Are Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles curricula accessible to students with disabilities?

Many different curricula are used to teach Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles (CSP). Most of these curricula are not fully accessible to students with disabilities, largely because the programming tools that they utilize are not accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired and typically use screen readers to access content presented on the screen. Screen readers can read text aloud to users but cannot interpret content presented in images.

Are there Hour of Code activities that are accessible to students with visual impairments?

Code.org’s Hour of Code activities are one-hour tutorials designed to expose K-12 students to coding and other aspects of computer science. Although there are numerous Hour of Code projects, many are not accessible to students who are blind and visually impaired. However, there are two that utilize the Quorum programming language and are accessible.

Accessible Programming with Blocks4All

Blocks-based programming environments such as Scratch are often the first experiences for young children who are learning computational thinking and programming. Unfortunately, these environments are not accessible to children who are blind or visually impaired who use screen readers, thereby excluding them from experiences that can lead to careers in STEM fields including computer science. The Blocks4All prototype programming environment makes blocks-based programming accessible on a touchscreen tablet computer.

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