Higher end math and computational thinking are skill sets that can provide amazing opportunities to many at a young age. The problem that persists is how do parents and educators find the right accessible tools for mastering these abilities in the K-12 environment? We have featured APH s Code Jumper in our previous convention coverage. However, that s just the start for APH s Road To Code offerings that teach students the concepts of sequencing, loops and block coding. J.J. spoke to Leslie Weilbacher, APH Regional Outreach Specialist for the Northwest Region, about some of the new programs and products that can assist in the teaching of coding fundamentals. The interview covers products like the Colby Mouse, Code Quest and Snapino s Snap Circuits and Snap Rover. Lastly, programs like the National Coding Symposium and Access Academy are discussed. To learn more about the products mentioned, with additional links to educational resources, visit the APH Road To Code website
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Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
Directly, and actually in person, from Anaheim, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2022. Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology book reviews and mobile apps; and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld. The American Foundation for the Blind’s free online technology magazine. Www.afb.org/aw.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: Welcome to Blind Bargains virtual Exhibit Hall coverage. Not recording this one at CSUN. Actually, doing this one virtually with APH’s Leslie Weilbacher. Did I get that correct?
LESLIE WEILBACHER: Yes.
JM: Think I did. All right. Awesome. Regional Outreach Specialist for the Northwest region and having a lot to do with all sorts of things that are encompassed in the Road to Code. I love it. I love it. Leslie, welcome to Blind Bargains.
LW: Thank you. Happy to be here.
JM: So we’ve talked in the past with a couple of people from APH about Code Jumper, but the Road to Code has a lot more things going on than just Code Jumper these days. So why don’t you kind of give people a general overview of what the Road to Code is.
LW: Absolutely. So we realized that coding, and computer science in general, is huge right now. Why? Because how could we be doing this interview without computer science? We need people to be able to code and program and build websites and programs. And how do we get that? We have to start with the foundational skills. And everyone needs the same access to that. According to code.org, 51 percent of U.S. high schools are teaching computer science classes, so we really need to be able to give everybody equal access to this. So the Road to Code is several products that build on each other, exploring these foundational skills, computational thinking, problem-solving, all of these really important things that you need to have in a fun way that also expands on some other areas like orientation and mobility skills and even some math and other science skills.
JM: You make some really good points there. You know, I’ve done a lot of coding in my life, but, for me, learning to code was opening up the console and typing commands, and that was it. There was no, you know, fun programs or tools or things like that, and then over the past -- I’d say especially the past decade, a lot of this has come out, but of course, hasn’t been accessible, the common theme of this podcast, which APH is among, you know, the many trying to change this.
And you’re going all the way to early childhood, the Colby! The Accessible Code and Go Mouse, for ages five and up.
LW: Yes. So that is a super fun one, and this is an off-the-shelf. This is a typical market product that we recognized offered a lot, but it needed a couple of adaptations to be more accessible. So Colby is this cute little robot mouse, and he has buttons on his back. So that’s kind of a foundation of block coding where you can say, “Okay. You’re in a Maze. I need you to go forward then left, then forward again, and then right, and then you’re going to get the cheese.” So you have to plan out this route. You have to look at the whole big picture, break it down into its little parts, and then put it in the right sequence. So this also plays into orientation and mobility skills --
JM: Sure.
LW: -- route planning and remember those things. Colby also – I mean, this is for little kids, but I certainly have fun playing with him. My high school intern has fun playing with him.
JM: Sure.
LW: He’s – he makes cute noises. He runs into walls if you don’t get it right, and then you have to back up. There’s a wedge of cheese, of course, that he gets to grab at the end.
JM: It’s an actual wedge of cheese?
LW: It – well –
JM: I mean, not real cheese.
LW: It is a wedge shape, and then it has some little indentions on it to make it feel like Swiss cheese. Like, it has holes through it.
JM: Sure.
LW: Yeah. And it’s magnetic, so it just goes to his little nose.
JM: That’s – are you playing with the cheese right now?
LW: I am. Here. You can -- let’s see if you can –
So he makes all kinds of fun little noises.
