RE: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind programmers
- From: "Ken Perry" <whistler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2011 21:47:45 -0400
I am starting to like the idea of skype class combined with the non-visual
page of books.
ken
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Cox
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 11:31 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind
programmers
I'll add you to my list of potential contributors. Of course, this is
probably going nowhere. Some of the points brought up so are are
compelling. However, maybe there is some space here to make
improvements in bringing more blind coders into the workplace. There
just aren't enough, and it seems like there must be something we can
do help fix the situation.
Bill
On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 10:53 AM, Littlefield, Tyler <tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Bill: I have some Linux knowledge, python and c++ if that's any help
> anywhere.
> On 4/8/2011 8:15 AM, Bill Cox wrote:
>>
>> Sweet! I'll put you on my list of potential students. If you don't
>> mind, assuming this goes anywhere (BIG IF), I'd like to contact you
>> for ideas on what to teach.
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 3:33 PM, Polaris-17<djpolar@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I am very interested in this school as student!
>>> Best regards,
>>> Patryk
>>>
>>> W dniu 2011-04-07 18:02, Bill Cox pisze:
>>>>
>>>> This is still in the dumb-idea phase, and I don't have any funding
>>>> lined up to get this started. That said...
>>>>
>>>> I have not been able to find any on-line school for teaching blind
>>>> people to become professional programmers. I feel the world needs
>>>> such an organization. I am not able to start such a school myself,
>>>> but I would be interested in assisting social entrepreneurs in
>>>> starting such a venture. I it would best be implemented as a
>>>> for-profit social entrepreneurial venture. You can read about social
>>>> entrepreneurs here:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_entrepreneurship
>>>>
>>>> I'm thinking it could be a Low Profit Corporation (LPC) founded to run
>>>> the school for a profit. Everyone hired in teaching or management
>>>> would be vision impaired or blind. Students would attend classes
>>>> on-line, and could be anywhere in the world. Classes would not be
>>>> free (maybe $1,000 per 1-semester course?). Students who are too poor
>>>> to pay would be expected to do well in their courses and make up their
>>>> fees by assisting teaching of those courses in later semesters. They
>>>> might also be required to work for an associated consulting company to
>>>> earn tuition. Students would be encouraged to help mentor each other
>>>> in any case.
>>>>
>>>> Associated with the school could be a software consulting services
>>>> company. The company would only hire vision impaired programmers, and
>>>> students wanting to work for the company could take classes designed
>>>> to train them in the skills they'll need. The company might encourage
>>>> it's employees to spend one day a week on FOSS projects of their
>>>> interest, which hopefully would include improving accessibility.
>>>>
>>>> Rough numbers to back up the idea: There are around 15 million people
>>>> with "severe" vision impairments in the US. Roughly half of those
>>>> people are too old. Half of the rest may have other impairments that
>>>> would prevent them from becoming programmers. In the general
>>>> population, there are 1 programmer out of every 500 people in the US.
>>>> I would expect a ratio at least that high among the blind, or about
>>>> 7,500 professional programmers in the US alone. If we took 20 years
>>>> to train that many, it'd be 375 new students per year, and assuming a
>>>> two year program, we'd have 750 students. If only half paid the class
>>>> fees, but took three classes at a time (a full load), that'd be
>>>> $3,000*750*2 = $4.5 million per year. My kids go to a school which
>>>> happens to have about 750 students and a budget of just over $4
>>>> million per year, and that includes paying for a school. So, that
>>>> math seems to work out, but we're not talking about anyone making a
>>>> billion dollars in this effort. This is not a VC-fundable idea, but
>>>> it might attract funding from groups that invest in socially
>>>> beneficial startups.
>>>>
>>>> I know a couple of good candidates to start this school, and one might
>>>> be interested in actually doing it. Are there any good blind or
>>>> vision impaired people you guys could recommend for me to talk to? I
>>>> think the key would be finding the right couple of guys.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Bill
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>
>
> --
>
> Thanks,
> Ty
>
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