kestrell | Entries tagged with code

Thanks to a generous grant from CDW, The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is proud to offer introductory coding courses for blind and visually impaired youth and adults. These courses are designed to familiarize blind and low vision young adults and adults with basic coding tools, challenges navigating these tools with assistive technology such as screen readers, and techniques for navigating those challenges. Join Florian Beijers, a blind coder, as he guides you through learning the basics of coding in multiple programming languages. This is the second in a series of four courses.

This second course takes place Tuesdays in April at 1:00 PM Eastern time. Classes will be April 5, 12, 19, and 26 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern daylight time, but all sessions will be recorded and available soon after the live class for those who cannot attend at the scheduled time. If you cannot attend at the scheduled time, please be sure to register for the webinar so that you will receive all emails, including links to the recordings. Pre-requisite knowledge: At least intermediate familiarity with a screen reader with speech and/or braille, or intermediate familiarity with a screen magnification program. Ability to use the internet to accomplish tasks such as searching for and reading information, completing forms, and using keyboard shortcuts to navigate, read, and edit. Ability to follow written instructions to independently download and install programs and extensions. Willingness to participate in the entire course consisting of 4 weekly sessions; each session will last 90 minutes. Willingness to spend at least two hours per week on review and homework.

Lesson Plan Goal: Introduce students to multiple coding modalities and how to navigate barriers encountered.
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify three reasons to use ARIA and when not to use it. 2. Explain at least three requirements for web accessibility using ARIA. 3. Successfully apply Python basics to at least three coding tasks. 4. Describe use of Python in web application, data science, and automation. 5. Identify at least two obstacles present in the development field for blind and low vision coders, and two strategies to either join a development team or take a software development-related study.
Materials Needed: screen reader with speech output or Braille display and/or screen magnification program.

Here is the link to register:
https://aph.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_COVPq9ogT96c_X8XbSRPtA

Kes: I'm currently in week 2 of a seven-week web tester training course which is taking all my time and energy--you can read about it here
The Carroll Center Screen Reader User Tester Training Program webpage
https://carroll.org/screen-reader-user-tester-training-program/
--but, as a blind Hermione who has taken *many* online courses over the past two years, I can say that many of them feature inaccessible teaching tools, especially the coding courses. One thing I love about GitHub is that, once you have figued out the interface--and I wrote a help doc for using the interface with a screen reader, so it is pretty accessible--there is no third-party
tools involved, just straightforward menus and buttons.

For visually impaired developers, the tools just aren’t good enough – so they’re taking matters into their own hands

John Loeppky
21 Mar 2022

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/hacking/363344/vulnerability-hunters-naturally-inquisitive

Kes: Alexx helped me install Pengwin (note the spelling)) a few weeks ago which, since it works with Windows, means I can use my Jaws screen reader with it, but today I found out about Accessible Coconut, which seems to be self-voicing, although I haven't tried it yet.

1. Accessible-Coconut is a community-driven Linux distro aimed at providing the ideal Linux experience to visually impaired people
https://www.makeuseof.com/accessible-coconut-linux-distro-for-visually-impaired/

Features of Accessible-Coconut
Accessible-Coconut features a plethora of easy-to-use accessibility features across the platform. Since this distro is specially developed for blind and low-vision people, its features are all geared towards helping the minority group in whichever way possible.

For example, the screen reader is Orca, while the speech engine is eSpeak. Users have an option to choose other forms of speech engines, including IBM ViaVoice and Cepstral.

All the accessibility tools are present in the Universal Access section and are accessible while performing any task(s) on the system.

Visually challenged people often require specialized software to read books and documents. In this regard, optical character recognition proves to be an excellent way of converting regular documents into accessible ones.

The book reading features in Accessible-Coconut include:

Print reading: The print reading feature offers the facility to read printed books using an optical character scanner. This scanner can linguistically translate major languages like English, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic.
Daisy-player: The Daisy-player plays books in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format. This player majorly works as a CD player, as it has large tactile controls specially designed to cater to blind and low vision readers.
Ebook speaker: The Ebook speaker reads books in standard formats like EPUB, PDF, text files, etc.
Accessible-Coconut comes with pre-built audio and video players to offer an excellent multimedia experience to the user. Standard system utilities like web browsers, email clients, messenger, PDF viewers, and text editors are preinstalled in the OS.

