PULLMAN, Wash. – Computer programming is challenging enough. It involves hours spent at the computer screen carefully thinking about what to tell your computer, writing the code in a language the computer understands, running the program and then carefully looking through lines of code for errors.
Now imagine trying to do that without being able to see.
National Science Foundation grant
Funded by a three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, a group of researchers developed a way for students with blindness and visual impairments to learn computer programming. Their program includes innovations such as noises that allow the students to understand how their computer programs are running, the ability to magnify computer code on-screen, and de-bugging software that speaks instructions.
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| Hundhausen |
The project was led by Andreas Stefik, a Washington State University alumnus and assistant professor of computer science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, along with Chris Hundhausen, associate professor in WSU’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Last year, the researchers won the prestigious Java Innovation Award for the innovative computer software, which is called Sodbeans, or Sonified Omniscient Debugger.
Most gratifying work of career
“This has been the most gratifying work of my career. I can see first-hand the impact this work has on these students,’’ said Hundhausen. “This is a tremendous opportunity to bring underrepresented groups into computer science at a time when we really need computer scientists.’’
At the national level, the NSF has been working to train more teachers and expose more high school students to the high-demand field of computer science. There is huge interest and recognition that computer science is important and that not enough students are being trained to meet demand, said Hundhausen.
As part of the project, the researchers held summer camps for students at the Washington State School for the Blind, developed a teaching curriculum and conducted training workshops that involved teachers from six states. High school courses in computer programming are now taught at the Washington State School for the Blind as well as at schools for the blind in Indiana, Tennessee, Maryland and Alabama.
Overcoming a huge barrier
“It’s rare for students to learn programming in high school,’’ said Hundhausen. “We’re actually bringing the courses to this underserved population and are helping them overcome a huge barrier.’’
In the next phase of the project, the researchers hope to make the software more accessible to a broader audience by taking their tools online. Eventually, Hundhausen hopes that more people who are visually impaired will have the skills themselves to be able to develop even better software to better meet the needs of their community.