<p>A quick online search led me to this.</p>

<p><a href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr21/fr06ws12.htm" rel="noreferrer">A Beginner's Guide to Access Technology for Blind Students</a></p>

<p>It covers all the essentials</p>

<ol>
<li>Screen Access Software</li>
<li>Braille Embosser</li>
<li>Notetaker</li>
<li>Scanner and Optical Character Recognition</li>
</ol>

<p>I am essentially listing things from that article It seems like something that was written years ago, but I assume, it should be a good starting point for you. </p>

<p>Further, the city I live in does have a national institute on speech and hearing, which includes folks who are sight challenged. If this is something serious, I can drive up there and talk to someone and hook you up with a professor or something. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T07:51:27.970Z
2017-08-31T07:51:27.970Z
Jay
<p>I have never had this situation, but can offer some general advice that is also applicable to other students whose needs require specialized techniques. </p>

<p>As suggested in other answers here, talk to the student, of course. But ask the student for permission to do at least some of the following. </p>

<p>You probably have a school counselor who can offer some general advice. You can talk to the parents about what they suggest and what has been useful to the student in the past. You can have a meeting with other teachers who have, or had, this student in class to see what they suggest. You may be able, with permission, to talk to the student's former teachers, even in grammar school, to see what might work. </p>

<p>You can also seek, perhaps online, advice from specialists in the student's need-area. The student might, in fact, already be working with a professional. You might see if you can have a conference with them. </p>

<p>As I suggested in a comment, get connected to the APCS community and ask for advice in their fora. Do the same for the ACM SIGCSE group. </p>

<p>It is probably too late to modify your curriculum, though others in your school should do some anticipatory planning for helping this student in the future. It may require some curricular changes generally. I would suggest, however, that curricular updates consider changes that benefit all the students, not just the one. </p>

<p>My go-to suggestion for many things is to incorporate teamwork into the curriculum as much as possible. Every student learns differently, not just the blind student. Every student can contribute to a team, though different students contribute differently. Presumably the student has skills that compensate for lack of sight. Try to bring them to bear in the class so that the student is a part of things, not an outlier. For example, he might have an exceptional memory or an exceptional organizational ability. All of these are needed by professionals and can be capitalized on in the classroom. </p>

<p>In taking APCS the student is obviously not looking for an easy way out. But do what you can to make the classroom a supportive community that benefits all students. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T14:51:39.927Z
2017-08-31T14:51:39.927Z
Buffy
<p>I think it is bad practice to have the computer draw pictures, and then try to describe them, when in would be much easier (and better for the blind person) to interpret a text interface (command line).</p>

<p>Having a blind person try to use a system that is optimised to sight, is wrong. Wasting power on a screen, that you can not see is wrong (though having something the teacher can see is useful).</p>

<p>Therefore use a system that is optimised for a blind person, or at least one that is very similar. This leaves tactile, audio, or linier speech (that can be converted to audio).</p>

<p>Here I will only discuss the speech part.</p>

<p>I would recommend Gnu/Linux, it is a Unix system. Unix was designed from the beginning to be text based. The GUI saw added latter. This has made it a very strong operating system, that a variety of interfaces can be added to.</p>

<p>Most of the programming languages that we teach were first written for Unix: Java, python, C. The only exception that I can think of would be C#, however that now runs on Unix. I have run it on a raspberry pi model 1b.  </p>

<hr>

<p>UNIX( a type of Unix ) is the system that we could not afford in the 1980s, so instead we bought Microsoft Dos, and then Microsoft Windows. Gnu/Linux is a newer Unix, as well as being <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html" rel="noreferrer">Free Software</a> is also very cheap.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-01T13:36:04.533Z
@nocomprende Can you enlighten be in that quote. It reminds we of something.
ctrl-alt-delor
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-02T09:35:58.673Z
@user737 Oh very punny. (and sorry I seemed to have miked you up with someone else, in that last comment.
ctrl-alt-delor
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T10:04:28.180Z
2017-08-31T10:04:28.180Z
ctrl-alt-delor
<p>A language called Quorum is a lot like Python but optimized across a few more syntactic details, and the corresponding development environment is designed with the blind in mind. <a href="https://quorumlanguage.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://quorumlanguage.com/</a> This might fit especially well with the use case where most students are using Python.</p>

