Tangible music programming blocks for visually impaired children

Abstract

Programming can benefit children on learning science, math, and creative thinking, and has become a part of the primary school curriculum. However, programming tools for visually impaired children are still scarce. We developed an affordable and accessible tangible music platform for visually impaired children that aims to teach the basics of programming through music creation. By ordering the tangible blocks in an algorithmic structure, the children can create a melody. The physical and conceptual design of the system was developed with the help of visually impaired developers. We conducted a user study with fourteen visually impaired middle school children to observe their interactions with the prototype. In this paper, we present our design, provide several TUI design considerations for students with low to zero sight, and discuss the results of our user study and future directions.