The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2004: §3265 Home Papers/Indices prev (§3264) Next (§3300)

Sat, Nov 6, 11:30 - 11:55, Morgan Room Paper (refereed)

Recommended Citation: Siegfried, R M, D Diakoniarakis, and U Obianyo-Agu. Teaching the Blind to Program Visually. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2004, v 21 (Newport): §3265. ISSN: 1542-7382. (A later version appears in Information Systems Education Journal 3(23). ISSN: 1545-679X.)

Teaching the Blind to Program Visually

Refereed

9 pages

Robert M. Siegfried    [a1] [a2]
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adelphi University    [u1] [u2]
Garden City, New York, USA    [c1] [c2]

Denis Diakoniarakis    [a1] [a2]
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adelphi University    [u1] [u2]
Garden City, New York, USA    [c1] [c2]

Uchechukwu Obianyo-Agu    [a1] [a2]
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adelphi University    [u1] [u2]
Garden City, New York, USA    [c1] [c2]

The proliferation of graphical user interfaces has had a dramatic impact on the ability of the blind to work as programmers. It is particularly difficult for the blind to design forms for programs written in Visual Basic. A prototype scripting language is introduced that enables the blind to create Visual Basic forms without the need to specify all the detailed information that Visual Basic requires and without the “point and click” approach that the blind cannot use. The syntax for the language is described and plans for expanding the language are discussed.

Keywords: blind programmer, visually impaired, graphical user interfaces, special education

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