<p>A <a href="https://computinged.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/supports-for-blind-cs-students-guest-blog-post-from-andreas-stefik/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2016 blog</a> about CSed (actually a response to a blog post) points to </p>

<ul>
<li>program-l discussion board for blind programmers at <a href="https://www.freelists.org/list/program-l" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.freelists.org/list/program-l</a></li>
<li>The EPIQ conference for blind and other programmers interested in Quorum
<a href="https://quorumlanguage.com/epiq.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://quorumlanguage.com/epiq.html</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-28T18:35:31.717Z
2018-06-28T18:54:37.040Z
2018-06-28T18:54:37.040Z
Bennett Brown
<p>I think it is very important to start by discovering what the student wants. What do they think computer science is. It is usually  not the same as what we think it is, and sometime a long way off, that they should be doing a different course, or an adapted course.</p>

<p>Therefore find out what your student is planning to use there computer science for. What job they may want to do, and why. What their interests are.</p>

<p>Focus on them as a person, not on their disability. Then look to see what problem caused by their lack of sight, need solving.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T10:14:20.063Z
2017-08-31T10:14:20.063Z
ctrl-alt-delor
<p>Have you looked up some recent work in the area and reached out to the authors? For instance: <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1953323&amp;CFID=805127740&amp;CFTOKEN=78235282" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1953323&amp;CFID=805127740&amp;CFTOKEN=78235282</a></p>

<p>As many academic articles are, that's behind a paywall, but it's a paywall that many in the community have a key to, so I figured it'd be worth mentioning here. It might also be worth checking the authors' home pages, etc. as they are allowed to post it there as per ACM publishing agreements. </p>

<p>The abstract, however, is allowed to be shared, along with the title and authors, so here's that info:</p>

<p>Andreas M. Stefik, Christopher Hundhausen, and Derrick Smith. 2011. On the design of an educational infrastructure for the blind and visually impaired in computer science. In Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 571-576. DOI=<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1953163.1953323" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1953163.1953323</a> </p>

<p>Abstract:</p>

<p>The blind and visually impaired community is significantly underrepresented in computer science. Students who wish to enter the discipline must overcome significant technological and educational barriers to succeed. In an attempt to help this population, we are engaged in a three-year research project to build an educational infrastructure for blind and visually impaired middle and high school students. Our primary research goal is to begin forging a multi-sensory educational infrastructure for the blind across the United States. We present here two preliminary results from this research: 1) a new auditory programming environment called Sodbeans, a programming language called Hop, and a multi-sensory (sound and touch) curriculum, and 2) an empirical study of our first summer workshop with the blind students. Results show that students reported a significant increase in programming self-efficacy after participating in our camp.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-28T18:36:19.283Z
https://quorumlanguage.com/ is a website hosting resources developed by this group.
Bennett Brown
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-03T16:43:22.313Z
2017-09-04T17:35:08.327Z
2017-09-04T17:35:08.327Z
Brett Becker
<p>The HS curriculum of PLtW appears to use the Python programming language.  Python can be learned and used from a command-line plus text editor, with zero graphics, which is good for screen readers.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-01T22:14:04.150Z
2017-09-04T06:02:20.973Z
2017-09-04T06:02:20.973Z
hotpaw2
<p>I am teaching a blind high school student in my APCSA class.  All students are using a combination of CodeHS and Project Lead the Way curriculum.  Neither of these are very friendly to my blind student because there are so many visual that his screen reader can't interpret.</p>

