Abstract
AbstractExisting programming environments pose a challenge for students with upper-body motor impairments. This is because these environments require a level of dexterity that these students do not possess. For example, text-based programming environments require a lot of typing using a keyboard, while block-based programming environments require the use of a pointing device to drag and drop blocks of code. In our research, we aim to make the block-based programming environment Blockly, accessible to students with upper-body motor impairment, by adding speech as an alternative form of input. This voice-enabled version of Blockly will reduce the need for the use of a mouse or keyboard, hence making it more accessible. Our system consists of the original Blockly application, a speech recognition API, predefined voice commands, and a custom function. A preliminary study has been conducted. The results are encouraging, but they also revealed the need to broaden the target population, which was originally people with cerebral palsy, to people with any type of upper-body motor disability. Additionally, the study showed the need to redesign some voice commands. A prototype of the system has been implemented. As a next step, two additional studies will be conducted using this prototype, a usability study, and an A/B test.KeywordsAccessibilityBlock-based programmingCS educationSpeech recognition
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