Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 73 posts

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#41

Post by hugs »

y-curious wrote: post #38
hugs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be happy to make it for free just for the feedback! My contact info is in my HN bio. The downside to a motorized display is the cost. Each motor is roughly $1.50 USD. When you include all the other stuff (electronics, 3D printed parts, etc.), it's at about $2/pin. A relatively small 10x20 display (minimum size for a Tetris board, for example) would cost $400 USD just in raw cost. At retail, that 10x20 board would…

If OP takes you up on this, DM me and I'll throw you some cash for doing this.

Hey, thanks. HN doesn't have DMs, though. Send me an email or Twitter DM? (Contact info in my HN bio.)

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#42

Post by giantg2 »

gus_massa wrote: post #35

One of my coworkers was blind. With an screen reader, he used Excel, LaTeX and other computer stuff, but IIRC he didn't program. I'd recommend to skip Scratch and clones. Jump directly to Python. The indentation may be a problem, so you must find out how to configure the screen reader to say this invisible spaces of the indentation. Perhaps it's better to use tabs for the children, because they are easier to count. (…

Just a wild thought I had. I have no idea how screen readers treat indents, but it would be interesting to have indents indicated by speech tone. So the text on the same indentation level has the same tone and the town gets lower or higher the farther it is from the screen edge. There's probably a better solution, but I felt like sharing a random thought.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#43

Post by MisterTea »

Mezzie wrote: post #28
zersiax wrote: post #24

Hoo boy, this is a fun one :) Disclaimer: Fully blind programmer, have been for several years,learned as a teenager, later went on to teach various blind individuals as a side hustle for a while, culminating in a 2 month course done for the folks who make CodeJumper. With all that out of the way, let's go. First, let me just comment on that comment by @conviencefee999. Kindly do your research before chiming into a di…

> First, let me just comment on that comment by @conviencefee999. Kindly do your research before chiming into a discussion you quite clearly know very little about. I don't know your unique set of circumstances, but stating that one of the most viable career paths for a blind individual is not a viable career path is rather against the current and, as you yourself helpfully point out, anything but helpful. While it i…

I am not blind but I am a visual thinker and have no trouble seeing how a computer works. I can easily visualize memory, data, code structure and so on.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#44

Post by gcanyon »

I don't know how well it works with screen readers, etc., but https://livecode.com might work well because the code is English-like -- it still uses things like [] for arrays and () for precedence in calculations, but in general there is much less use of symbols.

Another possibly odd suggestion is https://www.jsoftware.com/#/README Natively, J is nothing but symbols, but crucially, everything can be redefined. So this is possible:

   plus =: +
   3 plus 4
7 equals =: = 5 equals 2 plus 3 1 4 equals 2 plus 3 0

It's an array-based language, but it doesn't have to be used that way.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#45

Post by convolvatron »

hugs wrote: post #36
nathell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, OP here. This is great! I’d love to get this into the hands of Adrian (that’s the kiddo’s name). Unfortunately, my hardware assembly skills are next to zero. Is there any chance to get a pre-assembled prototype? I’d happily pay for the BOM and blog about Adrian’s experience with this.

I'd be happy to make it for free just for the feedback! My contact info is in my HN bio. The downside to a motorized display is the cost. Each motor is roughly $1.50 USD. When you include all the other stuff (electronics, 3D printed parts, etc.), it's at about $2/pin. A relatively small 10x20 display (minimum size for a Tetris board, for example) would cost $400 USD just in raw cost. At retail, that 10x20 board would…

would a solenoid solution work? seems like the coils could be wound into holders on the board directly?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#46

Post by hugs »

convolvatron wrote: post #45
hugs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be happy to make it for free just for the feedback! My contact info is in my HN bio. The downside to a motorized display is the cost. Each motor is roughly $1.50 USD. When you include all the other stuff (electronics, 3D printed parts, etc.), it's at about $2/pin. A relatively small 10x20 display (minimum size for a Tetris board, for example) would cost $400 USD just in raw cost. At retail, that 10x20 board would…

would a solenoid solution work? seems like the coils could be wound into holders on the board directly?

Solenoids could definitely work. They might also be cheaper if I wind them myself. I might do that for a future version. Downside is that's more work to wind custom solenoids, which of course I could automate, but then that's more work to build the automation. Easier to start with small off-the-shelf DC gearmotors for now. Off-the-shelf solenoids are a bit too bulky from what I've found. (Although I don't have perfect knowledge of everything that's out there.)

Linear actuators with DC gearmotors have more fine-grained positional control vs plain solenoids. But that could be fixed if I use a tubular linear actuator design that looks like a solenoid. [1]

But at this point it's more important to get something/anything to a V1 and start getting real world feedback.

[1]: https://youtu.be/3PLWTF_6odc

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#47

Post by conviencefee999 »

notwokeno wrote: post #13
conviencefee999 wrote: post #7

[flagged]

One of my coworkers is blind and he's one of the best in the company.

Ah yes the personal anecdotes and edge cases. Eh, I saw this coming.

The reality is that this is not an appropriate job for people with severe visual impairment that doesn't allow them to look at a screen, in very few exceptions is it the later, companies are not designed to handle this and realistically cannot.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#48

Post by nathell »

hugs wrote: post #36
nathell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, OP here. This is great! I’d love to get this into the hands of Adrian (that’s the kiddo’s name). Unfortunately, my hardware assembly skills are next to zero. Is there any chance to get a pre-assembled prototype? I’d happily pay for the BOM and blog about Adrian’s experience with this.

I'd be happy to make it for free just for the feedback! My contact info is in my HN bio. The downside to a motorized display is the cost. Each motor is roughly $1.50 USD. When you include all the other stuff (electronics, 3D printed parts, etc.), it's at about $2/pin. A relatively small 10x20 display (minimum size for a Tetris board, for example) would cost $400 USD just in raw cost. At retail, that 10x20 board would…

Thanks so much! I’ve sent you an email.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#49

Post by conviencefee999 »

samwillis wrote: post #19
conviencefee999 wrote: post #7

[flagged]

There a number of really good threads on HN where blind users contribute from their own experience. I strongly suggest you go and read them before deciding it's not a viable career: "Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22918980 "Ask HN: How to prepare as soon-to-be blind developer?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30339187 "Ask HN: Blind progra…

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Scratch for a blind child?

#50

Post by conviencefee999 »

samwillis wrote: post #19
conviencefee999 wrote: post #7

[flagged]

There a number of really good threads on HN where blind users contribute from their own experience. I strongly suggest you go and read them before deciding it's not a viable career: "Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22918980 "Ask HN: How to prepare as soon-to-be blind developer?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30339187 "Ask HN: Blind progra…

[flagged]
Post reply on HN