<p>Does anyone have experience in this?<br>
I'm looking for something that can be done pretty independently as he will be in the class  with others working on a different curriculum.  I want to support him in his endeavors to become a computer scientist but I don't know where to start as an inexperienced CS teacher myself! </p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T11:16:57.707Z
Could you give us more details on what is the curriculum for the class is like?
Safirah
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T13:05:46.007Z
I think you should ask for help on the APCS mailing list. You may find others with more experience at this. You would reach a larger audience on the ACM SIGCSE list. Your issue isn't really limited to high-school, of course. It can arise in any course at any level. With appropriate changes of language (emphasizing the CS less and the visual elements of the curriculum more) you might also ask it on other forums here at StackExchange.
Buffy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-31T15:08:55.400Z
Shouldn't this question be migrated to Academia SE?
Failed Scientist
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-04T04:56:14.113Z
I think the number one point is to ditch the GUI and go with full CLI access. For additional resources, try contacting [Kentucky School for the Blind](http://www.ksb.k12.ky.us/), a K-12 school which has probably encountered, and overcome, any issue you might have.
Gypsy Spellweaver
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-28T18:46:05.720Z
See also https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/3441/teaching-a-blind-high-school-student and https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/4239/how-to-teach-image-processing-and-computer-graphics-to-a-blind-student
Bennett Brown
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-01-03T19:56:48.300Z
[Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34229502) has useful ideas as well.
ggorlen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-18T01:02:42.760Z
A high school student is a school student on drugs. Students on drugs cannot be taught particularly well, especially if they are blind.
AlMa1r
<curriculum-design><secondary-education><differentiation><accessibility>
Teaching a blind high school student
# Teaching a blind high school student

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-08-31)

I am teaching a blind high school student in my APCSA class. All students are using a combination of CodeHS and Project Lead the Way curriculum. Neither of these are very friendly to my blind student because there are so many visual that his screen reader can't interpret.

Does anyone have experience in this?  
I'm looking for something that can be done pretty independently as he will be in the class with others working on a different curriculum. I want to support him in his endeavors to become a computer scientist but I don't know where to start as an inexperienced CS teacher myself!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**Tags:** curriculum-design, secondary-education, differentiation, accessibility

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Could you give us more details on what is the curriculum for the class is like?  
> **username_2**: I think you should ask for help on the APCS mailing list. You may find others with more experience at this. You would reach a larger audience on the ACM SIGCSE list. Your issue isn't really limited to high-school, of course. It can arise in any course at any level. With appropriate changes of language (emphasizing the CS less and the visual elements of the curriculum more) you might also ask it on other forums here at StackExchange.  
> **username_3**: Shouldn't this question be migrated to Academia SE?  
> **username_4**: I think the number one point is to ditch the GUI and go with full CLI access. For additional resources, try contacting [Kentucky School for the Blind](http://www.ksb.k12.ky.us/), a K-12 school which has probably encountered, and overcome, any issue you might have.  
> **username_5**: See also https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/3441/teaching-a-blind-high-school-student and https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/4239/how-to-teach-image-processing-and-computer-graphics-to-a-blind-student  
> **username_6**: [Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34229502) has useful ideas as well.  
> **username_7**: A high school student is a school student on drugs. Students on drugs cannot be taught particularly well, especially if they are blind.  

---

## 7 answers

### Answer by username_8 on 2017-08-31. Score: 7

A quick online search led me to this.

[A Beginner's Guide to Access Technology for Blind Students](https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr21/fr06ws12.htm)

It covers all the essentials

1. Screen Access Software
2. Braille Embosser
3. Notetaker
4. Scanner and Optical Character Recognition

I am essentially listing things from that article It seems like something that was written years ago, but I assume, it should be a good starting point for you.

Further, the city I live in does have a national institute on speech and hearing, which includes folks who are sight challenged. If this is something serious, I can drive up there and talk to someone and hook you up with a professor or something.


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2017-08-31. Score: 7

I think it is bad practice to have the computer draw pictures, and then try to describe them, when in would be much easier (and better for the blind person) to interpret a text interface (command line).

Having a blind person try to use a system that is optimised to sight, is wrong. Wasting power on a screen, that you can not see is wrong (though having something the teacher can see is useful).

Therefore use a system that is optimised for a blind person, or at least one that is very similar. This leaves tactile, audio, or linier speech (that can be converted to audio).

Here I will only discuss the speech part.

I would recommend Gnu/Linux, it is a Unix system. Unix was designed from the beginning to be text based. The GUI saw added latter. This has made it a very strong operating system, that a variety of interfaces can be added to.

Most of the programming languages that we teach were first written for Unix: Java, python, C. The only exception that I can think of would be C#, however that now runs on Unix. I have run it on a raspberry pi model 1b.

---

UNIX( a type of Unix ) is the system that we could not afford in the 1980s, so instead we bought Microsoft Dos, and then Microsoft Windows. Gnu/Linux is a newer Unix, as well as being [Free Software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html) is also very cheap.

