Teacher creates device to help blind student in class

Alex Williams,, a 21-year-old student of Colin's who was having trouble in classes because she was blind and her screen-reader was not compatible with images. This made the teacher try to find other ways to explain her some theories about logic gates.

“I was riding home on my bike thinking about how to interface a blind student with a computer, and the idea of making real electrical connections using fingers and copper strips to provide inputs popped into my head. The use of sound as an output was fairly obvious”, Colin explained.

Colin came up with a small computer which allowed Alex to use her fingers to make electrical connections between copper strips laid out on a board to represent the inputs to the logic gate. The output of the gate was audible, as a clear beep.

The student adapted easily to the device. “Alex learned the layout of the computer quickly; using the strips and the telephone-like keypad through which she selected the exercises I had programmed for her. I gave Alex the same worksheet as all the other students in the class, but I removed the diagrams and provided directions on how to use the computer. But the content of the worksheet was identical as were the challenges and investigations”, the teacher said.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2rKqdGS