RE: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind programmers
- From: "Ken Perry" <whistler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 18:56:39 -0400
When you go looking for funding like my last post you might want to get
involved with APH. If you need a contact I can set you up with someone that
you can talk with.
Ken
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andreas Stefik
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 2:22 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: RicksPlace
Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind
programmers
Hi Rick (and others),
Here's a few quick thoughts off the top of my head, for what it's worth:
1. I'm actually a university computer science professor in Illinois,
not at the WSSB. I have a National Science Foundation program to put a
nation-wide architecture together for blind programmers, starting at
specialized schools. We're starting this by integrating into a few
additional schools per year. This year, the WSSB is participating.
Next year, two more schools are joining in, and the year after that
there will be five. After that, we need more funding, which I'm
working on getting applying for soon.
2. Part of our work, besides the outreach component, is analyzing the
technology involved for blind programming, which is what we have with
Sodbeans and Hop. Basically, we are running lots of experiments, field
studies, observations, and such to try to discover what kinds of tools
would be the most helpful. If we've learned anything, it's that
existing technology that's out there has significant problems. Of
course, I say that here and people are like, "Duh, we've been saying
that for years!" But, I say that at academic conferences and people
oddly find it controversial ... for some reason ...
3. Our initial data from work at these schools looks good, and our
analysis with the tools has been overwhelmingly positive. With that
said, we're taking our approach slowly, because there is a ton of work
to do, and changing large scale systems is tedious and difficult work.
In other words, when we apply for the next grant, to expand the
program or to allow us to keep testing, we want to make sure that the
technology is pretty solid, so that all of the schools can use it
largely without a hitch. So far, I'd say that, in that respect, we've
been pretty successful. Sodbeans is hardly perfect, but we've made
solid, consistent, improvements, and things are really starting to
gel.
So, to answer your question as to whether anyone is working on blind
programming as a national project, I definitely have, cause that's
what my research group is doing. We have a bunch of universities
involved, tons of schools for the blind, support from other
accessibility teams, Oracle, and other groups that really, really,
want to see some of these problems get solved. It's going to take
time, and there's lots of areas where more people can help out, either
by fixing bugs on tools, funding more work on the research, or other
ways, but we're sure trying to make this happen. It is definitely not
a simple problem to try and solve.
Anyway, I don't know if that answers your questions, but that's my
take on things,
Stefik
On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 12:01 PM, RicksPlace <ofbgmail@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Andreas:
> Since you are at Washington State School for the Blind you would seemingly
> be in a position to make some real world comments on this thread.
> First: I really discount the process of setting up an Acreddited
University
> level program without some massive resources.
> Second, It would seem that a formal education is the best method for
> learning to become a Professional Computer Programmer at any level.
> That said, I see where there is a real need for a central repository where
> students can find out about accessibility tools, techniques and resources.
> In addition a central location where they can go to find Professional
> Mentoring, Tutors and a list like this where they can ask and answer
> questions in general.
> In other words, a place where a new student taking their first class in
> Programming can be sent to where they can ask initial questions, find
> tutoring for particular Programming Related issues and find Experts in
their
> particular fields for mentoring.
> Most Universities have Accessibility Representitives but the University
> itself may not have the experienced blind individuals to provide this
level
> of help.
> Combined, they, and us, would provide a massive amount of support to blind
> students but so far as I know nobody has ever attempted to coordinate such
a
> centralized repository of tallent, resources and help for blind students.
> Being at a specialized University for the Blind you might be in a position
> to consider the potential process, difficulties and benefits of such a
> program.
> That said, it is what, in my opinion, would provide the biggest bang for
the
> buck as a NationWide project.
> Have you heard of anyone working on something like this?
> Get the right people and Universities involved in it and it could be a
game
> changer for Blind folks at Universities around the country.
> Rick USA
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andreas Stefik" <stefika@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "Jamal Mazrui" <empower@xxxxxxxxx>; "Bill Cox" <waywardgeek@xxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 9:26 AM
> Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind
> programmers
>
>
>> Looks like I'm coming late to this thread, and I'll admit I haven't
>> read everyone's comments yet (I've been swamped submitting papers and
>> with teaching duties).
>>
>> We would certainly be willing to let any such effort use any and all
>> of our tools, or to advise bill or others in whatever way folks found
>> helpful.
>>
>> Just in case people don't know as well, my lab has begun teaching
>> programming at the Washington State School for the Blind this
>> semester, using Sodbeans/Hop, etc, and teachers are writing to us that
>> things are going great. So I'm personally highly encouraged that
>> others want to get more blind folks involved in computer science
>> education.
>>
>> Anyway, for what it's worth (maybe nothing), that's my two cents,
>>
>> Stefik
>>
>> P.S. If anyone cares, Sodbeans 2.0 is coming out in July. Linux
>> support, a rewrite of our text-to-speech engine that will now also be
>> available separately on sourceforge outside of Sodbeans for others to
>> use, lots of little audio hints to turn those visual features into
>> aural features, new changes to Hop which our studies are showing makes
>> it easy to understand,new Hop language features like exceptions, a new
>> auditory tutorial system that teaches how to use Sodbeans and
>> programming, and a gadzooks of bug fixes. Anyway, lots of fun stuff
>> happening.
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 9, 2011 at 7:19 AM, Jamal Mazrui <empower@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> Andreas may also have some interesting perspective on this given his
work
>>> in
>>> developing teaching tools and curriculum for programmers at schools for
>>> the
>>> blind.
>>>
>>> Jamal
>>>
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