RE: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind programmers
- From: "Stanzel, Susan - Kansas City, MO" <susan.stanzel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2011 09:47:50 -0500
Hi Listers,
This is Susie Stanzel. I have been reading this for almost 24 hours and now
would like to put in my 2 cents worth on this subject.
I have a similar experience as Jim Homme. I went to the blind school in Kansas
through nineth grade and then went to a huge high school. I then attended
Emporia State Teachers college and acquired a degree in business with an
emphasis in programming. I graduated in 1971. Now at this point we were using
punch cards. (grin grin). I think it was a great idea to go to a regular school
because a special school will not be accepted by the business community. They
will think you couldn't cut it in regular school. I think organizing something
using Skipe would be great. I think that was brought up at one time. Now what
do I think should be taught? I think students should go to a regular school to
learn programming. The school should be the best of breed for the specific
training desired. This should be how to use the accessible technology to use
the most commonly used software in the business community. For example, some of
us are using Eclipse and have enjoyed hearing from Jim Korbet on a Java list.
We need to know how to use this very well. Those sighted folks get to see a red
line when they type something wrong. That is called instant gradification. We
don't get to see such a thing. Now that I have been employed since August 9th
of 1971, for the first time I am feeling inadequate. In the old days my claim
to fame was my recall of what files came out of the system, how long they were
kept, and where they went after creation. Even though I could not read job
charts I memorized it. All those men in the white shirts and ties, in the olden
days, were thumbing through their printed job charts and I was already coming
up with the answer because I just had to sort through it in my mind. I haven't
said, but also like Jim Homme I have used COBOL for my entire career and now am
attempting "grin" to learn Java. What I would like to do is to learn enough
Java so I can compete and then go into more of the design part of an
application.
Well, there you have it. Please don't shoot the messenger (grin).
As a thought, I have had two jobs. The first one was at the City of Kansas City
Missouri and I wnet from there to the United States Department of Agriculture
in Kansas City Missouri. If I were not in this federal position I would have
been forced to retire when Java came along. I know many of you have responded
to this question. Do you work and where? Susie Stanzel
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Cox
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 9:16 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Searching for blind programmer to start a school for blind
programmers
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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