CodeTalk: Improving Programming Environment Accessibility for Visually Impaired Developers

CodeTalk: Improving Programming Environment Accessibility for Visually Impaired Developers
Venkatesh Potluri, Priyan Vaithilingam, Suresh Iyengar, Y. Vidya, Manohar Swaminathan, Gopal Srinivasa

CHI '18: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Session: Designing For Disability

Abstract
In recent times, programming environments like Visual Studio are widely used to enhance programmer productivity. However, inadequate accessibility prevents Visually Impaired (VI) developers from taking full advantage of these environments. In this paper, we focus on the accessibility challenges faced by the VI developers in using Graphical User Interface (GUI) based programming environments. Based on a survey of VI developers and based on two of the authors’ personal experiences, we categorize the accessibility difficulties into Discoverability, Glanceability, Navigability, and Alertability. We propose solutions to some of these challenges and implement these in CodeTalk, a plugin for Visual Studio. We show how CodeTalk improves developer experience and share promising early feedback from VI developers who used our plugin.

Recorded at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Montréal, Canada April 21-26, 2018

[KlausSzyska]

Made just for blind python programmers: there is a python utility named 'addend' available via 'pip install addend' under windows & macOS. This utility adds comments, like '# :end: class abcd' or '# :end: def xyz' or '# :end: if', ... etc, wherever a python syntax block ends. These '# :end:' comments provide solid navigation experiences when stepping through unfamiliar python code using a screen reader plus having to concentrate on space indentations.

[danielparedes]

is there a way to use crome dev tools or any borwser inspector as confortable as an idE?