Designing for Tinkerability for Accessibility

Abstract

As programming has increasingly become a part of the STEM curriculum in elementary and middle school classrooms, block-based visual coding languages have emerged as a tool to teach young kids and other beginners basic computer science concepts. Platforms such as Scratch have been specifically designed to support learning through tinkering and play, making them ideal educational tools for a younger audience. While block-based coding may be more accessible to young programmers compared to more complex text-based languages, many of these visual coding environments are currently designed in a way that is inaccessible to users who are blind or who have visual impairments. This thesis explores general design considerations for accessibility in tinkerable, block-based coding environments, and explains how to apply these principles to improve visual accessibility in a new programming app called OctoPlay.