RE: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind programmers

  • From: "Homme, James" <james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2011 15:33:24 -0400

Hi Ty,
You could start with the stuff you volunteered to teach about to Bill. Just go 
up there and start putting content in to get the feel of it. You are permitted 
to delete your own content. Go for it. We can always edit and reorganize stuff. 
We just want contributors. Go, man.

Jim

Jim Homme,
Usability Services,
Phone: 412-544-1810. Skype: jim.homme
Highmark recipients,  Read my accessibility blog. Discuss accessibility here. 
Accessibility Wiki: Breaking news and accessibility advice


-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Littlefield, Tyler
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 3:26 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind 
programmers

Jim:
I was a bit sketchy about this nonvisualdevelopment, but I want to 
contribute. so:
what of what you know of my skills is worth documenting? what needs to 
be done? how do I go about starting to contribute and get working?
On 4/8/2011 12:50 PM, Homme, James wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm proud to tell you that we have a beautiful thing up on 
> Nonvisualdevelopment.org. It's called a book module. In the Book module, you 
> can build and outline something called Book pages. So, when you want to 
> create anorganized set of instructions of any kind, you would create the 
> first book page. This book page is the level 0 of your book, if you will. You 
> then have a link called Create Child Page. When you do that, the child page 
> becomes the level 1 of your book. You can then create pages on the same level 
> as the first child, or children. With a simple list box, you can give the 
> pages weights within the book level they belong to. I am now in theprocess of 
> gathering preliminary information for creating a beginner's book about using 
> Eclipse while blind as a proof of concept. If we want to,we could create a 
> page called Books, which would be the entire collection of all organized 
> tutorials on the whole site. So let's get contributing.
>
> Jim
>
> Jim Homme,
> Usability Services,
> Phone: 412-544-1810. Skype: jim.homme
> Highmark recipients,  Read my accessibility blog. Discuss accessibilityhere. 
> Accessibility Wiki: Breaking news and accessibility advice
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kerneels Roos
> Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 2:12 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for 
> blindprogrammers
>
> Hi.
>
> Having read all the comments on this thread I think what is emerging as
> the best solution is in part what exists here already -- a forum for
> visually impaired programmers to share tips and tricks. It would be
> worth while to formalise this into a meta university / school of
> computer science for the assistance of the visually impaired.
>
> Becoming a member of this meta university would mean that you receive
> assistance while advancing on your path of education, whether this might
> mean a formal degree at a physical or online mainstream university, your
> own study of a free online course, or your studies at any other facility
> teaching computer science. The fact is, even with a doctorate in
> computer science behind your name you still need to keep on learning all
> the time, so this meta school would also be for you, as in, even as an
> advanced computer scientist hacker guru, if you are visually impaired
> you could do with advice, tips and tricks on the latest and greatest.
>
> Senior members of this meta university or peer group if you like could
> assist in educating your lecturers in ways they could teach you so that
> you can focus on the course subject and not be forever side tracked by
> your fights with inaccessible tools or teaching methodologies.
>
> Some time during the last ten years, disability units have emerged at
> the universities in my country, South Africa. These units assist
> disabled students in their studies but I can imagine they would be
> extremely grateful to be able to tap into a global, focused
> organisation's resources -- the focus being computer science or rather
> how best to assist disabled students wanting to study computer science.
> The meta university of assistance I'm invisaging could be this valuable
> resource individuals and disability units could tap into.
>
> And finally, about this topic, on a practical note. I think a great
> start is sites like nonvisualdevelopment.org and the fruitbasket site,
> but what really is needed is structured information on how to get from
> point A to point B and how others have solved the challenges along the way?
>
> Another great resource would be a structured wealth of information on
> the work options for visually impaired programmers, as in, all of us
> working as programmers could complete a carefully designed sort of
> resume or profile explaining how we got to be professional programmers.
> This would serve as an encouragement for new students and also help all
> of us identify opportunities that otherwise might go unnoticed.
>
> This is really just my opinion, but the obsession of the visually
> impaired programmer community, or some of it's members, with building
> GUI's is downright sad. One shouldn't be fooled in thinking computers or
> programming is all about pretty interfaces and eye candy. What about web
> servers, command line tools, compilers, RDBMS's, network stacks,
> Google's back ends, Amazon's Elastic Cloud Computing infrastructure,
> operating system internals, device drivers, micro code, parallel and
> distributed concurrent real time systems and the list goes on and on and
> on...
>
> Any school of higher education that spends time on teaching how to code
> GUI's is missing the point, unless they teach broad, general human
> computer interaction design principals. How GUI's actually should look
> should be part of an arts programme really, or information design / new
> media course., not programming.
>
> Regards,
> Kerneels
>
>
> On 4/8/2011 6:29 PM, Dave wrote:
>> The lack of employment for the blind isn't exclusive to those who
>> choose to be developers.  It's a more general problem of inequities in
>> education, resources, and socialization to which many blind folks
>> face.
>>
>> At least from my personal experience, the journey of discovering one's
>> own path towards an accessible environment whether it be a virtual one
>> used for development or a physical one to navigate through unfamiliar
>> geographic regions is valuable in it of itself and is an individual
>> skill that one needs to learn for him/herself.  If someone's serious
>> about doing professional development along side sighted colleagues,
>> you will have to "roll" your own accessibility and often times that
>> means digging into systems or spending extra time automating tasks.
>> It's not for everyone :).  In short, that means you need an even
>> deeper understanding of frameworks, OS's, and general computer science
>> theory than your average "programmer".
>>
>>
>> On 4/8/11, Bryan Garaventa<bgaraventa11@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>   wrote:
>>> I believe the answer to 'why are there fewer when there is more access to
>>> knowledge' has to do with an irony actually. In general things are much more
>>> accessible than they used to be, and there are many more accessible
>>> distractions available to everyone. Necessity drives innovation afterall,
>>> so if there is less necessity for the general population, less peoplewill
>>> be compelled to test the bounds of innovation.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Bill Cox"<waywardgeek@xxxxxxxxx>
>>> To:<programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 8:20 AM
>>> Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind
>>> programmers
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Ken Perry<whistler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>   wrote:
>>>> I think trying to just teach programming though is counterproductive
>>>> because the classes in college do that rather well. I guess teaching
>>>> people
>>>> to use tools might be a better goal then teaching coding.
>>> Well, you may be right.  With the web, learning just about anything is
>>> so much easier than when I was a kid.  What remains a mystery to me is
>>> why we're not seeing blind kids going nuts programming computers.
>>> Surely they have plenty of access to them in the US.  Is there
>>> anything that can be done to inspire the new generation of blind kids
>>> to dive in and learn what's under the hood?  Why do so few seem to
>>> make it?
>>>
>>> Bill
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> --
> Kerneels Roos
> Cell: +27 (0)82 309 1998
> Skype: cornelis.roos
>
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-- 

Thanks,
Ty


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