JM: Oh. That’s awesome. So this is for young children, but someone also probably – especially at that age needs to work with them a little bit to figure this out. So how do you make this accessible for a parent or a teacher who probably – may or may not know anything about coding to teach these concepts? What – for a little kid.
LW: Oh, yeah. Well, I think one fun thing about that is this is less intimidating than saying, “Here you go, parent. Let’s do some Python.”
JM: Right.
LW: “Let’s do some HTML.” Far less intimidating, but also the kit comes with these cards that give you idea of mazes. So we took those cards, and we made high-quality tactile graphics.
JM: Nice.
LW: So you also get to practice tactile graphics and a Braille key that labels all the buttons on the mouse’s back, and Braille stickers to put on the command card. So as you decide, “Okay. I want him to go forwards then right,” you can lay out – “Okay. Here’s a forward card. It has a Braille F on it.” So you get to practice some Braille skills as well.
JM: Mm-hmm.
LW: And then you can lay out your sequence, like you’re writing out your code and then program it into his back and let him go.
JM: How much is it?
LW: I think he – yeah. He is $99.
JM: Oh. That isn’t bad at all.
LW: No.
JM: You know, sometimes, you think you’re going to pay a whole bunch more for accessibility inclusions, and it sounds like you’re really trying to work to keep the prices down.
LW: We do, because the point is to get these things into the hands of kids.
JM: Very cool. So as they progress down the Road to Code, maybe they’re a year or two older. They might happen upon CodeQuest. What is that?
LW: CodeQuest is an app. And this one is free. This one is for the iPad, and we’re working on a version for the iPhone. This is a really fun app that has a lot of the similar things to Colby, the mouse, but it’s on the iPad. So you get to practice your gestures for VoiceOver in a fun way. This is a grid layout, so there’s some math skills built in here. You get to some coordinates.
JM: Mm-hmm.
LW: And you’re a little – you’re the astronaut’s computer. And so you’re telling the astronaut how to get back to his ship, get through the maze, blast through some walls -- because blasting through things is fun, and –
JM: Yup.
LW: -- and maybe picking up an alien friend along the way. And so there’s different planets to explore. Also has some fun sound effects and some fun music.
But, again, you have to use your iPad skills, drag your finger around the screen in a search pattern so you can hear all the different – “Okay. This is an empty square. This is an unbreakable wall. This wall, I can blast through. Here’s the ship. How am I going to plan out this code?”
Again, you press arrow directional buttons at the bottom --
JM: Um-hmm.
LW: -- and then you can run the code, and your little astronaut will go through the maze and make it to the ship.
JM: So for this particular app, are they still mostly using gestures in choosing options as opposed to actually writing code, or is there some actual code involved here?
LW: This would be like block coding. So you are using gestures to find the buttons that you want to add into the line of code. It does not show the actual code on this, but it does really work on sequencing, debugging, and you get introduced to loops as a concept here.
JM: I think it’s also worth mentioning here that this is not just an app for blind kids, as somebody that -- or an app that the whole class could use.
LW: Both of these. Definitely. You can turn VoiceOver off, and it still has some voicing features. So, yeah. Any kid could use this. And again, my high school intern – I said, “Hey. Check this out. Write me a review. It’s meant for younger kids, but I want to know what you think.” And she said, “I know this is for younger kids, but my friend and I stayed up all night playing it.”
JM: Why not? Yes. Beyond that too, you know -- yeah. You can get the app for free, but you’ve also created a whole bunch of additional resources that people could emboss or even 3D print.
LW: Yes. So the 3D printed materials came out of the University of North Carolina where this app originated. And that gives you that tactile aspect like with Colby. It gives you the directional arrows, the astronaut and alien and the ship, and then you can lay out the grid that’s on the screen.
JM: Right.
LW: And then we have free download – and those are also free on the website. And then you can download the embossable graphics. And they’re simple embossable graphics, so you don’t need an extra special tactile graphic embosser to use them.
JM: Right. Very cool. So that one is entirely free, so I guess anyone – hey. We don’t care if you’re 7 or 70. If you want to go download it, go.
