Each pod represents a line of code and has its own ports so you can continuously connect additional pods like a massive centipede, until you run out. Pods are smaller white plastic devices you attach to the hub via the ports. It also has a built-in speaker, volume control and four ports that look like traditional headphone jacks. It has a large circular blue play button and a slightly smaller circular blue stop button. The hub is a hand-sized white plastic device that runs on four AA batteries. An app, Code Jumper app, is required for the system to work.Įach Code Jumper kit has two main components - a hub and several pods. They have control over speed, pitch, and volume too.

Students can play single musical notes or complete songs, tell stories, use pre-set sounds and make their own sounds. It makes coding tactile and fun - and it's highly customizable. It is different from computer-based programming languages such as Python and C++, since Code Jumper is an educational tool comprised of modular, physical pieces students can string together to create code. This is indeed true, which is why Microsoft developed a coding language that is specifically for the blind and visually impaired, and it is called Code Jumper. If you lack a visual channel, then all the animations and all the drag-and-drop that's happening on the screen isn't accessible,' APH president, Craig Meador explains.

'The problem is, students who are blind or visually impaired, have been left out of the equation. This means ensuring that they are properly equipped with enough knowledge and skills for their career development. That means fewer than 10,000 of those 63,000-plus children who are blind or visually impaired will earn advanced degrees if this trend continues. The APH, a nonprofit organization in Louisville that makes braille textbooks and develops assistive technologies, wants to help change that statistic.

There are 63,357 children who are blind or visually impaired in the United States, according to a 2017 American Printing House for the Blind (APH) annual report. Cornell University Disability Statistics estimate that only 15.7 percent of people who are blind or visually impaired complete a bachelor's degree or higher, based on the 2016 American Community Survey data.

Computer programs for blind people