CSforAll: EAGER: Making Bootstrap Accessible to Visually-Impaired Users

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

Brown University proposes a project to create a flexible, language agnostic software library that makes text and block programming tools accessible to visually-impaired users. Screen-readers, the most common affordable tool for presenting text to those who can't read it directly, have difficulties presenting source code which is symbol-heavy and navigated best not as a list of words, but as an abstract syntax tree (AST). This project will produce a collection of JavaScript libraries that annotate source code with structural descriptions suitable for presentation by screen readers. JavaScript was chosen because web-based environments address common technical and logistical challenges in schools. They place fewer demands on IT staff for installation and maintenance, and enable students to work outside of school without manually transferring files. Web-based software is also easier to upgrade and evolve on the developer's end. Being the lingua-franca for cloud-based UIs, the browser's Document Object Model (DOM) is currently receiving significant attention when it comes to accessibility and thus, by using the DOM to display our IDE, we can leverage these investments now and in the future. The libraries created in this project will be used to make two web-based environments--WeScheme and code.pyret.org--accessible, and those environments will be used in conducting usability testing with visually-impaired users.