LW: Yeah.
JM: We’ll put a link in the show notes, so people can go check that out. Code Jumper might be something that people move to next or – you know, I guess it depends –
LW: Mm-hmm.
JM: -- on what they’re thinking. That’s been around for a couple years, and we’ve talked about it. This is the – bunch of wires connected to these little pods that can do – you know, we -- of course, we’ve had the “Row, row, row your boat” demo and some other stuff. What’s new with Code Jumper?
LW: Yeah. The “Row, row, row your boat” is a good one to show the loop. Definitely --
JM: Yup.
LW: -- it -- and gets played a lot. One thing is you can add your own sound sets. So I know someone who likes to chop up the theme to Star Wars, so you have to put that in the right order with the pods. So that’s a little more fun.
But we also have coming out, I believe April 1, puzzles for Code Jumper.
JM: Oh.
LW: So that’s a new thing. Instead of just, here’s the curriculum – and the curriculum is free online. Here’s – you know, follow these steps. Now, there’s this new, more interactive -- okay. You’ve got some basic idea of how to use this. Let’s really stretch your problem-solving and computational thinking muscles and try these. So those should be coming out really soon. And that’s exciting.
JM: Very cool. And Code Jumper, that one’s a little more expensive. How much is it?
LW: That one is on quota –
JM: Oh.
LW: -- but not on quota, it is nine ninety-nine. But we are working on finding ways to get that out there more. We are partnering with different organizations. Lots of VI teachers can get them.
JM: Mm-hmm.
LW: VI teachers – wow. That dates me. Teachers of students with visual impairments. And – yeah. We’re working on getting that out there more.
JM: Perfect.
LW: And – yeah.
JM: Awesome. There’s another product that I really wanted to play with. I just haven’t had a chance yet. But hopefully soon, I will have a chance to get hands on with Snap Circuits and, perhaps, the Snap Rover. This is another mainstream product that APH has modified and perhaps is a little more advanced and lets you, kind of, build a little more and tinker. Why don’t you tell people about all this.
LW: Yeah. We have several Elenco products that we have taken and added Braille labels, Braille instructions, also online instructions. These are really, really fun and have lots of little complicated parts that snap together and can teach you about circuits, the flow of electricity, some basic engineering things.
JM: Yeah.
LW: Especially – so the RV Rover, you literally make the motherboard for this --
JM: Okay.
LW: -- drivable robot car. You put it on its back, you have a remote control, and you build your own remote control car. That’s incredibly exciting, but also empowering for kids and probably for adults, because it’s kind of cool.
JM: Sure. Absolutely. So this is a bit more building. Is there coding involved here as well, or is it just – still more just snapping things together?
LW: So the Snapino kit –
JM: Yup.
LW: -- definitely has the coding piece to it. So yes. You are snapping things together, which gives you that tactile hands-on experience, but then, the Snapino actually has the interface.
JM: Right. And for anyone who might not be familiar, that’s combining Snap with Arduino, which is a very –
LW: Yes.
JM: -- popular platform for building all sorts of gadgetry and other stuff. And you can use some basic-level coding there to do some things. What other Snap kits besides the Rover do you have currently?
LW: So we have Snap Circuits Jr. So that’s our basic one. And when I was a TVI, I had a fourth grader -- I showed him how to do two things, which was basically light up a little light and spin a little fan, and then he just took the book from me, and he did everything else. He’s like, “Got it. This is awesome.”
JM: That’s really cool.
LW: Yeah. And you can do a siren, you can – I -- one of them was like a happy birthday jingle, which would be very similar to the build out in one of those cards, the greeting cards that you open and it starts playing music.
JM: Sure.
LW: So that’s fun. And then – so Snap Circuits Jr., and I mentioned Snapino. R/C Rover, and – oh. The bricks. Ah.
JM: On the Road to Code. How appropriate?
LW: Yeah. Exactly. That is the Bricks Structures Access kit. Yeah. So it’s very similar, but it’s -- think of it more like Legos, but when they snap together, you can run electricity through them.
