*Edit:*

I want to express my thanks and appreciation for all the boosts and comments! I had no idea this would get spread so widely, and I'm humbled by the support.

I'll reply to this post with the plan that I have for the next session.

Original post below...

I'm volunteering at my daughter's elementary school by teaching a "coding club" for 5th graders during their lunch and afternoon recess.

It mostly went great, except I left nearly in tears...

One of the kiddos that joined is blind, and I discovered that the coding programs for kids don't appear to be accessible *at all*.

First we tried Swift Playgrounds, but that didn't seem to work with VoiceOver. Then, he said that he's liked ScratchJr. in the past, and he got frustrated with that because he couldn't get his cat to move.

I'm kinda at a loss for how to help him. He left crying because he thinks that he can't get it, but I'm sure he can. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!!

#coding #swiftplayground #blind #accessibility #apple #ipad

@hpux735 maybe have a look at Hedy, it's a gradual programming language that eventually becomes Python. It should work well with screen readers. And they have lesson plans for teachers https://hedy.org/
Hedy - Textual programming made easy

@DrVeronikaCH Thanks for your response. I was kinda wishing I had access to a proper computer with this activity. All the kids have are their ipads to work on. I kept thinking about the scene from Sneakers where the awesome programmer is blind and kicking ass with his braille terminal.
@hpux735 it works in the browser so maybe that's something?
@DrVeronikaCH @hpux735 +1 for Hedy, though I am only guessing re a11y
Tagging @Felienne, maybe she's got some more pointers.