> **Comments:**
> **username_9**: @nocomprende Can you enlighten be in that quote. It reminds we of something.  
> **username_9**: @user737 Oh very punny. (and sorry I seemed to have miked you up with someone else, in that last comment.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-08-31. Score: 5

I have never had this situation, but can offer some general advice that is also applicable to other students whose needs require specialized techniques.

As suggested in other answers here, talk to the student, of course. But ask the student for permission to do at least some of the following.

You probably have a school counselor who can offer some general advice. You can talk to the parents about what they suggest and what has been useful to the student in the past. You can have a meeting with other teachers who have, or had, this student in class to see what they suggest. You may be able, with permission, to talk to the student's former teachers, even in grammar school, to see what might work.

You can also seek, perhaps online, advice from specialists in the student's need-area. The student might, in fact, already be working with a professional. You might see if you can have a conference with them.

As I suggested in a comment, get connected to the APCS community and ask for advice in their fora. Do the same for the ACM SIGCSE group.

It is probably too late to modify your curriculum, though others in your school should do some anticipatory planning for helping this student in the future. It may require some curricular changes generally. I would suggest, however, that curricular updates consider changes that benefit all the students, not just the one.

My go-to suggestion for many things is to incorporate teamwork into the curriculum as much as possible. Every student learns differently, not just the blind student. Every student can contribute to a team, though different students contribute differently. Presumably the student has skills that compensate for lack of sight. Try to bring them to bear in the class so that the student is a part of things, not an outlier. For example, he might have an exceptional memory or an exceptional organizational ability. All of these are needed by professionals and can be capitalized on in the classroom.

In taking APCS the student is obviously not looking for an easy way out. But do what you can to make the classroom a supportive community that benefits all students.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2018-06-28. Score: 2

A language called Quorum is a lot like Python but optimized across a few more syntactic details, and the corresponding development environment is designed with the blind in mind. <https://quorumlanguage.com/> This might fit especially well with the use case where most students are using Python.

A [2016 blog](https://computinged.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/supports-for-blind-cs-students-guest-blog-post-from-andreas-stefik/) about CSed (actually a response to a blog post) points to

* program-l discussion board for blind programmers at <https://www.freelists.org/list/program-l>
* The EPIQ conference for blind and other programmers interested in Quorum
  <https://quorumlanguage.com/epiq.html>


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2017-08-31. Score: 0

I think it is very important to start by discovering what the student wants. What do they think computer science is. It is usually not the same as what we think it is, and sometime a long way off, that they should be doing a different course, or an adapted course.

Therefore find out what your student is planning to use there computer science for. What job they may want to do, and why. What their interests are.

Focus on them as a person, not on their disability. Then look to see what problem caused by their lack of sight, need solving.


---

### Answer by username_10 on 2017-09-03. Score: 0

Have you looked up some recent work in the area and reached out to the authors? For instance: <http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1953323&CFID=805127740&CFTOKEN=78235282>

As many academic articles are, that's behind a paywall, but it's a paywall that many in the community have a key to, so I figured it'd be worth mentioning here. It might also be worth checking the authors' home pages, etc. as they are allowed to post it there as per ACM publishing agreements.

The abstract, however, is allowed to be shared, along with the title and authors, so here's that info:

Andreas M. Stefik, Christopher Hundhausen, and Derrick Smith. 2011. On the design of an educational infrastructure for the blind and visually impaired in computer science. In Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 571-576. DOI=<http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1953163.1953323>

Abstract:

The blind and visually impaired community is significantly underrepresented in computer science. Students who wish to enter the discipline must overcome significant technological and educational barriers to succeed. In an attempt to help this population, we are engaged in a three-year research project to build an educational infrastructure for blind and visually impaired middle and high school students. Our primary research goal is to begin forging a multi-sensory educational infrastructure for the blind across the United States. We present here two preliminary results from this research: 1) a new auditory programming environment called Sodbeans, a programming language called Hop, and a multi-sensory (sound and touch) curriculum, and 2) an empirical study of our first summer workshop with the blind students. Results show that students reported a significant increase in programming self-efficacy after participating in our camp.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: https://quorumlanguage.com/ is a website hosting resources developed by this group.  

---

### Answer by username_11 on 2017-09-01. Score: -1

The HS curriculum of PLtW appears to use the Python programming language. Python can be learned and used from a command-line plus text editor, with zero graphics, which is good for screen readers.


---