JM: Okay. That’s a good way of putting it. That makes a lot of sense. And I’ve done some comparisons too. Like – you know, again – you know, these are mainstream products, and I know sometimes, the tendency – heck. We’re a site that’s called Blind Bargains. Sometimes, the tendency is to say, “Well, why would I buy this through APH?” But the cost for including all the accessibility is really not that much. Like, you’ve really done a good job, I think, of keeping the prices reasonable for giving you all the Braille labels and things like that.
LW: Yeah. That’s what – we really try to do that because we want people to have the same access. And the Braille labels definitely make a big difference in that. And you’re really – you know, it’s this time versus cost analysis.
JM: Yup.
LW: You know. Yes. You could get the clear sticky paper, Braille it yourself, cut it out, stick it on everything, or you could have it all together.
JM: And also, does it come with the Braille – the manual in Braille as well?
LW: Yes.
JM: I know you can download them online too, but, again, sometimes, it’s nice to have that Braille.
LW: Yes. I agree.
JM: Absolutely. Well, cool. There’s a couple other things that we want to kind of mention before we wrap up today. And one including a coding symposium in May, perhaps to teach some of these things and other stuff. What’s going to be happening there?
LW: Okay. That is really big. This is the second annual National Coding Symposium. And it’s all virtual. We have a week, May 9th through the 13th of half-day events.
So we – on Monday, the 9th, we’re talking all about Code Jumper and CodeQuest. And what we hope to have is a lot of people from around the country who have done some activities with these who then can come in and do a panel discussion of, “Here’s what we did, here’s what we learned, this is what went great, this is what we wish we did differently,” and really start that conversation of getting kids to talk to kids, teachers to talk to teachers.
Tuesday’s going to be on HTML.
JM: Right.
LW: Wednesday, on quorum --
JM: -- which is another programming language?
LW: It is another programming language that was designed to be very accessible.
JM: Mm-hmm.
LW: And Thursday on Python, and, Friday is careers. So people who are blind or visually impaired who have jobs in the computer science field --
JM: That’s great because I was just about to ask, you know, after people go through the road of all of the activities and devices for young kids, where they would go next. And then it sounds like, you know, headed toward – this would be the time to go towards Quorum or Python or HTML or any number of things by the time they’ve gone through some of these other things.
LW: Exactly. We want you to have a really strong foundation to take that next step. There’s several webinars that I’ve been doing. I did one on CodeQuest. I’m about to do one on Colby, Code and Go Mouse, and then we’ll do another one on Code Jumper for on the Road to Code leading up to this coding symposium.
JM: Awesome. And it’s all free?
LW: Yes. These are free webinars. You can get a CVRAP credit if you need that for licensures. And if you don’t and you miss it, you can just go to our YouTube channel and find these as well.
JM: Awesome. And, again, we’ll link to some of that in the show notes. And I know we’ve talked a lot about stuff for kids, even though adults can play with this stuff, but you also have some coding classes or instruction for – that are maybe a little more adult-based available.
LW: Yes. We received a very generous grant from CDW to provide opportunity for adults who want to get into coding but have run into some barriers there. So this is – at the moment, it’s happening right now. It’s March through – I think it’s in – yes. March. March through March. And – once a week class on a lot of the barriers that you would find, maybe the boot camp that you go to is just – it’s happening too fast and there’s not enough explanation. Maybe you don’t know the right tips and tricks with JAWS or NVDA to make it work out. So this is an opportunity to get some instruction from someone who’s visually impaired who has been there, understands, and these are also being recorded and are free.
JM: Awesome. Well, there’s a lot of great information and definitely look forward to seeing what comes out. Anything in the immediate future that you can tease as far as what’s coming down the pipe or –
LW: Well, we’re always looking for new ways to reach people. If people want to reach out to us with ideas or questions, they can Email us at outreach@aph.org. We’re always adding new webinars so you can check out the Access Academy. And – yeah. That’s –
JM: Awesome.
LW: -- that – that.
JM: Thank you so much for coming on and sharing some time with us this afternoon. We really appreciate it.
LW: Yeah. I’m very happy to do it.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
