Skip to main content
  • Accessibility
  • Headlines
  • Coronavirus-News
  • Get-Hooked
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Parasports
  • Ask Bhavna
  • NHBrandView
  • Independent Living
  • Lifestyle
  • NH Videos
×
Newz Hook – Changing Attitudes towards Disability Logo
  • Stories
  • Videos
  • Inclusive
  • NH Voice
  • Login
COVID-19 Notification by Government in Accessible Format

Accessibility Tools

Text Size:

Contrast Scheme:

  • C
  • C

Reset

  • Home
  • Technology
  • Microsoft to teach coding skills to visually impaired kids in India under program Code Jumper

Microsoft to teach coding skills to visually impaired kids in India under program Code Jumper

Technology January 30, 2019
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
0

With the world getting increasingly reliant on technology, the idea of teaching coding skills to children in schools is becoming more popular. Making them accessible to children who are visually impaired is a challenge.

One main challenge is that of attitude, with most schools largely discouraging blind kids from looking at science and maths as teachers don’t have the skills to teach them. The other challenge, is accessible technologies.

As Mumbai-based Ganesh Dodkari, who takes part-time computer classes and assists his father in the family business experienced. “I always wanted to learn programming but there was no way for a visually impaired like me to learn. Companies are looking to hire people who know coding and I felt those skills would have improved my employment prospects”.

Those are exactly the kind of barriers that Microsoft is looking to break down and they want to start young. Since 2017, it has been working on a way to teach visually impaired children to code.

Launched as Project Torino, this is a “physical programming language” that teaches basic programming to children between seven to 11 years of age. The good news is that Microsoft is expanding the project to India and some other countries under the name Code Jumper.

A move that has been welcomed by many experts in the Braille literacy space as a step towards creating more opportunities for the visually impaired community in India. “For long they’ve been told they cannot do certain things and absence of resources has been one of the major factors contributing to this mindset of people”, points out Upasana Makati, Founder-Editor, White Print, the lifestyle magazine in Braille and Tactabet, which are Braille-Tactile books with English and Hindi alphabets.

“I have had conversations with a few of my subscribers who were told by their teachers that they had only two options- either becoming a teacher or pursuing music. So yes, there is an evident dent in perceptions people have. The move by Microsoft is a huge one – Big for visually impaired kids who will now have the opportunity to explore, learn and pursue their passion”, adds Makati.

How Torino works

The usual approach of teaching coding to children through command blocks that are dragged and dropped together to create programs does not work for visually impaired kids as they can’t read those commands, not even with assistive technology such as a screen reader or magnifier.

That was the trigger for Project Torino, a tethered hardware device with brightly-coloured, softball-sized pods in different sizes. Each size stands for a different command and children can pick the blocks and use the tether to connect them for creating programs.

Learners string the pods together to create code that plays music, stories, and poetry. The idea is to allow visually impaired children to participate in coding exercises in the classroom alongside seeing students, or to allow all students to learn the basics of coding in a tactile way.

“It’s a set of physical pods that you connect together with wires”, in the words of Cecily Morrison, who is part of the research team that worked on Torino. “Each of these pods is a statement in your program, and you can connect a number of pods to create a multi-statement program which creates music, stories or poetry. And in the process, with different types of pods, we take children through the different types of control flows that you can have in a programming language”.

Torino will be launched India later this year as Code Jumper. The other countries are Canada, Australia, and the United States by the end of 2019.

It’s a great initiative, says Ankita Gulati, Founder, TouchVision, a device that makes images and pictures accessible for visually impaired students.

Code Jumper will help break down the access barriers for visually impaired children. When we were testing our prototypes on blind schools, we found that many of them were scared to handle mobile devices as they were worried about dropping them. They act on the basis of muscle memory so to use that aspect and integrate it with touch is a good idea. It will also help in perception development down the line. – Anita Gulati, Founder, TouchVision

Teaching coding to blind kids at a young will open doors to studying more subjects and increase employment prospects as well, believes Lovepreet Singh, a visually impaired music teacher in Jallandhar and a key member of the group that developed the app Tech World . A free Android app, Tech World brings all the online resources that are available for visually impaired people on one platform.

“It is great that Microsoft is bringing Project Jumper to India because access to coding is something that is missing for visually impaired children. This will open up more opportunities when it comes to education and employment”.

Education and employment apart, such technologies will “boost the confidence of the community to look beyond what has been drilled in their minds all through”, as Makati says.

ALSO READ:
Tech World brings useful resources for visually impaired people on one platform

Watch in Sign Language

0

Support us to make NewzHook Sustainable – Make a Contribution Today

We need your continued support to enable us work towards Changing Attitudes towards Disability. Help us in our attempt to share the voices of people with disabilities that enable them to participate in the society on an equal footing!

Contribute to Newz Hook

NH Videos

Healing pain through art - Dr. Anubha Mahajan, Founder Chronic Pain India

Read more on Newz Hook

  • Accessibility
    Top 10 Accessible Brands & Brand Campaigns Globally
  • Employment
    InReturn Strategies is redefining the way American companies talk about diversity & inclusion
  • Get-hooked
    #GlaucomaAwarenessMonth – Early detection & treatment is critical to prevent permanent vision loss
  • Accessibility,Independent Living
    Affordable and Independent Mobility for Persons with Disabilities still a distant hope in India (series 1 of 3)
  • Get-hooked,Lifestyle
    Perceptions and misconceptions about disability
  • Employment,Independent Living
    My journey from a hearing impaired individual to a Social Changemaker

Contribue to Newz Hook. Support us to make NewzHook Sustainable – Make a Contribution Today.

Newsletter

 Subscribe to our Newsletter

Want to feature your inspiring story or share an event with the disabled community? Write to:

editor@newzhook.com

Related News

Logos of Zoom, Teams, Slack, Webex and Meet with the words Top 5 accessible video conferencing platforms

Technology

Top 5 accessible video conferencing platforms for people with disabilities globally

Woman getting her eyes tested

Get-hooked

#GlaucomaAwarenessMonth – Early detection & treatment is critical to prevent permanent vision loss

Jim Atwater and Scott Brouilette, Co-founders of InReturn Strategies.

Employment

InReturn Strategies is redefining the way American companies talk about diversity & inclusion

Logos of the 10 brands featured in the article

Accessibility

Top 10 Accessible Brands & Brand Campaigns Globally

Newz Hook - Accessible News

Download App Now!

Videos

View More

Technology

Learning becomes richer, deeper for children with vision impairments with Tactopus

Get-hooked

#RareDiseases - Coping with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy powers Karan's passion to help others

Get-hooked

Dealing with sensory overload in kids with autism this Diwali

Get-hooked

Understanding mental wellbeing of parents of children with autism

Newz Hook Logo

About Newz Hook

Newz Hook is a media site focusing on Changing Attitudes towards Disability globally. We highlight stories that share insights into the lives of people with disabilities, offer solutions and create collaborations. Our focus is to have Inclusion Champions from across the globe who share knowledge about disability, inclusion & accessibility.

Lets come together to change attitudes towards disability!

Newz Hook is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Follow us on:

Related Links

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Partner with Newz Hook
  • Embed Newz Hook Timeline
  • Affiliate disclosure
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Contribute to Newz Hook

Our Awards

Zero Project Award Winner 2018
Back To Top
© 2019 All Right Reserved. Inclusive News India Private Limited.

Ask Bhavna

All fields are mandatory unless specified as optional.