Enabling Personal Preference Setting

At West Hill Kids Rehab Centre most kids are hospitalized for several months and unable to attend school during their treatment. Although they can study some of their courses remotely, they miss out going to the gym or spending time at the computer lab. The therapists at the centre have noticed this problem and they think starting a coding club for kids who like programming might help to lift up their spirits.

However, each one of these kids have specific needs, which makes it very difficult to find a coding program that works across a variety of needs. For example, John communicates through scanning symbols; Maggie uses voice to text; Paul prefers high contrast interfaces with large font size, Lucy prefers simplified layouts, and there are many other kids who have unique preferences to be able to use a digital program.

With an extensive search for an accessible coding program, the therapists find a programming environment that allows each user to adjust the interface based on their personal preferences. They install the program on each student's computer. With this program, John is able to scan a list of images representing various coding functions and commands; Maggie is able to use the speech to text function; Paul is able to change the program’s contrast, adjust the font size and use a built in screen magnifier; and Lucy can use a simplify option to block out unnecessary sections of the interface.

Before using this program, it was very difficult for the kids to join a coding class, let alone work on group projects. Now, they not only enjoy their time at the coding club, they can join their computer lab remotely and work on class assignments and coding challenges with their peers at school. At the coding club, sometimes they even write a piece of code to tease the staff or the other kids around the centre. Outside of coding club, when students are talking about coding at lunch or at recess, they feel part of the conversation and can share their own stories.

Empowering Creative Expression

Claire loves leaves, their different shapes, colours and textures. She has always wanted to draw a collection of leaves but drawing seems to be a far out of reach dream for her. Her parents are aware of her passion and are looking for different ways to make that happen. They talk to her occupational therapist about this situation and she suggests an accessible coding application that works with a robot called “The Expressionist” that is capable of transferring a digital drawing to a piece of paper.

Claire’s parents buy the robot for her, install the program on her computer and connect it to her head tracker. She can switch between two different views: DRAW and CODE. In the DRAW view, she can use her head movements to draw lines. In the CODE view, she can adjust the pressure of the drawing tool. There is also a library that includes lots of different shapes and lines that she can choose from to add to her drawing. She can switch back and forth between these views to make her drawing. Once ready, she hits play and the “Expressionist” robot recreates her digital drawing on a sheet of paper. She can also save those images on her computer.

Over time and with more practice, she has become more skilled and able to draw a variety of fine lines with her head movements and using the two different views and the library. Being able to draw has brought so much excitement to her life– seeing her parents proudly showing off her drawings to friends and family makes her feel so happy. Now she is eager to experiment with drawing other things, such as bees and their hive. This new skill has also enabled her to illustrate her writing with her own work, rather than needing to search for illustrations on the internet.

Facilitating Equal Participation

Dylan’s school has purchased several robots to be integrated in their coding programs. Dylan’s teacher, Mr. Smith, and a few other teachers got together to play with those robots and came up with a project to include in their curriculum. Mr. Smith suggested having a robot dance night at the end of the semester. He hoped that the students would learn about the basics of programming, such as different functions, sequences, loops, debugging, etc as they program their robots to dance.

Once he introduced the idea to the class, all students including Dylan got so excited about the project. Like many kids her age, Dylan loves watching dance shows and immediately began to imagine how she could choreograph her robot’s steps. But at the same time she felt frustrated. What if this is similar to other coding programs that she can’t use? What if the robot wouldn't work with her eye gaze system and single switch like many other things that are not compatible with her assistive devices?   

After the class, Mr. Smith asked Dylan to stay for a quick chat. He showed her the interface for controlling the robot and the option for connecting to her eye gaze system. In the following classes, Mr. Smith encouraged all students to work together throughout the process to share their learning and help each other with exploring different moves. Dylan and her friends kept sharing their robot’s dance moves and experimented with different combinations. They had so much fun making the robots dance.

Working on this project was not only fun, but the skills learned also helped Dylan to better communicate with her educational assistants and peers to provide help with daily activities, such as asking someone to give her a drink or directing a friend to open her locker to get her lunch out.