WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.990 --> 00:00:07.040 align:middle line:84% RICHARD LADNER: Richard Ladner, I'm the PI for AccessCSforAll. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:13.720 align:middle line:84% And It's really my pleasure to introduce Earl Huff, who 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:17.500 align:middle line:84% is a fourth year PhD student at Clemson University working 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:19.570 align:middle line:90% under Dr. Julian Brinkley. 00:00:19.570 --> 00:00:22.480 align:middle line:90% In fact I see Julian. 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:23.620 align:middle line:90% Hi there, Julian. 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:28.360 align:middle line:84% And he's done some remarkable work in accessibility 00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:33.160 align:middle line:84% and especially looking at K through 12 CS education 00:00:33.160 --> 00:00:36.010 align:middle line:84% and its accessibility, especially for blind 00:00:36.010 --> 00:00:37.430 align:middle line:90% and visually impaired. 00:00:37.430 --> 00:00:40.255 align:middle line:90% So Earl, go for it. 00:00:40.255 --> 00:00:41.130 align:middle line:90% EARL HUFF: All right. 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:42.430 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:00:42.430 --> 00:00:43.120 align:middle line:90% Hello, everyone. 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:46.050 align:middle line:84% Thank you for coming out for this talk. 00:00:46.050 --> 00:00:49.130 align:middle line:84% Let me share my screen and get that ready to go. 00:00:49.130 --> 00:00:51.860 align:middle line:90% 00:00:51.860 --> 00:00:53.224 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:53.224 --> 00:00:55.000 align:middle line:90% This one that I want to share. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.720 align:middle line:90% 00:00:57.720 --> 00:01:03.220 align:middle line:90% And all right. 00:01:03.220 --> 00:01:04.390 align:middle line:90% Perfect. 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:05.140 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:08.050 align:middle line:84% So everyone should be able to see, hopefully 00:01:08.050 --> 00:01:09.830 align:middle line:90% be able to see the screen. 00:01:09.830 --> 00:01:10.330 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:01:10.330 --> 00:01:14.830 align:middle line:84% So for today I'm going to talk about my ongoing research 00:01:14.830 --> 00:01:18.220 align:middle line:84% examining the accessibility of computing education 00:01:18.220 --> 00:01:20.702 align:middle line:90% from multiple perspectives. 00:01:20.702 --> 00:01:23.260 align:middle line:84% Let me see if I can get this to work. 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:23.800 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:26.950 align:middle line:84% So first I'm going to give some background and motivation 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:31.060 align:middle line:84% behind the exploration, and then go over to three exploration 00:01:31.060 --> 00:01:35.500 align:middle line:84% studies that I conducted-- going over their methods, findings, 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:37.540 align:middle line:90% and the implications. 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:40.600 align:middle line:84% Then I'll summarize all the findings into common themes, 00:01:40.600 --> 00:01:44.035 align:middle line:84% and talk about what's the next step in my research. 00:01:44.035 --> 00:01:46.470 align:middle line:90% 00:01:46.470 --> 00:01:46.970 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:46.970 --> 00:01:51.350 align:middle line:84% So starting back addressing inequality in CS, 00:01:51.350 --> 00:01:54.080 align:middle line:84% a book came out called Stuck in the Shallow End: 00:01:54.080 --> 00:01:56.930 align:middle line:84% Education, Race, and Computing in 2008 00:01:56.930 --> 00:01:59.870 align:middle line:84% talking about the disparities in CS 00:01:59.870 --> 00:02:03.020 align:middle line:84% learning opportunities for students 00:02:03.020 --> 00:02:05.120 align:middle line:84% from underrepresented populations. 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:09.139 align:middle line:84% And with that came exploring computer science or ECS. 00:02:09.139 --> 00:02:12.340 align:middle line:84% So it provides a high school introduction level 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:17.540 align:middle line:84% CS curriculum as well as teacher professional development 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:19.820 align:middle line:90% to introduce computer science. 00:02:19.820 --> 00:02:22.880 align:middle line:84% And then eight years after College Board introduced 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:24.860 align:middle line:84% the AP Computer Science Principles 00:02:24.860 --> 00:02:28.610 align:middle line:84% Course, which provides a college preparatory 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:31.640 align:middle line:84% introduction into the field of computer science launched 00:02:31.640 --> 00:02:33.780 align:middle line:90% in 2016. 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:37.410 align:middle line:84% Data suggests that there is increased participation 00:02:37.410 --> 00:02:39.450 align:middle line:84% integrating AP Computer Science in more 00:02:39.450 --> 00:02:43.080 align:middle line:84% schools across various states in the country, increased 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:46.790 align:middle line:84% participation of students from underrepresented population. 00:02:46.790 --> 00:02:50.580 align:middle line:84% However, until now, there hasn't been much data 00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:54.300 align:middle line:84% about the participation of students with disabilities 00:02:54.300 --> 00:03:00.240 align:middle line:84% in computer science until a 2020 CS report where 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:03.660 align:middle line:84% 11 states reported on participation of K-12 students 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:06.600 align:middle line:84% that have been served under the Individuals with Disabilities 00:03:06.600 --> 00:03:10.920 align:middle line:84% Education Act, taking at least one computer science course. 00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:15.930 align:middle line:84% From the 11 states just under 13% of all K-12 students 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:18.000 align:middle line:90% were served under IDEA. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.680 align:middle line:90% However, just under 8% took CS. 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.650 align:middle line:84% And so my research investigated more so 00:03:25.650 --> 00:03:31.610 align:middle line:84% of the participation of people with blind or visual impairment 00:03:31.610 --> 00:03:35.070 align:middle line:84% represented by the image to the right of a black girl 00:03:35.070 --> 00:03:39.720 align:middle line:84% sitting on a stool holding a white cane. 00:03:39.720 --> 00:03:42.000 align:middle line:84% People who identify as blind or visually impaired 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.560 align:middle line:84% represent just over 2% of the US population as of 2018. 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.110 align:middle line:84% There are notable disparities in employment rate 00:03:49.110 --> 00:03:52.320 align:middle line:84% as well as the education rates of people 00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:56.250 align:middle line:84% with visual impairments, and particularly earning degrees 00:03:56.250 --> 00:03:57.630 align:middle line:90% in computer science. 00:03:57.630 --> 00:04:01.290 align:middle line:84% So just under 3% of all bachelor's degree recipients 00:04:01.290 --> 00:04:04.590 align:middle line:84% in computer and information science are visually impaired. 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:08.760 align:middle line:84% And under 3% of doctorates in CS or mathematics 00:04:08.760 --> 00:04:11.610 align:middle line:84% are earned by people with visual impairments. 00:04:11.610 --> 00:04:15.180 align:middle line:84% And so there's been many efforts in broadening participation 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:18.899 align:middle line:84% to increase access to CS for people 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:20.589 align:middle line:84% from underrepresented populations, 00:04:20.589 --> 00:04:23.400 align:middle line:84% including those with visual impairments and people 00:04:23.400 --> 00:04:25.200 align:middle line:90% with disabilities in general. 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:30.330 align:middle line:84% So as I have on the slide, Code.org on to left, 00:04:30.330 --> 00:04:34.890 align:middle line:84% going up top AccessComputing, as well as AccessCSforAll, 00:04:34.890 --> 00:04:37.650 align:middle line:84% and on towards the right end is CMD-IT, 00:04:37.650 --> 00:04:40.380 align:middle line:84% which focuses on underrepresented minorities 00:04:40.380 --> 00:04:43.950 align:middle line:84% and people with disabilities in information technology. 00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:46.620 align:middle line:84% Now to focus more on some of the challenges 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:49.560 align:middle line:84% faced by people with visual impairments 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.950 align:middle line:84% gaining access to CS or participating in CS. 00:04:52.950 --> 00:04:56.210 align:middle line:90% There are two primary barriers. 00:04:56.210 --> 00:04:58.950 align:middle line:90% One is on the technology side. 00:04:58.950 --> 00:05:02.720 align:middle line:84% So programming is primarily a visual task-- 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:07.190 align:middle line:84% things such as navigating code, debugging code, building 00:05:07.190 --> 00:05:09.260 align:middle line:90% graphical user interfaces-- 00:05:09.260 --> 00:05:11.210 align:middle line:84% all of which tend to be challenging 00:05:11.210 --> 00:05:13.700 align:middle line:90% according to past research. 00:05:13.700 --> 00:05:16.880 align:middle line:84% Even so, using tools such as integrated development 00:05:16.880 --> 00:05:20.420 align:middle line:84% environments or IDEs, these tools 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:23.930 align:middle line:84% that provide code editor compiling capabilities, 00:05:23.930 --> 00:05:26.570 align:middle line:84% but they have a rather complex user interface 00:05:26.570 --> 00:05:29.360 align:middle line:84% which can be challenging to navigate for people who 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.360 align:middle line:84% use assistive technology such as screen readers 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:35.600 align:middle line:84% or translating it through refreshable Braille displays. 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:38.390 align:middle line:84% In the workforce this often may lead 00:05:38.390 --> 00:05:42.350 align:middle line:84% to pushing peer programmers to seek help from co-workers 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:45.530 align:middle line:84% for assistance with reading code bases as previous research has 00:05:45.530 --> 00:05:47.090 align:middle line:90% suggested. 00:05:47.090 --> 00:05:51.600 align:middle line:84% Now on the learning aspect of these challenges-- 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:55.010 align:middle line:84% the image of a black woman sitting down 00:05:55.010 --> 00:05:58.280 align:middle line:90% reading a book on Python-- 00:05:58.280 --> 00:06:00.920 align:middle line:84% much of the challenges reside in the lack of accessible 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:02.960 align:middle line:84% learning materials, so materials that may not 00:06:02.960 --> 00:06:08.000 align:middle line:84% be in many different formats, accommodations that are not 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.170 align:middle line:84% provided in programming course, often 00:06:12.170 --> 00:06:14.870 align:middle line:84% a lack of context in in-class instruction, 00:06:14.870 --> 00:06:18.900 align:middle line:84% such as pointing out code on a PowerPoint slide. 