Students at Indiana School expand coding access
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Students at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Indianapolis collaborated with the Micro:bit Educational Foundation to make coding more accessible to visually impaired students.
Last year, the foundation asked the school’s media specialist, Shawn Humphrey, for student input on screen reader compatibility for the micro:bit, a small chip used to teach block coding.
Seven students, including Arabella Zink and Maddilyn Peters, tested the micro:bit with screen readers and edited Braille materials to ensure the technology worked for them within the Microsoft MakeCode program. The students’ work resulted in a new accessibility feature that allows the micro:bit to function with screen readers, which verbally communicate what is on the computer screen to users. This update extends beyond the MakeCode platform, benefiting all coding programs built on Blockly’s software.
Arabella recently used the accessible micro:bit to create a digital die that emits beeps to indicate the number rolled. Humphrey noted the impact of giving students the chance to be among the first to test this new technology, and Maddilyn hopes to use coding skills to build animatronic robots.
