[nfbcs] Accessible interactive coding platforms?

[Louis Maher]

Hello Jessie,

It might help to call the Microsoft Disability help desk (1-800-936-5900).


Regards
Louis Maher
Phone: 713-444-7838
E-mail: ljmaher at swbell.net

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mabry, Jessie via
nfbcs
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 9:33 AM
To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Mabry, Jessie <Jessie.Mabry at ct.gov>
Subject: [nfbcs] Accessible interactive coding platforms?

Hi everyone,

I am collaborating with a national organization that establishes coding
clubs for middle school and high school students. We would like to find
accessible platforms and activities that will allow blind students to
participate. The current curriculum allows students to program in Scratch,
Earsketch, Khan Academy, Codesters, and Actimator. Some of these platforms
teach universal languages that would be useful to learn, like Python and JS,
but the interface itself is just unusable with a screen reader, and the
lessons involve drawing and animation. Then there are platforms like Scratch
where the language is proprietary on top of the inaccessibility. I'd prefer
something accessible that will also teach a language students can use later
on, unless that's just not as practical for very young children. The other
condition is that the platform can't involve downloadable components, since
many of the clubs take place in libraries or in schools with restricted
computers.

So I have a few questions I'm hoping some of you can help me with.

First, I've heard that Quorum's web compiler is undergoing major
enhancements and should soon be able to do a lot of what the downloadable
platform can do. Have any of you used Quorum or tried its tutorials? Do you
think it would be worthwhile to develop some activities with it to
incorporate into clubs for blind and sighted students?

Second, I saw Codecademy and W3Schools mentioned on the list as potentially
accessible platforms, but when I tried the tutorials, neither Jaws nor NVDA
would read what I typed in the program editor in real time, though I could
read it below the editor afterward. I'm using the latest versions of both
screen readers with Firefox. It's particularly frustrating, because that
seemed like the only thing I couldn't do. I could read all the text and
examples, but couldn't practice in the editor. Have other people experienced
the same issue, or is it something to do with my settings? I just hear
"blank" every time I should hear a character.

Are there other usable platforms that you know of? I've heard of block
languages that are being made accessible for young students, and
SwiftPlayground is supposed to be VoiceOver-friendly.

Finally, for those of you who were exposed to coding at a young age, what
kinds of activities did you like to do with it?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Jessie Mabry

_______________________________________________
nfbcs mailing list
nfbcs at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/ljmaher%40swbell.net