00:06:18.900 --> 00:06:20.810 align:middle line:84% And these result in students feeling 00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:22.910 align:middle line:84% left behind in their progression compared 00:06:22.910 --> 00:06:26.260 align:middle line:90% to their sighted peers. 00:06:26.260 --> 00:06:29.140 align:middle line:84% And so past work has examined different ways to address some 00:06:29.140 --> 00:06:31.840 align:middle line:84% of these problems, particularly with accessible technology 00:06:31.840 --> 00:06:34.960 align:middle line:84% solutions that come in either development languages 00:06:34.960 --> 00:06:38.320 align:middle line:84% and environments-- so special languages or environments 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:40.990 align:middle line:84% to help with building graphical user interfaces-- 00:06:40.990 --> 00:06:44.680 align:middle line:84% or using audio interfaces as part of the development 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:47.770 align:middle line:84% environment, or even extending existing developing 00:06:47.770 --> 00:06:49.510 align:middle line:84% environments such as StructJumper 00:06:49.510 --> 00:06:51.430 align:middle line:90% and AudioHighlight. 00:06:51.430 --> 00:06:55.510 align:middle line:84% Those are plug-ins for the popular IDE Eclipse that 00:06:55.510 --> 00:06:59.020 align:middle line:84% help with navigating code bases by creating a hierarchical tree 00:06:59.020 --> 00:07:02.380 align:middle line:84% structure that is successful with the screen reader. 00:07:02.380 --> 00:07:05.200 align:middle line:84% And Then there is Quorum programming language 00:07:05.200 --> 00:07:07.810 align:middle line:84% an evidence-based language originally designed 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:10.120 align:middle line:84% for people with visual impairments, but now 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:13.810 align:middle line:84% designed to be used by people with one or more disabilities 00:07:13.810 --> 00:07:17.480 align:middle line:84% and the accompanying software development environment Quorum 00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:19.640 align:middle line:90% Studio. 00:07:19.640 --> 00:07:23.420 align:middle line:84% So my interest is exploring more areas of accessibility 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:27.080 align:middle line:84% within curricula and tools in K-12 computing education, 00:07:27.080 --> 00:07:28.820 align:middle line:84% notably what are the students saying 00:07:28.820 --> 00:07:31.730 align:middle line:84% about current accessibility, what are the teachers saying 00:07:31.730 --> 00:07:34.250 align:middle line:84% about current accessibility, strategies 00:07:34.250 --> 00:07:37.490 align:middle line:84% that teachers are employing to instruct K-12 00:07:37.490 --> 00:07:40.880 align:middle line:84% students with visual impairments in coding, 00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:44.030 align:middle line:84% as well as some of the topics that K-12 00:07:44.030 --> 00:07:46.340 align:middle line:84% students with visual impairments excel in, 00:07:46.340 --> 00:07:48.260 align:middle line:84% and what are possibly some advantages 00:07:48.260 --> 00:07:50.690 align:middle line:84% to their visual impairments in computing 00:07:50.690 --> 00:07:53.160 align:middle line:84% versus their sighted counterparts. 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:57.110 align:middle line:84% And so as a result, I conducted an exploration 00:07:57.110 --> 00:07:58.790 align:middle line:84% using three studies to learn more 00:07:58.790 --> 00:08:01.250 align:middle line:84% about the current state of disability 00:08:01.250 --> 00:08:04.070 align:middle line:84% in computing education at the K-12 level. 00:08:04.070 --> 00:08:07.160 align:middle line:84% And so I did this through three studies 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:09.860 align:middle line:84% from different perspectives-- professional programmers 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:13.370 align:middle line:84% with visual impairments, teachers of K-12 students 00:08:13.370 --> 00:08:14.900 align:middle line:84% with visual impairments, and then 00:08:14.900 --> 00:08:19.520 align:middle line:84% within the context of an actual computer science course 00:08:19.520 --> 00:08:21.330 align:middle line:90% over the course of a semester. 00:08:21.330 --> 00:08:23.810 align:middle line:84% And so I'll start with the first exploratory study. 00:08:23.810 --> 00:08:26.800 align:middle line:90% 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:30.130 align:middle line:84% And this research was guided by a series of questions 00:08:30.130 --> 00:08:33.730 align:middle line:84% asking about the challenges of visually impaired programmers 00:08:33.730 --> 00:08:35.799 align:middle line:84% and what they faced in their workplace, 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:39.370 align:middle line:84% ways to improve accessibility within their line of work, 00:08:39.370 --> 00:08:41.770 align:middle line:84% to what degree do they feel their visual impairment can 00:08:41.770 --> 00:08:45.460 align:middle line:84% afford them certain advantages over sighted programmers, what 00:08:45.460 --> 00:08:48.430 align:middle line:84% were their past learning experience like 00:08:48.430 --> 00:08:50.710 align:middle line:84% or training to get to where they are now, 00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:53.650 align:middle line:84% and what do they see as ways to make learning 00:08:53.650 --> 00:08:56.580 align:middle line:90% to code more accessible. 00:08:56.580 --> 00:08:58.560 align:middle line:84% And so to do that I conducted a series 00:08:58.560 --> 00:09:01.350 align:middle line:84% of semi-structured interviews with professional programmers 00:09:01.350 --> 00:09:02.940 align:middle line:90% with visual impairments. 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:06.180 align:middle line:84% 11 programmers signed up for the study, 00:09:06.180 --> 00:09:08.070 align:middle line:84% most of which were software developers-- 00:09:08.070 --> 00:09:09.600 align:middle line:90% software engineers-- 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:14.190 align:middle line:84% with average years of experience being 10 1/2 years, 00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:17.310 align:middle line:90% each about 34 years of age. 00:09:17.310 --> 00:09:19.800 align:middle line:84% Interviews lasted between 25 to 40 minutes 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:23.010 align:middle line:84% and conducted by phone or video call. 00:09:23.010 --> 00:09:25.590 align:middle line:84% So I'll be summarizing much of these findings, 00:09:25.590 --> 00:09:28.880 align:middle line:84% but this study was submitted for review, 00:09:28.880 --> 00:09:31.130 align:middle line:84% accepted, and published in the proceedings 00:09:31.130 --> 00:09:34.220 align:middle line:84% of the International Conference of Software Maintenance 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:35.430 align:middle line:90% and Evolution. 00:09:35.430 --> 00:09:38.040 align:middle line:84% So please let me know at the end of this presentation, 00:09:38.040 --> 00:09:42.440 align:middle line:84% if you like a copy of the documents. 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.530 align:middle line:84% So the challenges that were brought up by the participants 00:09:45.530 --> 00:09:48.680 align:middle line:84% include workplace dynamics-- so working with coworkers who do 00:09:48.680 --> 00:09:51.650 align:middle line:84% not have much, if any, experience with visually 00:09:51.650 --> 00:09:55.400 align:middle line:84% impaired programmers-- so using things such as Trello board 00:09:55.400 --> 00:10:00.230 align:middle line:84% or doing pair programming can be very challenging for a lot 00:10:00.230 --> 00:10:03.020 align:middle line:84% of the participants-- accessibility of developer 00:10:03.020 --> 00:10:04.840 align:middle line:84% tools used at their line of work-- 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:08.870 align:middle line:84% many prefer to use more simpler editors or even 00:10:08.870 --> 00:10:10.940 align:middle line:84% a command line interface for, let's say, 00:10:10.940 --> 00:10:13.790 align:middle line:90% the Python developers-- 00:10:13.790 --> 00:10:15.920 align:middle line:84% and then lastly, programming tasks 00:10:15.920 --> 00:10:18.560 align:middle line:84% such as code navigation, debugging, user interface 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:19.310 align:middle line:90% design. 00:10:19.310 --> 00:10:22.220 align:middle line:84% Some of these findings which are reinforced by prior work 00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:25.100 align:middle line:90% conducted. 00:10:25.100 --> 00:10:27.230 align:middle line:84% Suggestions for improvements in the workplace 00:10:27.230 --> 00:10:29.480 align:middle line:84% would be to use more accessible tools 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:32.570 align:middle line:84% or improve current accessibility, a number 00:10:32.570 --> 00:10:35.960 align:middle line:84% of quality of life improvements such as video tutorials 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:39.230 align:middle line:84% for using these tools from the perspective of a screen reader 00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:40.520 align:middle line:90% user-- 00:10:40.520 --> 00:10:42.350 align:middle line:84% while previous research has shown 00:10:42.350 --> 00:10:44.510 align:middle line:84% that there are many videos produced 00:10:44.510 --> 00:10:48.350 align:middle line:84% by visually impaired persons, whether some of them 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:51.710 align:middle line:84% involve tutorials on using software development tools is 00:10:51.710 --> 00:10:53.790 align:middle line:90% currently unknown-- 00:10:53.790 --> 00:10:57.450 align:middle line:84% and lastly, developing tools with input 00:10:57.450 --> 00:11:00.085 align:middle line:84% of visually impaired programmers. 00:11:00.085 --> 00:11:02.460 align:middle line:84% Many of the participants believe that these current tools 00:11:02.460 --> 00:11:04.140 align:middle line:84% were designed from the perspective 00:11:04.140 --> 00:11:08.070 align:middle line:84% that the developer is someone with full sight. 00:11:08.070 --> 00:11:11.970 align:middle line:84% And as a result, they believe that much of these tools 00:11:11.970 --> 00:11:14.590 align:middle line:84% are not designed to work well with screen readers. 00:11:14.590 --> 00:11:17.370 align:middle line:84% So a more user-focused approach to design 00:11:17.370 --> 00:11:21.700 align:middle line:84% of such developer tools in the future would be necessary. 00:11:21.700 --> 00:11:24.600 align:middle line:84% Now, in talking about their past education and training 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:29.340 align:middle line:84% experience, the three main themes that came up were 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:33.810 align:middle line:84% inaccessible learning materials, which often force participants 00:11:33.810 --> 00:11:35.880 align:middle line:84% to look outside of classroom instruction-- 00:11:35.880 --> 00:11:39.360 align:middle line:84% so online video tutorials, websites, 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:42.120 align:middle line:84% looking for accessible PDF versions of textbooks 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:44.100 align:middle line:90% as an example-- 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.940 align:middle line:84% the tools that were used in the classroom-- so the editors 00:11:46.940 --> 00:11:51.450 align:middle line:84% that the professor would use may not work well with students, 00:11:51.450 --> 00:11:54.360 align:middle line:84% and often have to find some sort of alternative-- 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:57.780 align:middle line:84% and then in class instruction with a lack of context. 