Exploring the Use of Auditory Cues to Sonify Block-Based Programs

Visual programming languages are commonly used to help novice programmers learn introductory computer science, but accessibility is lacking. Most people who are blind use screen readers to convey the information displayed on the computer screen, but the keyboard support and the graphical blocks used in programs make block-based programming inaccessible. Source code is traditionally text-based, and thus can be conveyed by a screen reader when the user is programming in text editors or several accessible programming environments (e.g. Visual Studio, Eclipse). As part of our ongoing work to make block-based programming accessible to users with visual impairments, we explore the role that audio can have as cues to help users understand the structure of their code. In doing so we compare different types of audio cues and ascertain those which are useful and preferred by users. The participants conduct a set of tasks using a mock-up based on Google Pencil Code. Our initial feedback with three participants indicated that while speech could convey a programs contents, the use of earcons was preferred.