Special education teachers evaluating the accessibility of CS educational robotics
All students benefit when computer science (CS) materials are accessible, but it is critical for students with disabilities. In order to provide opportunities for all students to be successful, it is important for teachers to be able to evaluate the accessibility of their lessons and technology. One way to evaluate accessibility is the POUR framework. The POUR framework represents what can be Perceived through the senses, how users can Operate a material or technology, how it is Understandable to users, and the overall Robustness. POUR provides a promising way for K-12 CS teachers to evaluate accessibility for their learners. We describe how the POUR framework was used by a cohort of teachers to evaluate CS educational tools for their learners with disabilities. We specifically focus on VEX 123 robots, a prominent technology for teaching CS in the early grades. Findings from the teacher POUR analysis revealed that overall, the teachers noted that the VEX 123 provided the necessary range of entryways into coding through its three modalities: The touch coding on the robot itself, the coder cards, and VECcode (the block-based coding environment). At the same time, the teachers indicated that some students with disabilities faced a number of motor and sensory difficulties. Overall, this study showcased a way for teachers to provide insight into the level of accessibility of CS education tools specific to their students’ strengths and needs, which could be valuable to technology companies interested in making their tools more accessible to a broader range of learners.