00:11:57.780 --> 00:12:01.470 align:middle line:84% So if code was being introduced on a PowerPoint slide 00:12:01.470 --> 00:12:02.970 align:middle line:84% but the professor does not indicate, 00:12:02.970 --> 00:12:05.820 align:middle line:84% let's say, a line number of the code, 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:08.340 align:middle line:84% then it makes it very difficult for that student 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:11.460 align:middle line:84% to identify where in the code base 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:14.370 align:middle line:84% to look for this line of code perhaps. 00:12:14.370 --> 00:12:17.010 align:middle line:84% So some suggestions to improve CS education 00:12:17.010 --> 00:12:20.000 align:middle line:84% from these professional programmers 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.770 align:middle line:84% would be the accessibility learning 00:12:21.770 --> 00:12:26.870 align:middle line:84% materials, particularly various formats of textbooks 00:12:26.870 --> 00:12:28.910 align:middle line:90% with alt text for the images-- 00:12:28.910 --> 00:12:32.210 align:middle line:84% so a lot of the textbooks didn't have alt text descriptions 00:12:32.210 --> 00:12:35.720 align:middle line:84% for images, so the screen reader would have a challenging time 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:37.790 align:middle line:90% to describe them-- 00:12:37.790 --> 00:12:42.350 align:middle line:84% as well as simpler editors or tools to use on education 00:12:42.350 --> 00:12:44.400 align:middle line:84% or even s command line interface -- 00:12:44.400 --> 00:12:48.410 align:middle line:84% so having alternatives to perhaps the traditional tools 00:12:48.410 --> 00:12:52.490 align:middle line:84% that are used in classrooms for students with visual 00:12:52.490 --> 00:12:54.140 align:middle line:90% impairments. 00:12:54.140 --> 00:12:56.450 align:middle line:84% And then we asked about perceived advantages 00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:59.270 align:middle line:90% of visual impairments. 00:12:59.270 --> 00:13:01.010 align:middle line:84% The most notable things that came up 00:13:01.010 --> 00:13:05.663 align:middle line:84% was memorization of code structure and shortcuts, 00:13:05.663 --> 00:13:07.580 align:middle line:84% without sight there's the lack of distractions 00:13:07.580 --> 00:13:10.400 align:middle line:84% from visual stimuli, which gives them more focus, greater 00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:14.180 align:middle line:84% attention to detail, and also being 00:13:14.180 --> 00:13:17.330 align:middle line:84% able to retain more information about the code structure. 00:13:17.330 --> 00:13:20.480 align:middle line:84% In some cases they believe that there are some tasks 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:22.730 align:middle line:84% that they're able to do better than their sighted 00:13:22.730 --> 00:13:27.360 align:middle line:84% of co-workers, such as spotting errors in the code base. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:31.020 align:middle line:84% So to summarize this study, going back to the research 00:13:31.020 --> 00:13:33.810 align:middle line:84% questions, the challenges involved in the workplace 00:13:33.810 --> 00:13:37.320 align:middle line:84% include workplace dynamics, developer source accessibility, 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:40.080 align:middle line:84% and challenging programming tasks. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.290 align:middle line:84% Ways to improve this would be to use simpler IDEs 00:13:43.290 --> 00:13:45.570 align:middle line:84% or provide ones with simpler user 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:48.000 align:middle line:84% interface, a number of quality life improvements 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.640 align:middle line:84% like video tutorials to use tools, 00:13:50.640 --> 00:13:53.340 align:middle line:84% and then for future developer tools, 00:13:53.340 --> 00:13:58.020 align:middle line:84% including input from programmers with visual impairments. 00:13:58.020 --> 00:14:01.110 align:middle line:84% For research question three, the advantages 00:14:01.110 --> 00:14:03.060 align:middle line:84% include better memorization, understanding 00:14:03.060 --> 00:14:07.450 align:middle line:84% of code structure, greater focus, attention to detail. 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:10.040 align:middle line:84% Question four involves education, 00:14:10.040 --> 00:14:11.950 align:middle line:84% so some of the challenges in learning 00:14:11.950 --> 00:14:14.860 align:middle line:84% was learning materials and tools being inaccessible, 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:17.327 align:middle line:84% lack of context during instruction. 00:14:17.327 --> 00:14:18.910 align:middle line:84% And then ways to address that would it 00:14:18.910 --> 00:14:21.220 align:middle line:84% be providing different accessible formats, 00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:25.270 align:middle line:84% other materials, and considering more accessible alternatives 00:14:25.270 --> 00:14:28.060 align:middle line:90% to the tools used in classrooms. 00:14:28.060 --> 00:14:30.340 align:middle line:84% And so for this study, this primarily 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.560 align:middle line:90% shows kind of like a base. 00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:34.930 align:middle line:84% Because many of these programmers who 00:14:34.930 --> 00:14:38.120 align:middle line:84% talked about issues learning, many of these tools 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:39.620 align:middle line:84% may have been improved from the time 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:43.240 align:middle line:84% that they had been using them for their educational purposes. 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:46.840 align:middle line:84% And so for exploratory study two, 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:52.210 align:middle line:84% we look at more recent attempts at using these developer tools 00:14:52.210 --> 00:14:53.800 align:middle line:90% to teach the CS. 00:14:53.800 --> 00:14:57.730 align:middle line:84% And so this study involved interviewing teachers of K-12 00:14:57.730 --> 00:15:01.180 align:middle line:90% visually impaired students. 00:15:01.180 --> 00:15:03.490 align:middle line:84% So the questions that guide this research talk 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:05.200 align:middle line:84% about the challenges teachers face 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.090 align:middle line:84% when instructing blind or visually impaired 00:15:07.090 --> 00:15:09.070 align:middle line:90% students to write code. 00:15:09.070 --> 00:15:13.810 align:middle line:84% Challenges they see in students in learning to write code, 00:15:13.810 --> 00:15:16.600 align:middle line:84% and how the teachers adapt their curriculum and teaching 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.220 align:middle line:84% style to serve the needs of their students. 00:15:20.220 --> 00:15:23.570 align:middle line:84% And so much like exploratory study one, 00:15:23.570 --> 00:15:26.870 align:middle line:84% I use semi-structured interviews with the teachers. 00:15:26.870 --> 00:15:28.760 align:middle line:84% Many of them have on average about 10 years 00:15:28.760 --> 00:15:32.000 align:middle line:84% experience teaching students with visual impairments. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.670 align:middle line:84% They taught between 3rd and 12th grade. 00:15:35.670 --> 00:15:38.330 align:middle line:84% The interviews lasted between 20 and 60 minutes 00:15:38.330 --> 00:15:42.450 align:middle line:84% and were conducted by phone or video call. 00:15:42.450 --> 00:15:45.330 align:middle line:84% So again, I will be summarizing much of my findings. 00:15:45.330 --> 00:15:47.690 align:middle line:84% But this was also reviewed and accepted 00:15:47.690 --> 00:15:52.370 align:middle line:84% for publication at the 2021 SIGCSE Technical Symposium. 00:15:52.370 --> 00:15:55.010 align:middle line:84% So if you like a copy of that document 00:15:55.010 --> 00:15:59.880 align:middle line:84% you can let me towards the end of this presentation. 00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:01.730 align:middle line:84% So some of the themes that came up 00:16:01.730 --> 00:16:05.003 align:middle line:84% included curriculum-- the topics and tools. 00:16:05.003 --> 00:16:06.920 align:middle line:84% So the majority of the curricula that was used 00:16:06.920 --> 00:16:10.760 align:middle line:84% came from CodeHS, the Computer Science AP Principles, 00:16:10.760 --> 00:16:15.410 align:middle line:84% and its variant desk can be used with Quorum Studio. 00:16:15.410 --> 00:16:17.840 align:middle line:84% Many of the topics taught include programming, 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.858 align:middle line:84% but in additionally, how to use a computer, 00:16:20.858 --> 00:16:22.400 align:middle line:84% assistive technology and navigation-- 00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:25.250 align:middle line:84% because many of the students come 00:16:25.250 --> 00:16:27.020 align:middle line:84% with various levels of proficiency 00:16:27.020 --> 00:16:30.160 align:middle line:84% in using a computer or some technologies. 00:16:30.160 --> 00:16:32.410 align:middle line:84% The languages that were used to teach CS 00:16:32.410 --> 00:16:36.850 align:middle line:84% included Quorum, Swift app development, Java, Python, 00:16:36.850 --> 00:16:37.907 align:middle line:90% HTML. 00:16:37.907 --> 00:16:39.490 align:middle line:84% And the different tools that were used 00:16:39.490 --> 00:16:43.690 align:middle line:84% included Quorum Studio, Swift Playgrounds when using Swift, 00:16:43.690 --> 00:16:47.920 align:middle line:84% and more simpler editors such as Notepad, Word Pad, 00:16:47.920 --> 00:16:52.660 align:middle line:84% and web-based editors available, such as the ones on CodeHS. 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:55.000 align:middle line:84% Some of the assistive technology-- screen readers, 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.810 align:middle line:84% Braille displays, tactile maps, and magnifications were used. 00:16:59.810 --> 00:17:03.050 align:middle line:84% In terms of accommodations provided 00:17:03.050 --> 00:17:05.599 align:middle line:84% and concerns from the teacher's perspective, 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:08.599 align:middle line:84% most of the accommodations came in the way of modifying 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:09.770 align:middle line:90% the existing curricula. 00:17:09.770 --> 00:17:13.880 align:middle line:84% For example, one teacher does role play with the curriculum 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:16.250 align:middle line:84% and assignments to determine how accessible they 00:17:16.250 --> 00:17:17.940 align:middle line:90% are for their students. 00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:19.849 align:middle line:84% So they would go through some of the lectures 00:17:19.849 --> 00:17:22.010 align:middle line:84% and the assignments and determine 00:17:22.010 --> 00:17:23.810 align:middle line:84% if, from the student's perspective, 00:17:23.810 --> 00:17:27.300 align:middle line:84% they would be able to understand it. 00:17:27.300 --> 00:17:29.940 align:middle line:84% Another teacher creates different formats 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:31.180 align:middle line:90% of their materials. 00:17:31.180 --> 00:17:32.580 align:middle line:84% So they have instructional guides 00:17:32.580 --> 00:17:35.610 align:middle line:84% with keyboard commands and code snippets for the students. 00:17:35.610 --> 00:17:37.890 align:middle line:84% But they convert most of those materials 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:40.470 align:middle line:84% to Braille for the blind students. 