2. Pengwin: A Linux distro optimized for WSL based on Debian
https://github.com/WhitewaterFoundry/Pengwin

Pengwin
Release 21.8.0

Wiki
https://github.com/WhitewaterFoundry/Pengwin/wiki

Pengwin
is the easiest to use Linux distribution on
Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Pengwin is a Linux environment for Windows
built on work by Microsoft Research
and the Debian project.
Install just the tool you need: use APT
https://www.whitewaterfoundry.com/features/9q1h1yyjtmficna2td7zwapokplr28
Windows Terminal seamless integration
Pengwin Linux

What is WSL?
Windows Subsystem for Linux is a compatibility layer for running Linux binaries natively in a console environment on Windows 10. No re-compilation or porting is required. WSL provides a Linux-compatible kernel interface developed by Microsoft and allows a user to chose a Linux distribution to install from the Microsoft Store.

The following links are culled from the Top Tech Tidbits weekly newsletter: view the entire newsletter or subscribe at
https://www.toptechtidbits.com/

1. Availability Of Healthcare Information To Blind And Visually Impaired Healthcare Users During The COVID Pandemic
Close Date: September 30th 2021
Dear Listers, this is Sushil Oswal from the University of Washington. I am the principal investigator on a survey about the availability of healthcare information to blind and low-vision consumers during the past 18 months. This is an important survey for our blindness community because it will give us an opportunity to express our experiences of finding healthcare information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please give us as much of your personal experiences as you can so that our study could create a comprehensive picture of the healthcare information barriers blind people face particularly under pandemic conditions. We will do a small draw of ten $25 gift cards for this survey. Besides publishing in academic journals, we will be producing a report on the basis of this healthcare information survey which will be shared with as many local and state-level health departments as possible. This report will also be available to blindness community at large. To complete the survey, please click the link below. If you have any questions about the survey, or you have difficulty completing the survey, please email me at oswal@u.washington.edu ✉. Our human subjects approval includes a permission to conduct this survey over the phone if necessary. So, do not hesitate to email me privately if you face computer issues while completing this survey. My co-investigator and I will maintain your privacy in all possible circumstances:
https://uwt.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d4FBAWsGQwBwtOC

2. Make Accessibility Part Of Your Startup's Products And Culture From Day One
A Forrester survey found that 8 in 10 companies have taken their first steps toward working on digital accessibility. What's driving this change besides the increased digital interactions? Fortune 500 companies are finally starting to realize that people with disabilities make up 1 billion of the world's market. That population and their families control more than $13 trillion in disposable income, according to Return on Disability's "The Global Economics of Disability:"
https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/03/make-accessibility-part-of-your-startups-products-and-culture-from-day-one/

3. Eyes on Success 2137 Sharing Experiences with Cochlear Implants
September 8th 2021
Blind individuals rely heavily on their ability to hear in order to compensate for their lack of sight. But what happens when a blind person loses their hearing?
https://www.eyesonsuccess.net/show%20notes/show%20notes%202137.htm

4. In-Process for September 3rd 2021
We're continuing to get closer to the release of NVDA 2021.2, so let's dive into that first this week
https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-3rd-september-2021/

5. Accessing and Customizing Windows 10 Settings With Assistive Technology

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I am in love with this video, along with the idea that the universe itself introduces an element of chance into even a totally bug-free program.
However, I will say that, if you have any anxiety about flying, you may wish to skip it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaZ_RSt0KP8

International Programmers Day is celebrated on the 256th day of the year: if you're not a programmer, This article explains the significance of that numbery, along with providing some suggestions on how to celebrate the day
https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-international-programmers-day/

Did you know you can find all sorts of free classes through EventBrite? I only just discovered this, so I can't say how accessible many of these courses are. Registering through EventBrite itself can be kind of fiddly at times.

The courses have a wide range: it reminds me of those community newspapers I used to see that advertised free and inexpensive community classes, some of them with pretty eccentric topics. These also include lots of classes and activities for kids.

Anyway, not sure how accessible it is, but this sounded like a good basic course if you are looking to learn how to create your own webpage and get it onto GitHub. (If you are a screen reader user, I wrote a help doc on how to upload your webpage on to GitHub--leave a comment and we'll figure out how to get it to you.)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-2-week-software-developer-virtual-prep-course-texas-tech-university-tickets-134657162197?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch