Visually Impaired Student

CS Principles Unit and Lesson Discussion
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Does anyone have any experience teaching to a visually impaired student? He has an interest in trying programming so he’s been put in my CSP class but I don’t think much of the code.org material will work for him. He won’t be preparing for the exam but would most likely do something a little different from the rest of my students. Any suggestions?

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@carly_buch Audio support was recently added to the programming units (Unit 3 & 5) of the CSP curriculum. As far as I know, those are the only additions available at this time. When preparing to work with a visually impaired student, I used the supports installed on the PC workstation (i.e. magnifier and researched getting a screen reader). There are open source screen readers available online. Check https://www.nvaccess.org/ For additional support, I have passed this question on the the code.org team.

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@carly_buch

I have a visually impaired student who used a combination of tech tools. On the computer, he was able to use a combination of zoom, screen readers and text-to-speech software. I would provide worksheets printed in an enlarged font. He was able to take both AP CSP and CSA exams.

When I worked with visually impaired engineering students, we did some tactile accommodations with hot glue. It was amazing how simple interventions made sure the lessons were accessible. Check out https://nfb.org/learning for great resources.

Andrea

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Be sure to coordinate through your school S.E. department or administration so that any accommodations implemented on behalf of this student are well documented. You should also check the the College Board regarding accommodations are deemed appropriate. Those things that your district implements via the ARD for your student success in the class must be documented in order for them to be used on the AP exam. You must apply well in advance to the College Board / ETS for your student to be able to use any accommodations.

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I recently found out that I will have a visually-impaired student taking my AP CS Principles class in September. She has an iPad, MacBook and Apple pen that she uses regularly in her other classes. I am not as concerned with the online portion of the course because she can use her equipment to enlarge the screen, but has anyone modified class activities to accommodate a visually-impaired student? I am thinking of the “unplugged” activities like the “bit-sending device” activity, the Need for DNS activity, “flippy-do”, etc.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Here’s a link to an accessible version of CSP that is based on the code.org curriculum: https://quorumlanguage.com/lessons/code.html

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I used the quorum curriculum for a student within a class where the rest of students used code.org last year. The student was very successful on the AP test as well! I’m happy to chat more about it via e-mail if you have any questions. My e-mail is carly_buch@dpsk12.org

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