00:17:40.470 --> 00:17:43.530 align:middle line:84% And then one teacher that used to do robotics programming 00:17:43.530 --> 00:17:45.690 align:middle line:84% was switched to audio programming 00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:50.040 align:middle line:84% because blind students, while they could do the robot 00:17:50.040 --> 00:17:53.790 align:middle line:84% programming, they wouldn't be able to see the robot's actions 00:17:53.790 --> 00:17:54.580 align:middle line:90% when it performed. 00:17:54.580 --> 00:17:59.480 align:middle line:84% So they fell out of love with it very quickly. 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:01.980 align:middle line:84% Some of the concerns that were brought out from the teachers 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:05.610 align:middle line:84% included much of what was echoed from the first study, 00:18:05.610 --> 00:18:08.310 align:middle line:84% a lack of accessible learning materials, 00:18:08.310 --> 00:18:10.500 align:middle line:84% students not having precursor skills-- 00:18:10.500 --> 00:18:13.110 align:middle line:84% so proficiency in using a computer or assistive 00:18:13.110 --> 00:18:16.140 align:middle line:84% technologies, hence why they included it in their curriculum 00:18:16.140 --> 00:18:18.150 align:middle line:90% for their courses-- 00:18:18.150 --> 00:18:20.940 align:middle line:84% and then the current editors, and the complex 00:18:20.940 --> 00:18:23.808 align:middle line:90% interfaces that they possess. 00:18:23.808 --> 00:18:25.350 align:middle line:84% And so some of the teachers professed 00:18:25.350 --> 00:18:30.180 align:middle line:84% that many of these students are losing interest in CS. 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:32.490 align:middle line:84% And thus, they are dropping out of CS 00:18:32.490 --> 00:18:35.337 align:middle line:84% courses because of some of these challenges and concerns 00:18:35.337 --> 00:18:36.420 align:middle line:90% that are being brought up. 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:39.330 align:middle line:90% 00:18:39.330 --> 00:18:43.710 align:middle line:84% In terms of topics they found straightforward or easy to do 00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:46.440 align:middle line:84% or maybe more challenging to understand, 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:50.220 align:middle line:84% some of these topics include conditionals, repetition, 00:18:50.220 --> 00:18:52.170 align:middle line:84% logic statements, and topics involving 00:18:52.170 --> 00:18:56.610 align:middle line:84% discrete points of information, such as tables as an example. 00:18:56.610 --> 00:19:00.060 align:middle line:84% And more difficult topics include anything 00:19:00.060 --> 00:19:01.350 align:middle line:90% dealing with graphics-- 00:19:01.350 --> 00:19:04.365 align:middle line:84% visual elements, especially if they lack any description-- 00:19:04.365 --> 00:19:06.330 align:middle line:84% code navigation, code placement-- 00:19:06.330 --> 00:19:09.870 align:middle line:84% so figuring out where the code belongs in the code base, 00:19:09.870 --> 00:19:12.560 align:middle line:90% in terms of line numbers-- 00:19:12.560 --> 00:19:16.040 align:middle line:84% debugging, and then languages with particular coding 00:19:16.040 --> 00:19:16.610 align:middle line:90% conventions, 00:19:16.610 --> 00:19:20.450 align:middle line:84% So if you're familiar with the camel case notation, where 00:19:20.450 --> 00:19:23.210 align:middle line:84% you would have a lowercase letter for the first name 00:19:23.210 --> 00:19:27.950 align:middle line:84% of the function or variable and then uppercase other words, 00:19:27.950 --> 00:19:30.920 align:middle line:84% so in some cases, the students were having trouble 00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:36.370 align:middle line:84% figuring out capitalization of the words at different points. 00:19:36.370 --> 00:19:40.150 align:middle line:84% And then asking about what they perceived as advantages, 00:19:40.150 --> 00:19:44.360 align:middle line:84% visual impairments for their students, some of which 00:19:44.360 --> 00:19:47.180 align:middle line:84% were echoed in the first study included greater attention 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:50.690 align:middle line:84% to detail, better concentration and memorization 00:19:50.690 --> 00:19:55.100 align:middle line:84% of code structure, and then, interestingly, one teacher 00:19:55.100 --> 00:19:58.070 align:middle line:84% brought up that they noticed their blind students were 00:19:58.070 --> 00:20:01.470 align:middle line:84% better at logical structuring than their low vision 00:20:01.470 --> 00:20:02.380 align:middle line:90% and sighted students. 00:20:02.380 --> 00:20:05.160 align:middle line:84% So there is even differences in abilities 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:08.400 align:middle line:84% for visual impairments depending on the degree of vision 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:11.380 align:middle line:90% loss for the students. 00:20:11.380 --> 00:20:15.000 align:middle line:84% And then we're asking about areas for improvement 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.100 align:middle line:84% for both the students and teachers 00:20:17.100 --> 00:20:19.380 align:middle line:90% in computing education. 00:20:19.380 --> 00:20:21.670 align:middle line:84% On the students end the most echoed 00:20:21.670 --> 00:20:26.100 align:middle line:84% concern was editors with a more simplistic user interface-- 00:20:26.100 --> 00:20:31.245 align:middle line:84% so less menus to go through, simplification of key command 00:20:31.245 --> 00:20:33.330 align:middle line:90% and keyboard shortcuts. 00:20:33.330 --> 00:20:35.262 align:middle line:84% And then for the teachers themselves, they 00:20:35.262 --> 00:20:37.470 align:middle line:84% would like to have access to more accessible learning 00:20:37.470 --> 00:20:41.790 align:middle line:84% materials or ways to create them themselves a little easier. 00:20:41.790 --> 00:20:43.440 align:middle line:84% For the institutions, they would like 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:45.130 align:middle line:90% better investment or resources. 00:20:45.130 --> 00:20:50.130 align:middle line:84% Many of the teachers talked about using outdated devices, 00:20:50.130 --> 00:20:54.240 align:middle line:84% computers, or not having the necessary software licenses 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:58.450 align:middle line:84% for certain computer software which limited their options 00:20:58.450 --> 00:21:02.520 align:middle line:84% to teach students programming-- and so they wanted greater 00:21:02.520 --> 00:21:06.060 align:middle line:84% investment from the institutions on those fronts-- 00:21:06.060 --> 00:21:08.880 align:middle line:84% and then additional training for teaching certain topics 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:10.690 align:middle line:84% to blind, visually impaired students-- 00:21:10.690 --> 00:21:13.650 align:middle line:84% so this goes back to the concerns about the more 00:21:13.650 --> 00:21:17.280 align:middle line:84% challenging topics brought up that students were struggling 00:21:17.280 --> 00:21:18.370 align:middle line:90% with-- 00:21:18.370 --> 00:21:20.070 align:middle line:84% and then some pre-learning material 00:21:20.070 --> 00:21:24.770 align:middle line:84% as well for the students to read over prior to the lecture. 00:21:24.770 --> 00:21:31.250 align:middle line:84% And so to summarize study two, so the first question teachers 00:21:31.250 --> 00:21:34.370 align:middle line:84% find that certain curricula are lacking accessible 00:21:34.370 --> 00:21:35.960 align:middle line:90% learning materials. 00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:37.370 align:middle line:84% The lack of institutional support 00:21:37.370 --> 00:21:40.490 align:middle line:84% also limits what they can do with their students 00:21:40.490 --> 00:21:44.700 align:middle line:84% in providing accommodations, then lack of options 00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:46.050 align:middle line:90% for accessible tools-- 00:21:46.050 --> 00:21:48.090 align:middle line:90% so editors and other hardware-- 00:21:48.090 --> 00:21:50.430 align:middle line:84% and then needed training for teaching programming 00:21:50.430 --> 00:21:52.150 align:middle line:84% to students with visual impairments. 00:21:52.150 --> 00:21:56.910 align:middle line:84% I should note that for many of the teachers, some of them 00:21:56.910 --> 00:21:59.040 align:middle line:84% do not come from a computer science background. 00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:02.250 align:middle line:84% Some of them were learning how to teach programming 00:22:02.250 --> 00:22:03.580 align:middle line:90% to their students. 00:22:03.580 --> 00:22:06.150 align:middle line:84% And so they would like additional resources 00:22:06.150 --> 00:22:09.480 align:middle line:84% for training and learning how to teach computer science 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:11.640 align:middle line:84% and programming to their students. 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:16.020 align:middle line:84% For question two, accessible tools and difficult topics 00:22:16.020 --> 00:22:17.910 align:middle line:84% as well as lack of learning materials 00:22:17.910 --> 00:22:20.820 align:middle line:84% was what they perceived as the biggest areas of concern 00:22:20.820 --> 00:22:22.410 align:middle line:90% for their students. 00:22:22.410 --> 00:22:26.910 align:middle line:84% And then question three, teachers are often modifying 00:22:26.910 --> 00:22:31.680 align:middle line:84% existing curricula or they may have used the AP CS Principles 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:33.960 align:middle line:84% course with Quorum, which has proven to be more 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:38.070 align:middle line:90% accessible for their students. 00:22:38.070 --> 00:22:42.010 align:middle line:84% And so now going to the final exploratory study 00:22:42.010 --> 00:22:46.700 align:middle line:84% I looked at the context of actual teaching programming 00:22:46.700 --> 00:22:48.570 align:middle line:90% to students within a course. 00:22:48.570 --> 00:22:52.760 align:middle line:84% And so, this study was a remote observation 00:22:52.760 --> 00:22:56.922 align:middle line:84% of what it was like to [AUDIO OUT] instruct blind 00:22:56.922 --> 00:22:58.130 align:middle line:90% and vision impaired students. 00:22:58.130 --> 00:23:00.540 align:middle line:84% Programming indicates what level. 00:23:00.540 --> 00:23:03.020 align:middle line:84% And so the two questions guiding this research 00:23:03.020 --> 00:23:06.590 align:middle line:84% talked about ways blind or visually impaired students 00:23:06.590 --> 00:23:10.220 align:middle line:84% learn how to program and what ways do teachers instruct 00:23:10.220 --> 00:23:13.020 align:middle line:90% their students in programming. 00:23:13.020 --> 00:23:14.690 align:middle line:84% So the original plan for the study 00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:17.060 align:middle line:84% was to do an in-person observation 00:23:17.060 --> 00:23:22.310 align:middle line:84% at a school or schools to learn more about the process that 00:23:22.310 --> 00:23:24.060 align:middle line:90% goes on in teaching. 00:23:24.060 --> 00:23:27.260 align:middle line:84% However, because the COVID-19 pandemic, 00:23:27.260 --> 00:23:28.930 align:middle line:90% that was not an option. 00:23:28.930 --> 00:23:34.670 align:middle line:84% So a remote method was utilized to carry out this research. 00:23:34.670 --> 00:23:38.250 align:middle line:90% And so I utilized a diary study. 00:23:38.250 --> 00:23:41.270 align:middle line:84% So a diary study is a form of field study 00:23:41.270 --> 00:23:45.590 align:middle line:84% that allows the researcher to collect data 00:23:45.590 --> 00:23:48.020 align:middle line:84% remotely by making the participants the data 00:23:48.020 --> 00:23:49.250 align:middle line:90% collectors. 