Learners with dis/abilities are still often marginalized when it comes to learning with contemporary maker technologies, despite efforts to broaden participation. The purpose of this study is (1) to explore the experiences of diverse learners with visual impairments engaging with a tactile block-based maker / robotic coding kit; and (2) to discuss how to better engage such learners in the maker ethos through technologies and activities with different affordances. Interaction analysis was conducted on a three-day summer making workshop for high school students and pre-collegiate adults with visual dis/abilities to understand their experiences both with and without accessibility modifications. Findings as well as recommendations for increasing the accessibility of current maker tools and activities are provided to assist educators and designers in understanding more inclusive ways to embrace diverse learners in making.

This study is proposed to discover the collective knowledge sharing patterns and informal learning cultures of blind individuals pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines captured through computer-mediated mailing listservs. Using the world largest online mailing lists for the blind, this research will conduct longitudinal quantitative ethnography for the three STEM-oriented listserv archives between December 2008 and December 2018, to develop a comprehensive understanding of learning experiences voiced by blind individuals.

The issue this paper addresses is the lack of attention to inclusivity of people with visual impairments in the maker movement. To capture major challenges which blind makers are faced with in makerspaces and to learn how to pursue a more accessible making ecology, three online communities for blind makers (The Blind Arduino Blog; Raspberry VI; and Blind Electronics) have been qualitatively explored based on the autoethnographic approach. As a result, three imperative challenges that need attention in designing inclusive maker tools have been highlighted: (1) inaccessible/undocumented instructions for maker toolkits; (2) a less tangible design of making board; and (3) a lack of multi-sensory modules. Three corresponding practical recommendations drawing from the blind makers’ know-hows along with author's personal experience as a blind maker, are suggested. This paper contributes to improving the current awareness of accessibility aspects of the maker movement to invite another marginalized group into its discourse.

Although recent advancements in assistive technology has increasingly enabled people who are blind or visually impaired to challenge themselves to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects and careers, there is a lack of authoring tools available to independently produce scientific documents and materials which are inevitably necessary for a better communication in mainstream practices. While LaTeX, a plain-text-based document preparation system, has been considered an accessible full-fledged authoring and reference management tool, its steep learning curve and limited output type to PDF have made some blind people, who lack programming background and/or who would like to produce different accessible output formats, discouraged. This paper calls attention to the need of introducing an easy-to-write and accessible scientific document authoring tool by defining the scope of a scientific document, highlighting some issues of the conventional methods that the blind community has employed for document production, and suggesting an R Markdown system as a compelling solution. This research has developed and detailed the Accessible RMarkdown Online Writer (AROW) as a hands-on demonstration that proves its capability for highly accessible scientific document production that can be done by a blind individual in multiple formats including Word, RTF, PDF, MathML/MathJax enabled HTML, and presentations.

This poster focuses on accessibility concerns that learners with visual impairments (LVIs) face in making environments, particularly with contemporary toolkits. This exploratory study was conducted over a three-day summer making workshop with visually impaired high school students to explore some major challenges and potentials of tangible making and robotics platforms, utilizing KIBO as a model. We explored how a tangible coding platform (KIBO) and accessible design modifications affected individual and collaborative group interaction and cognition.

This autoethnographic study aims to shed light on the collaborative experience of a learner with a visual impairment in a blended CSCL environment. Through the analysis of personal reflections, this qualitative study captures some emergent themes and challenges in both the face-to-face and virtual environments with the intent to improve diversity, accessibility, and equity in CSCL.