Designing a scripting language to help the blind program visually

The vast proliferation of GUI-based applications, including graphical interactive development environments (IDEs), has placed blind programmers at a severe disadvantage in a profession that had previously been relatively accessible. Visual Basic is one such programming language and IDE, in which most programmers “point and click” to design the forms on which their applications rely. It is the goal of this project to introduce a scripting language that eliminates this barrier by providing a scripting language that makes it possible to define Visual Basic GUI forms and their components verbally, while remaining easy to write. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.3.2 [Computers and Education]: Computer and Information Science Education - Computer science education. K.4.2 [Computers and Society]: Social Issues - Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities. General Terms Human Factors, Languages Keywords Visual Basic, Visual Programming, Graphical User Interfaces, Blind Progra...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ASSETS
• Authors: Kenneth G. Franqueiro, Robert M. Siegfried
• Keywords: ASSETS 2006, Blind Programmers, Scripting Language, Visual Basic