00:23:49.250 --> 00:23:54.640 align:middle line:84% So the participants are provided diaries or questions 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:57.580 align:middle line:84% to answer in which they report back 00:23:57.580 --> 00:24:00.620 align:middle line:84% or submit them to the researchers at different times, 00:24:00.620 --> 00:24:03.160 align:middle line:84% depending on the kind of diary study you are running-- 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:05.350 align:middle line:84% so there is event and time based. 00:24:05.350 --> 00:24:08.350 align:middle line:84% This study was event based in which students 00:24:08.350 --> 00:24:12.670 align:middle line:84% had to submit a diary after each lecture or submission 00:24:12.670 --> 00:24:13.810 align:middle line:90% of a homework assignment. 00:24:13.810 --> 00:24:17.800 align:middle line:84% And for teachers, they submit diaries after each lecture. 00:24:17.800 --> 00:24:22.270 align:middle line:84% This was a four week diary study taking place 00:24:22.270 --> 00:24:24.430 align:middle line:84% during the run of a programming course 00:24:24.430 --> 00:24:29.280 align:middle line:84% where one teacher and two students were involved. 00:24:29.280 --> 00:24:31.980 align:middle line:84% The questions involved in each diary 00:24:31.980 --> 00:24:34.250 align:middle line:84% were different but the same in certain instances. 00:24:34.250 --> 00:24:35.880 align:middle line:84% So for student diaries, questions 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:37.500 align:middle line:84% asked about the topics they learned 00:24:37.500 --> 00:24:40.500 align:middle line:84% from the lecture, the topics they found 00:24:40.500 --> 00:24:43.320 align:middle line:84% were comprehensible or challenging, 00:24:43.320 --> 00:24:46.320 align:middle line:84% the programming languages and tools that were used, 00:24:46.320 --> 00:24:49.650 align:middle line:84% their perception of difficulty of the assignments, 00:24:49.650 --> 00:24:53.310 align:middle line:84% and their overall thoughts about the lecture and/or assignments. 00:24:53.310 --> 00:24:56.730 align:middle line:84% For the teacher diaries, topics that were taught, 00:24:56.730 --> 00:24:59.730 align:middle line:84% assignments were used, how did they present their lecture 00:24:59.730 --> 00:25:03.780 align:middle line:84% materials, the language and tools used, their perceptions 00:25:03.780 --> 00:25:06.330 align:middle line:84% of their student's ability to complete assignments, 00:25:06.330 --> 00:25:08.820 align:middle line:84% and overall their thoughts on a student's understanding 00:25:08.820 --> 00:25:11.410 align:middle line:90% of the topics and the lecture. 00:25:11.410 --> 00:25:16.200 align:middle line:84% So this course was focused more on web development. 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:19.590 align:middle line:84% They use the curriculum from Code.org-- 00:25:19.590 --> 00:25:22.980 align:middle line:84% using language mark-up such as HTML and CSS. 00:25:22.980 --> 00:25:25.050 align:middle line:84% And they were using the online code editor 00:25:25.050 --> 00:25:28.080 align:middle line:84% from Code.org WebLab, which I'll talk about 00:25:28.080 --> 00:25:30.040 align:middle line:90% later on in the presentation. 00:25:30.040 --> 00:25:33.360 align:middle line:84% So now, I'll give a brief recount of the week 00:25:33.360 --> 00:25:38.160 align:middle line:84% by week diaries for teachers and students. 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:42.680 align:middle line:84% This work has yet to be submitted yet. 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:45.220 align:middle line:84% So for week one, it was about introduction 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:46.840 align:middle line:90% to HTML and debugging. 00:25:46.840 --> 00:25:49.690 align:middle line:84% Students were tasked with changing 00:25:49.690 --> 00:25:53.260 align:middle line:84% a heading element, which is an H1 surrounded 00:25:53.260 --> 00:25:54.700 align:middle line:90% by angle brackets. 00:25:54.700 --> 00:25:58.420 align:middle line:84% So they want to change an elements heading size as well 00:25:58.420 --> 00:26:01.460 align:middle line:84% as locating an error in the provided code. 00:26:01.460 --> 00:26:04.630 align:middle line:84% So from a teacher diary, they expressed 00:26:04.630 --> 00:26:07.210 align:middle line:84% students were getting used to editor and the website 00:26:07.210 --> 00:26:09.100 align:middle line:90% from Code.org. 00:26:09.100 --> 00:26:12.370 align:middle line:84% They were concerned about the fatigue 00:26:12.370 --> 00:26:14.950 align:middle line:84% students would have encountered from the debugging 00:26:14.950 --> 00:26:17.860 align:middle line:84% because they were having issues finding 00:26:17.860 --> 00:26:19.540 align:middle line:90% the error within the code. 00:26:19.540 --> 00:26:22.630 align:middle line:84% On the student side, one student has a color deficiency 00:26:22.630 --> 00:26:26.500 align:middle line:84% or is colorblind to red, which unfortunately 00:26:26.500 --> 00:26:30.130 align:middle line:84% most errors in code bases do turn out to be red. 00:26:30.130 --> 00:26:33.370 align:middle line:84% So it became a little more challenging 00:26:33.370 --> 00:26:34.770 align:middle line:90% for them to locate it. 00:26:34.770 --> 00:26:41.320 align:middle line:84% Another student noted the small and thin text, 00:26:41.320 --> 00:26:43.090 align:middle line:84% which also increased the challenge 00:26:43.090 --> 00:26:44.530 align:middle line:90% in locating the error. 00:26:44.530 --> 00:26:47.530 align:middle line:84% But nonetheless they were able to complete the assignment 00:26:47.530 --> 00:26:50.640 align:middle line:90% as instructed. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:55.530 align:middle line:84% So for week two they dealt with ordered and unordered lists. 00:26:55.530 --> 00:26:57.980 align:middle line:84% And so this was one of the easier topics 00:26:57.980 --> 00:26:59.738 align:middle line:90% that they were able to pick up. 00:26:59.738 --> 00:27:01.280 align:middle line:84% Teacher noticed that they didn't have 00:27:01.280 --> 00:27:02.940 align:middle line:90% much issue with the assignment. 00:27:02.940 --> 00:27:05.060 align:middle line:84% But they noticed that students were 00:27:05.060 --> 00:27:07.040 align:middle line:84% having trouble with writing code from scratch 00:27:07.040 --> 00:27:08.510 align:middle line:90% for the first time. 00:27:08.510 --> 00:27:11.180 align:middle line:84% They were learning how to do code placement. 00:27:11.180 --> 00:27:15.150 align:middle line:84% And it was echoed in the student diaries as well. 00:27:15.150 --> 00:27:18.620 align:middle line:84% So overall they were still able to complete the assignments 00:27:18.620 --> 00:27:21.860 align:middle line:84% and move forward with the next week's project, which 00:27:21.860 --> 00:27:26.160 align:middle line:84% was building their own HTML web page. 00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:28.830 align:middle line:84% So diaries were not submitted from the students, 00:27:28.830 --> 00:27:31.790 align:middle line:84% but the teachers submitted one basically recalling 00:27:31.790 --> 00:27:35.630 align:middle line:84% how they perceived the student's handle the assignment, 00:27:35.630 --> 00:27:36.500 align:middle line:90% to do it. 00:27:36.500 --> 00:27:38.540 align:middle line:84% So I'll get that towards the end of this study. 00:27:38.540 --> 00:27:41.050 align:middle line:90% 00:27:41.050 --> 00:27:43.590 align:middle line:84% So week four proved to be the most challenging topic 00:27:43.590 --> 00:27:47.950 align:middle line:84% for the students, which was cascading style sheets, or CSS. 00:27:47.950 --> 00:27:50.460 align:middle line:84% So the debugging aspect of the assignment 00:27:50.460 --> 00:27:52.740 align:middle line:84% was pretty easy for the students. 00:27:52.740 --> 00:27:54.780 align:middle line:84% However, when it came to creating the style 00:27:54.780 --> 00:27:58.300 align:middle line:84% sheet from scratch and linking it to the HTML page, 00:27:58.300 --> 00:28:02.220 align:middle line:84% the students had trouble, mainly because of the styling rules 00:28:02.220 --> 00:28:05.190 align:middle line:84% syntax, primarily the semicolons that you 00:28:05.190 --> 00:28:08.190 align:middle line:84% add at the end of each styling rule. 00:28:08.190 --> 00:28:10.980 align:middle line:84% And so it caused a lot of confusion for the students 00:28:10.980 --> 00:28:12.735 align:middle line:84% as they had noted in their diaries. 00:28:12.735 --> 00:28:15.285 align:middle line:90% 00:28:15.285 --> 00:28:16.660 align:middle line:84% Some students also mentioned they 00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:19.000 align:middle line:84% would like to have more separation of the code working 00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:21.340 align:middle line:84% area from the rest of the user interface, which 00:28:21.340 --> 00:28:25.240 align:middle line:84% I'll get into towards the end of this presentation. 00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:27.730 align:middle line:84% And so now I'll touch on the quantitative aspect 00:28:27.730 --> 00:28:28.810 align:middle line:90% of the diaries. 00:28:28.810 --> 00:28:32.560 align:middle line:84% So the students rated different aspects of the course 00:28:32.560 --> 00:28:33.580 align:middle line:90% from 1 to 5-- 00:28:33.580 --> 00:28:36.160 align:middle line:84% 1 being challenging, 5 being easy. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:40.270 align:middle line:84% Now week three was the project so they didn't 00:28:40.270 --> 00:28:42.850 align:middle line:90% submit an entry for this. 00:28:42.850 --> 00:28:47.440 align:middle line:84% So for week 1, 2, and 4 they submitted their ratings. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:49.910 align:middle line:84% These are averages that you see on the screen-- 00:28:49.910 --> 00:28:52.450 align:middle line:84% so lecture format, assignment format, 00:28:52.450 --> 00:28:55.900 align:middle line:84% language, tool and editor, overall class, 00:28:55.900 --> 00:28:57.700 align:middle line:90% and overall assignment. 00:28:57.700 --> 00:29:01.570 align:middle line:84% So you can see week two proved to be the easiest topic. 00:29:01.570 --> 00:29:05.530 align:middle line:84% But when we get to week four you start see the numbers drop 00:29:05.530 --> 00:29:07.870 align:middle line:84% down, meaning it was more challenging because it 00:29:07.870 --> 00:29:09.580 align:middle line:90% was the CSS topic. 00:29:09.580 --> 00:29:12.630 align:middle line:84% So they struggled more with using CSS. 00:29:12.630 --> 00:29:18.120 align:middle line:84% Now on the teacher side they also had a quantitative rating 00:29:18.120 --> 00:29:19.800 align:middle line:90% system. 00:29:19.800 --> 00:29:24.360 align:middle line:84% So they focused more on the ratings being from 1 to 5-- 00:29:24.360 --> 00:29:28.780 align:middle line:84% so 1 being easy, 5 being more challenging. 00:29:28.780 --> 00:29:31.770 align:middle line:84% So for weeks one and two things, for the most part, 00:29:31.770 --> 00:29:33.760 align:middle line:84% were fairly easy for the students. 00:29:33.760 --> 00:29:36.030 align:middle line:84% But when you got to week four, with CSS, 00:29:36.030 --> 00:29:38.400 align:middle line:84% you notice the numbers went up to indicate that it's 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:41.990 align:middle line:90% more challenging to learn CSS. 00:29:41.990 --> 00:29:45.850 align:middle line:84% And so to summarize this study, students 00:29:45.850 --> 00:29:49.120 align:middle line:84% were able to achieve their learning outcomes despite some 00:29:49.120 --> 00:29:51.100 align:middle line:84% of the hiccups that they came across 00:29:51.100 --> 00:29:55.300 align:middle line:84% such as the small and thin text, having to write code 00:29:55.300 --> 00:29:59.350 align:middle line:84% from scratch for the first time, and then some debugging issues 00:29:59.350 --> 00:30:00.520 align:middle line:90% that arose. 