I don’t know. I talked to this guy back in the summer when we ran a coding
symposium. A lot of his knowledge is good but old. I personally think he is
solving an issue that is not a problem any longer. Nice they are trying but
they need to keep their information up dated.
From: program-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <program-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of Mani Iyer ("mani.g.iyer")
Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2022 11:56 AM
To: program-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [program-l] New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are
blind or have low vision | Penn State University
This sounds promising.
Mani
https://www.psu.edu/news/information-sciences-and-technology/story/new-coding-tool-could-aid-computer-programmers-who-are/
New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are blind or have low vision
According to Billah, this is especially useful for blind and low-vision users
when navigating empty space or making sense of special symbols — such as
indentations or parentheses — which hold meaning in the code and serve as
visual markers for sighted programmers in traditional code editors. When used
with Grid Editor, a screen reader will audibly state that a cell is blank,
indicating to a blind or low-vision programmer that an indentation exists and
helps them to perceive their cursor’s location in the code. Grid Editor also
uses other audible cues to guide the user, such as announcing in which cell the
cursor is currently located, stating whether or buzzing when the user reaches
the boundary of the grid. Additionally, Grid Editor applies brightly colored
highlights to certain cells, mimicking colors used in traditional code editors
to further direct low-vision users.
After building their initial prototype, the researchers solicited feedback from
the online communities of blind or low-vision programmers for two months. Then,
to test the functionality of their final prototype, they recruited 12 blind or
low-vision programmers for a controlled lab study. Participants used both a
plain text editor and Grid Editor to complete various coding tasks. The
researchers observed the programmers’ activity and measured accuracy and
efficiency. On average, the participants were faster, navigated more accurately
and made fewer errors when using Grid Editor compared to the traditional code
editor.
“Think about coding as walking a road; for a sighted person, he can see the
road, but for a blind person, the road is dark and as a result he may fall,”
one study participant stated. “But if I have something to hold on to while
walking, it will help me walk the road more easily. The way I see it, Grid
Editor gives me that structure I can hold on to [while coding], as I always
know which line and level I am in.”
Billah, whose expertise lies in accessible computing, hopes that tools like
Grid Editor will help encourage more blind and low-vision individuals to
explore computer programming — a high paying field — as a career choice.
“Blind individuals are already at an economic disadvantage, and many of them
pursue careers in the music and audio transcription industries,” said Billah..
”However, computer programming can be a rewarding career choice for them
because programming is a text-based activity suitable for their assistive
technologies such as screen readers or refreshable Braille displays. Therefore,
if enough resources and tools are available to them to learn computer
programming easily and quickly, they can make a better living for themselves.”
Billah and Ehtesham-Ul-Haque collaborated with Syed Mostofa Monsur, Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology, on the work, which was presented this
week at the <https://uist.acm.org/uist2022/> ACM Symposium on User Interface
Software and Technology (UIST), the premier venue for innovations in
human-computer interfaces. The paper has received the conference’s 2022 Best
Paper Award.
Grid Editor is free to use and is <https://ally-ide.herokuapp.com/> publicly
available online. It works best with Chrome Browser with NVDA screen reader. It
currently supports Python programming language, but support for other languages
is underway.
The work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and in part
by Billah’s startup fund from the College of IST.
