I have a student with dyscalculia using code.org for our programming and game design class. We will primarily be using Unit 3a - Interactive Animations and Games from CS Discoveries although I’d love to use the Music version with this student too.
The student is having difficulty reading the workspace font and I cannot find the Enable High Contrast Theme option when I right click the Workspace.
Do you have any recommendations or ideas on how best to support the student best?
I hope you get some suggestions. I wish I had one to give you, but I guess I’m not sure how dyscalculia (struggle with understanding math?) is affecting font recognition. I am not 100% sure if there is a code.org option for changing themes, but depending on the device you are using, maybe sharing what device they will be using may help someone else to be able to help you fix the themes so the contrast is higher.
Mike
Thanks, Mike.
They are having trouble reading the font and it is compounding the dyscalculia when we are doing work with random numbers and variables. They look at the line and instead of seeing x = x + 50; they are seeing x = x + 05; In this instance the 05 doesn’t make sense to them but sometimes the number switch could be feasible.
So I’m hearing that there is no way to change the font to make it easier for them to read, is that correct?
Bridget
Hey @bridgetweinert - reading into your comment a little more, it sounds like you might be coming from Sprite Lab or another one of our block-based environments that had the High Contrast Mode as one of the right-click options. If so: you’re correct that this feature doesn’t exist for Game Lab. The reasoning has to do with the technology behind the scenes in the two labs - even though they both start as blocks, Game Lab uses a different underlying set of features to switch between blocks and texts and those features don’t have a built-in high contrast mode. If you want to keep using Game Lab, you may need to explore external tools or browser extensions to help make the lab more accessible.
However - this is one of the reasons we started offering Music Lab in CS Discoveries: it does have the high-contrast mode, along with several other themes to help with visual issues like color-blindness. If it’s not too late, you could consider switching to the Music Lab unit, which has more accessibility features enabled by default.
Wow! Thank you, Dan. This student is very interested in Music so the Music Lab would be an excellent fit. I contacted IT for external tools this afternoon based on Mike’s response. However, this is a super backup plan and I’m not worried about the timing for the switch. I really appreciate the timely response!
Posted this before I saw @Dan 's excellent response. Hope you can use the music lab!
You can reach out to support@code.org to inquire, but most accessibility adjustments are usually device and / or platform specific (ie settings in the operating system software). I’m not aware of a way to change fonts from within the code.org framework.
Mike