00:30:00.520 --> 00:30:02.800 align:middle line:84% The teacher felt that students were 00:30:02.800 --> 00:30:07.390 align:middle line:84% able to complete or demonstrate their comprehension of topics, 00:30:07.390 --> 00:30:11.980 align:middle line:84% and additionally, learning that online instruction proved 00:30:11.980 --> 00:30:16.720 align:middle line:84% to be potentially another avenue for accessible 00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:19.720 align:middle line:84% education for students with visual impairments. 00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:22.420 align:middle line:84% And so now I'm going to summarize the findings 00:30:22.420 --> 00:30:23.770 align:middle line:90% from all three studies. 00:30:23.770 --> 00:30:27.820 align:middle line:84% This was broken down into three main themes. 00:30:27.820 --> 00:30:32.550 align:middle line:84% So the first I'll touch on is curriculum and materials. 00:30:32.550 --> 00:30:35.190 align:middle line:84% So overall, in class instruction can 00:30:35.190 --> 00:30:38.520 align:middle line:84% suffer or be problematic for the students of visual impairments 00:30:38.520 --> 00:30:43.110 align:middle line:84% due to lack of learning materials, the lack of context 00:30:43.110 --> 00:30:46.560 align:middle line:84% provided for in class instruction, 00:30:46.560 --> 00:30:49.860 align:middle line:84% many CS curricula, as it stands, are not 00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:53.070 align:middle line:84% designed to accommodate the needs of the students 00:30:53.070 --> 00:30:55.710 align:middle line:84% and perhaps many professors are not 00:30:55.710 --> 00:30:57.960 align:middle line:84% equipped to also accommodate students with their needs 00:30:57.960 --> 00:30:58.960 align:middle line:90% as well. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:00.660 align:middle line:84% Certain CS topics have proved to be 00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:04.050 align:middle line:84% a challenge, such as continuous information or even 00:31:04.050 --> 00:31:06.150 align:middle line:90% visual elements. 00:31:06.150 --> 00:31:08.850 align:middle line:84% Teachers are often left to modify or create 00:31:08.850 --> 00:31:11.910 align:middle line:84% more materials to accommodate their student needs. 00:31:11.910 --> 00:31:17.880 align:middle line:84% But some aspects may be overcome given the advantages discovered 00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:20.450 align:middle line:90% from their visual impairment. 00:31:20.450 --> 00:31:23.060 align:middle line:84% Second one is developer tools, as noted 00:31:23.060 --> 00:31:27.860 align:middle line:84% by the studies and past research, a number of editors 00:31:27.860 --> 00:31:32.930 align:middle line:84% have issues with the interfacing which screen readers are often 00:31:32.930 --> 00:31:36.240 align:middle line:84% the biggest issue for visually impaired programmers. 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.750 align:middle line:84% They often prefer simpler editors or even 00:31:38.750 --> 00:31:42.490 align:middle line:84% a command line interface to not deal with any menus. 00:31:42.490 --> 00:31:45.950 align:middle line:84% Our current tools are developed under the impression 00:31:45.950 --> 00:31:47.780 align:middle line:84% that developers are sighted users. 00:31:47.780 --> 00:31:49.970 align:middle line:84% And so a more user-centered approach 00:31:49.970 --> 00:31:54.200 align:middle line:84% needs to be taken to incorporate programmers 00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:59.270 align:middle line:84% with visual impairments to build more accessible and more usable 00:31:59.270 --> 00:32:00.320 align:middle line:90% tools. 00:32:00.320 --> 00:32:04.410 align:middle line:84% And then lastly, the perceived advantages of visual 00:32:04.410 --> 00:32:07.080 align:middle line:84% impairments-- greater attention to detail, 00:32:07.080 --> 00:32:10.200 align:middle line:84% having greater focus, the lack of visual stimuli 00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:13.620 align:middle line:84% also helps and leads to better memorisation, 00:32:13.620 --> 00:32:16.410 align:middle line:84% understand of code structure, as well as 00:32:16.410 --> 00:32:20.760 align:middle line:84% performing certain tasks better than sighted programmers. 00:32:20.760 --> 00:32:25.490 align:middle line:84% So with that said, the question becomes, well what's next? 00:32:25.490 --> 00:32:26.800 align:middle line:90% What's next in line? 00:32:26.800 --> 00:32:31.470 align:middle line:84% So one area we can look at, and this is part of my dissertation 00:32:31.470 --> 00:32:34.260 align:middle line:90% research, is online learning. 00:32:34.260 --> 00:32:35.970 align:middle line:84% So common among some of the studies 00:32:35.970 --> 00:32:39.480 align:middle line:84% was online learning, especially given 00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:44.250 align:middle line:84% how the pandemic has forced more distance learning utilizing 00:32:44.250 --> 00:32:47.700 align:middle line:84% certain sites like Code.org or CodeHS 00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:50.010 align:middle line:84% for their own online built editors. 00:32:50.010 --> 00:32:53.130 align:middle line:84% Online learning can provide a number of advantages such 00:32:53.130 --> 00:32:55.980 align:middle line:84% as availability learning materials, 00:32:55.980 --> 00:32:59.220 align:middle line:84% and given the web-based nature of some of these materials they 00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:01.640 align:middle line:84% may be more screen reader accessible, 00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:05.170 align:middle line:84% it also eliminates the need for physical locations-- 00:33:05.170 --> 00:33:08.610 align:middle line:84% but that may also be a disadvantage for students that 00:33:08.610 --> 00:33:12.390 align:middle line:84% do need more in class instruction-- 00:33:12.390 --> 00:33:15.330 align:middle line:84% also allowing for a synchronous learning, independent learning 00:33:15.330 --> 00:33:16.960 align:middle line:90% as well. 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:20.280 align:middle line:84% But there are disadvantages such as presuming the accessibility 00:33:20.280 --> 00:33:22.110 align:middle line:90% of certain web sites or tools-- 00:33:22.110 --> 00:33:25.020 align:middle line:84% for certain learning management platforms or even some 00:33:25.020 --> 00:33:28.940 align:middle line:84% of the sites like Code.org, questioning their accessibility 00:33:28.940 --> 00:33:30.720 align:middle line:90% for screen readers-- 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:33.177 align:middle line:84% also having to use the internet and a web browser 00:33:33.177 --> 00:33:35.010 align:middle line:84% requires a certain level of proficiency when 00:33:35.010 --> 00:33:38.065 align:middle line:84% using a computer and assistive technology-- 00:33:38.065 --> 00:33:40.950 align:middle line:84% as mentioned in study two, a lot of them 00:33:40.950 --> 00:33:44.940 align:middle line:84% to teach computer proficiency as well as proficiency 00:33:44.940 --> 00:33:46.800 align:middle line:90% of assistive technologies-- 00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:50.557 align:middle line:84% and then of course, requirement access to the internet. 00:33:50.557 --> 00:33:52.140 align:middle line:84% Just because we're in the 21st century 00:33:52.140 --> 00:33:55.050 align:middle line:84% doesn't mean that everyone has access to the internet, 00:33:55.050 --> 00:33:59.130 align:middle line:84% as been noted from the year 2020 when everything was switching 00:33:59.130 --> 00:34:02.280 align:middle line:84% to remote learning, there were issues with students 00:34:02.280 --> 00:34:05.670 align:middle line:84% not being able to access online materials because 00:34:05.670 --> 00:34:09.322 align:middle line:84% of lack of internet access back at home. 00:34:09.322 --> 00:34:10.989 align:middle line:84% So I'm just running a couple of examples 00:34:10.989 --> 00:34:15.020 align:middle line:84% of some online learning tools that are known. 00:34:15.020 --> 00:34:19.120 align:middle line:84% So the graphic shown is of Code.org's WebLab, 00:34:19.120 --> 00:34:23.080 align:middle line:84% which can be used for teaching online and also using 00:34:23.080 --> 00:34:25.010 align:middle line:90% their online editor, as you see. 00:34:25.010 --> 00:34:28.540 align:middle line:84% So towards the bottom portion of the image 00:34:28.540 --> 00:34:32.380 align:middle line:84% there is a code editor with some HTML code 00:34:32.380 --> 00:34:36.489 align:middle line:84% that you can then run and see the results on the screen next 00:34:36.489 --> 00:34:38.739 align:middle line:90% to it when you run the code. 00:34:38.739 --> 00:34:42.730 align:middle line:84% So a lot of the courses on web development 00:34:42.730 --> 00:34:47.170 align:middle line:84% or in other languages can utilize this editor. 00:34:47.170 --> 00:34:49.150 align:middle line:90% The same thing for CodeHS. 00:34:49.150 --> 00:34:51.340 align:middle line:90% They also have their own editor. 00:34:51.340 --> 00:34:54.730 align:middle line:84% So as seen here, they're teaching JavaScript 00:34:54.730 --> 00:34:58.150 align:middle line:84% using a function in the code editor, println Hello, world, 00:34:58.150 --> 00:35:01.900 align:middle line:84% which is used to print out the phrase "Hello, 00:35:01.900 --> 00:35:04.510 align:middle line:84% world", which is very common when you're introducing 00:35:04.510 --> 00:35:06.950 align:middle line:90% programming to new students. 00:35:06.950 --> 00:35:08.860 align:middle line:84% So on the right side, there is an section 00:35:08.860 --> 00:35:12.100 align:middle line:84% where students can click on the run code button. 00:35:12.100 --> 00:35:15.610 align:middle line:84% And then it will spit out the results of whatever 00:35:15.610 --> 00:35:17.440 align:middle line:90% was put in the editor. 00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:21.430 align:middle line:84% And so this influences the idea of how can we 00:35:21.430 --> 00:35:24.135 align:middle line:84% improve the accessibility of online learning in CS 00:35:24.135 --> 00:35:27.740 align:middle line:84% and even online learning in general. 00:35:27.740 --> 00:35:31.760 align:middle line:84% So that is where my dissertation research comes in. 00:35:31.760 --> 00:35:36.670 align:middle line:84% So I'm proposing on examining the features necessary to make 00:35:36.670 --> 00:35:39.700 align:middle line:84% online learning accessible for blind and visually impaired 00:35:39.700 --> 00:35:41.110 align:middle line:90% learners. 00:35:41.110 --> 00:35:43.810 align:middle line:84% Using a user-centered design process 00:35:43.810 --> 00:35:47.320 align:middle line:84% I intend to design and implement features for online learning 00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:51.820 align:middle line:84% that are coming from the stakeholders. 00:35:51.820 --> 00:35:54.160 align:middle line:84% So user-centered design is a philosophy 00:35:54.160 --> 00:35:58.570 align:middle line:84% where you take an input from your stakeholders, your product 00:35:58.570 --> 00:36:01.660 align:middle line:84% end users, and incorporate their input and feedback 00:36:01.660 --> 00:36:03.820 align:middle line:84% into the design and implementation of a product 00:36:03.820 --> 00:36:05.150 align:middle line:90% or system. 00:36:05.150 --> 00:36:06.760 align:middle line:84% And so from my research, I intend 00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:09.670 align:middle line:84% to do a series of design activities 00:36:09.670 --> 00:36:12.850 align:middle line:84% with teachers of blind and visually impaired learners 00:36:12.850 --> 00:36:15.580 align:middle line:84% as well as blind and visually impaired learners themselves, 00:36:15.580 --> 00:36:18.280 align:middle line:84% to learn more about the necessary features 00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:20.320 align:middle line:84% to incorporate into an online learning 00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:23.410 align:middle line:84% platform that would make the experience more 00:36:23.410 --> 00:36:25.670 align:middle line:90% accessible and useful. 