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Programming with young blind and visual impaired
students

I've no experience with this, but I've heard good reviews of Apple's Swift
Playgrounds app. For example, see this resource:
https://www.perkins.org/resource/swift-playgrounds-apples-accessible-coding-
app-kids/
Perhaps you would need something a little more advanced for the older
students, but this could be a good starting point?

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Robert Jaquiss
via BlindMath
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2023 5:40 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:

     As far as languages go, C isn't too hard to work with. As long as the
syntax is correct, a C program will run. The writer can run code through a C
beautifier to make it pretty. In some ways, I like compiled languages the
best because there is an executable that doesn't require a runtime library.
For kids, if you want to control Lego(R) you can use NXC (Not Exactly C),
Quorum or robotc from CMU. Note for use with LEGO systems, you have to
change the firmware in the brick. It is cool to see a NXC program move a
LEGO robot in a pattern and a BLV student can feel the result.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
Robert




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