00:36:25.670 --> 00:36:29.170 align:middle line:84% And then using these features within this high fidelity 00:36:29.170 --> 00:36:31.360 align:middle line:84% prototype of an online learning platform, 00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:34.870 align:middle line:84% I will evaluate it and study for its accessibility 00:36:34.870 --> 00:36:37.060 align:middle line:90% and its usability. 00:36:37.060 --> 00:36:40.150 align:middle line:84% And so what I expect to come from this research 00:36:40.150 --> 00:36:44.080 align:middle line:84% is to better inform educators, instructional designers, 00:36:44.080 --> 00:36:47.110 align:middle line:84% accessibility researchers, on designing 00:36:47.110 --> 00:36:49.180 align:middle line:84% these accessible and usable experiences to online 00:36:49.180 --> 00:36:51.760 align:middle line:84% learning for learners with visual impairments, 00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:54.280 align:middle line:84% demonstrating the usefulness of user-centered design 00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:57.350 align:middle line:84% to improve accessibility in online education. 00:36:57.350 --> 00:36:59.710 align:middle line:84% So as mentioned from study one where 00:36:59.710 --> 00:37:02.620 align:middle line:84% programmers we're talking about developer tools 00:37:02.620 --> 00:37:05.920 align:middle line:84% need a more user focused approach to developing tools, 00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:09.310 align:middle line:84% user-centered design is such an avenue. 00:37:09.310 --> 00:37:10.900 align:middle line:84% And then to uncover features that are 00:37:10.900 --> 00:37:13.840 align:middle line:84% desirable for both learners and teachers in online learning 00:37:13.840 --> 00:37:15.130 align:middle line:90% platforms. 00:37:15.130 --> 00:37:17.650 align:middle line:84% And so with that I end my presentation 00:37:17.650 --> 00:37:21.020 align:middle line:90% and am ready to take questions. 00:37:21.020 --> 00:37:24.157 align:middle line:90% Thank you for listening. 00:37:24.157 --> 00:37:25.490 align:middle line:90% RICHARD LADNER: Thank you, Earl. 00:37:25.490 --> 00:37:27.830 align:middle line:90% That was fantastic. 00:37:27.830 --> 00:37:32.600 align:middle line:84% And so if you want to ask a question, you can unmute 00:37:32.600 --> 00:37:37.240 align:middle line:84% or you can put a question in the chat. 00:37:37.240 --> 00:37:41.690 align:middle line:84% So I have a question for you to start with, Earl. 00:37:41.690 --> 00:37:44.690 align:middle line:84% So when you did your studies with the teachers, 00:37:44.690 --> 00:37:48.290 align:middle line:84% were the teachers in a mainstream setting or were they 00:37:48.290 --> 00:37:51.260 align:middle line:84% in schools for the blind and visually impaired, 00:37:51.260 --> 00:37:55.047 align:middle line:90% or who were the teachers? 00:37:55.047 --> 00:37:56.130 align:middle line:90% EARL HUFF: Great question. 00:37:56.130 --> 00:37:57.360 align:middle line:90% So it was a combination. 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:00.463 align:middle line:84% So a few of them were in mainstream schools, 00:38:00.463 --> 00:38:02.880 align:middle line:84% but most of them were in schools for the blind or visually 00:38:02.880 --> 00:38:04.920 align:middle line:90% impaired. 00:38:04.920 --> 00:38:09.650 align:middle line:84% So there was a couple of them that were at a public school. 00:38:09.650 --> 00:38:13.820 align:middle line:84% And one was a worker for the district. 00:38:13.820 --> 00:38:15.680 align:middle line:84% RICHARD LADNER: Were they professional TVIs, 00:38:15.680 --> 00:38:19.480 align:middle line:84% teachers of visually impaired or were 00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:22.720 align:middle line:84% they regular mainstream teachers, general education 00:38:22.720 --> 00:38:24.370 align:middle line:90% teachers? 00:38:24.370 --> 00:38:26.160 align:middle line:84% EARL HUFF: So for the mainstream teachers 00:38:26.160 --> 00:38:27.340 align:middle line:90% they were more mainstream. 00:38:27.340 --> 00:38:31.720 align:middle line:84% So they were learning more so to teach programming 00:38:31.720 --> 00:38:33.020 align:middle line:90% to the students as well. 00:38:33.020 --> 00:38:35.990 align:middle line:84% But the ones at the blind and visually impaired institutions, 00:38:35.990 --> 00:38:38.284 align:middle line:84% they were more professional TVIs. 00:38:38.284 --> 00:38:41.060 align:middle line:90% RICHARD LADNER: Great. 00:38:41.060 --> 00:38:43.290 align:middle line:90% Brianna, can you check the chat? 00:38:43.290 --> 00:38:45.290 align:middle line:84% BRIANNA BLASER: Yeah, Meenakshi asked a question 00:38:45.290 --> 00:38:48.590 align:middle line:84% about block based programming since they're so commonly used 00:38:48.590 --> 00:38:51.410 align:middle line:84% in K-12 computer science education 00:38:51.410 --> 00:38:53.150 align:middle line:90% and are so highly visual. 00:38:53.150 --> 00:38:57.150 align:middle line:84% Did you get any feedback about that? 00:38:57.150 --> 00:38:59.115 align:middle line:84% EARL HUFF: There was some feedback about block 00:38:59.115 --> 00:39:02.010 align:middle line:90% based when they were using-- 00:39:02.010 --> 00:39:04.740 align:middle line:84% well, they were using mostly apps. 00:39:04.740 --> 00:39:07.230 align:middle line:84% So Swift was kind of what they were using. 00:39:07.230 --> 00:39:09.030 align:middle line:90% One teacher was using Swift. 00:39:09.030 --> 00:39:13.890 align:middle line:84% For the most part they found it useful for their students, 00:39:13.890 --> 00:39:16.230 align:middle line:84% although there were some issues that they've 00:39:16.230 --> 00:39:18.210 align:middle line:90% come across in working with it. 00:39:18.210 --> 00:39:19.980 align:middle line:84% But that was the only instance that I've 00:39:19.980 --> 00:39:22.862 align:middle line:84% come across where they were looking at block based 00:39:22.862 --> 00:39:24.070 align:middle line:90% programming in that instance. 00:39:24.070 --> 00:39:27.030 align:middle line:84% Most of them were using more web focused, 00:39:27.030 --> 00:39:33.420 align:middle line:84% more like HTML, Python, Java, and Quorum primarily. 00:39:33.420 --> 00:39:36.510 align:middle line:84% But I do believe I did look in past research 00:39:36.510 --> 00:39:38.400 align:middle line:84% about the usefulness of block based 00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:41.690 align:middle line:84% programming and the work that's being done in that realm. 00:39:41.690 --> 00:39:44.360 align:middle line:90% 00:39:44.360 --> 00:39:47.350 align:middle line:84% So I hope that answers your question. 00:39:47.350 --> 00:39:49.970 align:middle line:84% ANDREAS STEFIK: I have a question. 00:39:49.970 --> 00:39:52.660 align:middle line:84% But before I say it, let me just say, Earl, this is awesome. 00:39:52.660 --> 00:39:56.650 align:middle line:84% Like seriously, like Brianna and I were talking the entire time 00:39:56.650 --> 00:39:58.735 align:middle line:90% on a chat about-- 00:39:58.735 --> 00:40:00.610 align:middle line:84% every time you had a result, we're like, wow, 00:40:00.610 --> 00:40:01.810 align:middle line:90% I didn't realize that. 00:40:01.810 --> 00:40:04.450 align:middle line:84% We've worked in this space for a while, 00:40:04.450 --> 00:40:07.210 align:middle line:84% so the fact that you showed me some stuff that's new 00:40:07.210 --> 00:40:08.560 align:middle line:90% too is just awesome. 00:40:08.560 --> 00:40:10.585 align:middle line:84% I really appreciate that you and your advisor 00:40:10.585 --> 00:40:11.770 align:middle line:90% have kind of picked this up. 00:40:11.770 --> 00:40:14.420 align:middle line:90% It's very needed. 00:40:14.420 --> 00:40:17.120 align:middle line:84% And I just want to say thank you for doing such a great job. 00:40:17.120 --> 00:40:21.880 align:middle line:84% So that thing said first, I do have a question, 00:40:21.880 --> 00:40:24.340 align:middle line:84% and that is oftentimes as tool designers 00:40:24.340 --> 00:40:26.920 align:middle line:84% it's really easy for us to be kind of technical focused 00:40:26.920 --> 00:40:30.430 align:middle line:84% or sort of like get our knee into the grindstone 00:40:30.430 --> 00:40:31.670 align:middle line:90% about some hard problem. 00:40:31.670 --> 00:40:34.960 align:middle line:84% But if you had to look at across your studies 00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:37.300 align:middle line:84% and sort of say what should the priorities be 00:40:37.300 --> 00:40:40.450 align:middle line:84% for us technical people that are sort of designing 00:40:40.450 --> 00:40:43.438 align:middle line:84% these tools-- like if you had to pick which thing should we try 00:40:43.438 --> 00:40:45.730 align:middle line:84% to improve the most, which thing would have the biggest 00:40:45.730 --> 00:40:47.272 align:middle line:84% bang for your buck-- like for example 00:40:47.272 --> 00:40:49.480 align:middle line:84% you mentioned debugging or online stuff-- 00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:52.573 align:middle line:84% but which one do you think are causing the most problems 00:40:52.573 --> 00:40:53.740 align:middle line:90% that we should try to solve? 00:40:53.740 --> 00:40:55.602 align:middle line:90% If you had to guess. 00:40:55.602 --> 00:40:57.060 align:middle line:84% EARL HUFF: Thanks for the question. 00:40:57.060 --> 00:40:59.520 align:middle line:84% Thanks for a comment and thanks for the question. 00:40:59.520 --> 00:41:03.830 align:middle line:84% So I would definitely say from the studies more 00:41:03.830 --> 00:41:06.520 align:middle line:84% of the aesthetics, the user interface-- 00:41:06.520 --> 00:41:09.698 align:middle line:84% so navigating across the different menus getting 00:41:09.698 --> 00:41:10.490 align:middle line:90% to the code editor. 00:41:10.490 --> 00:41:12.740 align:middle line:84% That was often the biggest complaint 00:41:12.740 --> 00:41:15.435 align:middle line:84% was students were having trouble using their screen 00:41:15.435 --> 00:41:17.310 align:middle line:84% readers to get through some of the interface. 00:41:17.310 --> 00:41:22.130 align:middle line:84% So looking more as a simplistic form or a minimalistic approach 00:41:22.130 --> 00:41:24.620 align:middle line:84% perhaps to some of these editors will greatly 00:41:24.620 --> 00:41:28.040 align:middle line:84% improve how close they get to the editor. 00:41:28.040 --> 00:41:32.300 align:middle line:84% So the example used from CodeHS and WebLab 00:41:32.300 --> 00:41:34.250 align:middle line:84% was kind of like in the right ballpark 00:41:34.250 --> 00:41:38.670 align:middle line:84% in terms of a more minimalistic design for editors 00:41:38.670 --> 00:41:40.500 align:middle line:90% in that case. 00:41:40.500 --> 00:41:42.230 align:middle line:84% And so, a lot of that definitely helps 00:41:42.230 --> 00:41:46.670 align:middle line:84% when we take the time to kind of learn from the end users 00:41:46.670 --> 00:41:49.880 align:middle line:84% about what they really need to have a better 00:41:49.880 --> 00:41:51.402 align:middle line:90% experience with these tools. 00:41:51.402 --> 00:41:52.610 align:middle line:90% ANDREAS STEFIK: That's great. 00:41:52.610 --> 00:41:53.110 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:41:53.110 --> 00:42:04.470 align:middle line:90% 00:42:04.470 --> 00:42:08.240 align:middle line:84% RICHARD LADNER: Any other questions for Earl? 00:42:08.240 --> 00:42:11.710 align:middle line:84% And I want to echo what Stefik just said. 00:42:11.710 --> 00:42:14.870 align:middle line:84% You know I learned a lot from your talked too. 00:42:14.870 --> 00:42:18.650 align:middle line:84% And getting that close to so many teachers and variety 00:42:18.650 --> 00:42:21.260 align:middle line:84% of teachers and learning what their issues are 00:42:21.260 --> 00:42:22.680 align:middle line:90% is really, really important. 00:42:22.680 --> 00:42:26.090 align:middle line:84% So I appreciate the techniques used also-- 00:42:26.090 --> 00:42:29.570 align:middle line:84% the diary study, the interviews, the semi-structured interviews. 00:42:29.570 --> 00:42:32.490 align:middle line:84% You're really using some good methodology 00:42:32.490 --> 00:42:36.170 align:middle line:84% to find the answers to your research questions. 00:42:36.170 --> 00:42:38.900 align:middle line:84% And the research questions were important questions. 00:42:38.900 --> 00:42:42.340 align:middle line:90% So I appreciate that. 00:42:42.340 --> 00:42:48.550 align:middle line:84% I should mention that a month ago, two months ago-- 00:42:48.550 --> 00:42:50.890 align:middle line:84% I can't remember-- we had our workshop. 00:42:50.890 --> 00:42:53.690 align:middle line:84% I guess it was a couple of months ago at Microsoft. 00:42:53.690 --> 00:42:55.000 align:middle line:90% Of course it was a virtual one. 00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:58.060 align:middle line:84% And Earl was on a small group with us. 00:42:58.060 --> 00:43:02.170 align:middle line:84% And we developed a paper about this and also 00:43:02.170 --> 00:43:05.030 align:middle line:90% other disabilities as well. 00:43:05.030 --> 00:43:08.470 align:middle line:84% And so we'll follow up with email 00:43:08.470 --> 00:43:11.830 align:middle line:84% to everyone with the link to that. 00:43:11.830 --> 00:43:15.220 align:middle line:84% And thank you, Earl, for being on that team and producing. 00:43:15.220 --> 00:43:18.620 align:middle line:84% Our article was the longest of all the articles. 00:43:18.620 --> 00:43:19.810 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:43:19.810 --> 00:43:20.560 align:middle line:90% EARL HUFF: It was. 00:43:20.560 --> 00:43:22.150 align:middle line:84% I did take a look at other papers, 00:43:22.150 --> 00:43:25.630 align:middle line:84% and yes, ours was very, very lengthy. 00:43:25.630 --> 00:43:28.630 align:middle line:84% But we did touch on a lot of different points 00:43:28.630 --> 00:43:29.530 align:middle line:90% in that paper too. 00:43:29.530 --> 00:43:33.190 align:middle line:84% So big shout out to everyone on the team who 00:43:33.190 --> 00:43:34.480 align:middle line:90% contributed to that. 00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:36.900 align:middle line:84% RICHARD LADNER: Yeah, Brianna put a chat a link to that. 00:43:36.900 --> 00:43:38.900 align:middle line:84% But we'll put it also in the email to everybody, 00:43:38.900 --> 00:43:40.750 align:middle line:90% because we have your emails. 00:43:40.750 --> 00:43:45.370 align:middle line:84% And we will invite you to be on our mailing 00:43:45.370 --> 00:43:49.150 align:middle line:84% list for the AccessCSforAll so that you 00:43:49.150 --> 00:43:52.653 align:middle line:84% can pick up on things that we're doing in the future as well. 00:43:52.653 --> 00:43:54.070 align:middle line:84% BRIANNA BLASER: And somebody asked 00:43:54.070 --> 00:43:56.278 align:middle line:84% if it was possible to get the recording of this talk. 00:43:56.278 --> 00:44:01.143 align:middle line:84% And so we make sure that we get good captions of the recordings 00:44:01.143 --> 00:44:02.560 align:middle line:84% and then post them on our website. 00:44:02.560 --> 00:44:04.602 align:middle line:84% So I will email everybody when that is available. 00:44:04.602 --> 00:44:07.480 align:middle line:84% It normally takes a little while to get them up online. 00:44:07.480 --> 00:44:10.630 align:middle line:84% Somebody also asked, Earl, whether your results 00:44:10.630 --> 00:44:11.470 align:middle line:90% have been published. 00:44:11.470 --> 00:44:12.850 align:middle line:84% And I know you mentioned that one 00:44:12.850 --> 00:44:15.250 align:middle line:90% will be published at SIGCSE. 00:44:15.250 --> 00:44:16.840 align:middle line:90% You have a paper at SIGCSE. 00:44:16.840 --> 00:44:19.570 align:middle line:84% Are there any other places folks should look? 00:44:19.570 --> 00:44:21.340 align:middle line:84% EARL HUFF: So yes, the one at SIGCSE 00:44:21.340 --> 00:44:23.680 align:middle line:84% should be coming out fairly soon. 00:44:23.680 --> 00:44:28.450 align:middle line:84% And also the one for study 1, the professional programmers 00:44:28.450 --> 00:44:32.470 align:middle line:84% interview, that has already been published in the International 00:44:32.470 --> 00:44:35.725 align:middle line:84% Conference for Software Maintenance and Evolution, 00:44:35.725 --> 00:44:38.680 align:middle line:90% that's an IEEE conference. 00:44:38.680 --> 00:44:44.420 align:middle line:84% So I can definitely provide Dr. Blaser with links to those. 00:44:44.420 --> 00:44:47.230 align:middle line:84% If you want to get those out to them I can provide them. 00:44:47.230 --> 00:44:48.050 align:middle line:84% BRIANNA BLASER: Yeah, that'll be awesome. 00:44:48.050 --> 00:44:49.800 align:middle line:84% If you email them to me I can include them 00:44:49.800 --> 00:44:50.830 align:middle line:90% when I email folks. 00:44:50.830 --> 00:44:52.720 align:middle line:84% ANDREAS STEFIK: I'd like to read those too because I actually 00:44:52.720 --> 00:44:53.470 align:middle line:90% haven't read them yet. 00:44:53.470 --> 00:44:54.730 align:middle line:84% I knew that you were working on this, 00:44:54.730 --> 00:44:56.740 align:middle line:84% but I haven't talked to you since November. 00:44:56.740 --> 00:44:58.240 align:middle line:84% And I couldn't remember exactly where you were at 00:44:58.240 --> 00:44:59.323 align:middle line:90% in the publishing process. 00:44:59.323 --> 00:45:01.740 align:middle line:84% So I'm looking forward to reading those as well. 00:45:01.740 --> 00:45:04.240 align:middle line:84% I was going to say too, your dissertation work sounds pretty 00:45:04.240 --> 00:45:05.800 align:middle line:90% much, I don't know, fantastic. 00:45:05.800 --> 00:45:08.950 align:middle line:84% And so as you are getting results in 00:45:08.950 --> 00:45:10.870 align:middle line:84% and stuff like that, please, please let us 00:45:10.870 --> 00:45:13.570 align:middle line:90% know what you're doing. 00:45:13.570 --> 00:45:15.700 align:middle line:84% Because we do a lot of stuff with online tools. 00:45:15.700 --> 00:45:17.290 align:middle line:90% And I imagine we know nothing. 00:45:17.290 --> 00:45:19.450 align:middle line:84% And so we'd be happy to play follow the leader 00:45:19.450 --> 00:45:20.992 align:middle line:84% and learn from whatever you're doing. 00:45:20.992 --> 00:45:23.840 align:middle line:84% So please feel free to keep in touch on that. 00:45:23.840 --> 00:45:26.420 align:middle line:84% EARL HUFF: Well, funny enough, I'll be defending my proposal 00:45:26.420 --> 00:45:28.460 align:middle line:90% in about two weeks. 00:45:28.460 --> 00:45:31.400 align:middle line:84% ANDREAS STEFIK: OK, so more than likely Julian 00:45:31.400 --> 00:45:32.990 align:middle line:84% is going to fail you, and then we'll 00:45:32.990 --> 00:45:34.490 align:middle line:90% never hear from you again. 00:45:34.490 --> 00:45:35.420 align:middle line:90% That right Julian? 00:45:35.420 --> 00:45:36.950 align:middle line:90% Is that how it works? 00:45:36.950 --> 00:45:38.680 align:middle line:90% I think it is. 00:45:38.680 --> 00:45:41.690 align:middle line:84% JULIAN BRINKLEY: No, I'm super supportive of Earl. 00:45:41.690 --> 00:45:43.880 align:middle line:84% He's a very diligent worker and a very smart guy. 00:45:43.880 --> 00:45:45.938 align:middle line:90% So I'm sure he'll be fine. 00:45:45.938 --> 00:45:47.980 align:middle line:84% ANDREAS STEFIK: This does not surprise me at all. 00:45:47.980 --> 00:45:54.103 align:middle line:84% So he seems like he's a pretty motivated bloke, so anyway. 00:45:54.103 --> 00:45:55.770 align:middle line:84% BRIANNA BLASER: Any remaining questions? 00:45:55.770 --> 00:45:58.110 align:middle line:84% I have to say too, I'm pretty impressed that you pivoted 00:45:58.110 --> 00:45:59.758 align:middle line:84% in the pandemic to figure out how 00:45:59.758 --> 00:46:01.050 align:middle line:90% to still get the research done. 00:46:01.050 --> 00:46:03.210 align:middle line:84% Because I know I've talked to a lot of grad students, 00:46:03.210 --> 00:46:04.585 align:middle line:84% in particular, who have struggled 00:46:04.585 --> 00:46:07.140 align:middle line:84% with how to keep on top of their research 00:46:07.140 --> 00:46:11.485 align:middle line:84% and not extend their stay in graduate school, so to speak. 00:46:11.485 --> 00:46:12.360 align:middle line:90% EARL HUFF: Thank you. 00:46:12.360 --> 00:46:14.680 align:middle line:84% Yes, I have to also give credit to my advisor. 00:46:14.680 --> 00:46:16.830 align:middle line:84% He helped me out with that one aspect too-- kind 00:46:16.830 --> 00:46:20.250 align:middle line:84% of working out how to work a more remote method to deal 00:46:20.250 --> 00:46:21.540 align:middle line:90% with the observation study. 00:46:21.540 --> 00:46:25.542 align:middle line:90% So it was definitely a pivot. 00:46:25.542 --> 00:46:27.000 align:middle line:84% BRIANNA BLASER: Awesome, well thank 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:28.000 align:middle line:90% you everybody for joining us. 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:30.375 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Earl, for taking the time to put this together 00:46:30.375 --> 00:46:32.580 align:middle line:84% and share with our audience here. 00:46:32.580 --> 00:46:34.620 align:middle line:84% And we'll be in touch over email. 00:46:34.620 --> 00:46:36.870 align:middle line:84% RICHARD LADNER: I was going to mention one more thing. 00:46:36.870 --> 00:46:38.820 align:middle line:84% That AccessCSforAll is putting together 00:46:38.820 --> 00:46:44.430 align:middle line:84% a series called Accessible Computer Science Education 00:46:44.430 --> 00:46:45.430 align:middle line:90% Teacher to Teacher. 00:46:45.430 --> 00:46:49.890 align:middle line:84% So we've recruited four teachers to give presentations, 00:46:49.890 --> 00:46:51.090 align:middle line:90% 90 minute webinars. 00:46:51.090 --> 00:46:53.683 align:middle line:84% And there'll be a question and answer as well 00:46:53.683 --> 00:46:54.600 align:middle line:90% during those webinars. 00:46:54.600 --> 00:46:55.910 align:middle line:90% So these will be-- 00:46:55.910 --> 00:46:59.430 align:middle line:84% and the first one is going to be on March 24th 00:46:59.430 --> 00:47:02.940 align:middle line:84% by a teacher of blind and visually impaired 00:47:02.940 --> 00:47:04.320 align:middle line:90% who has a lot of experience. 00:47:04.320 --> 00:47:09.750 align:middle line:84% And we're trying to get as many teachers as possible who 00:47:09.750 --> 00:47:12.150 align:middle line:84% are in the mainstream to join this and learn 00:47:12.150 --> 00:47:14.460 align:middle line:84% from the expertise of this teacher. 00:47:14.460 --> 00:47:17.190 align:middle line:84% It'll be in the late afternoon on the West Coast 00:47:17.190 --> 00:47:19.050 align:middle line:84% and early evening on the East Coast 00:47:19.050 --> 00:47:23.190 align:middle line:84% to accommodate teacher's schedules. 00:47:23.190 --> 00:47:29.407 align:middle line:84% So you'll all hear more about that in the future. 00:47:29.407 --> 00:47:30.490 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much, Earl. 00:47:30.490 --> 00:47:31.910 align:middle line:90% That was fantastic. 00:47:31.910 --> 00:47:34.450 align:middle line:84% I don't know what that noise was behind you but that was a-- 00:47:34.450 --> 00:47:35.337 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:47:35.337 --> 00:47:36.670 align:middle line:90% EARL HUFF: Oh, sorry about that. 00:47:36.670 --> 00:47:40.520 align:middle line:84% So unexpectedly they're trimming trees just outside 00:47:40.520 --> 00:47:44.180 align:middle line:90% of my apartment. 00:47:44.180 --> 00:47:46.477 align:middle line:84% I like, uh, I didn't think you heard it. 00:47:46.477 --> 00:47:48.310 align:middle line:84% BRIANNA BLASER: No worries, you can't always 00:47:48.310 --> 00:47:49.440 align:middle line:90% control those things. 00:47:49.440 --> 00:47:49.870 align:middle line:90% RICHARD LADNER: Yeah. 00:47:49.870 --> 00:47:51.287 align:middle line:84% EARL HUFF: Nothing you can do, so. 00:47:51.287 --> 00:47:53.830 align:middle line:84% RICHARD LADNER: Thanks very much, everybody, for coming. 00:47:53.830 --> 00:47:54.913 align:middle line:90% BRIANNA BLASER: Thank you. 00:47:54.913 --> 00:47:56.430 align:middle line:90% ANDREAS STEFIK: Thank you.