WHY IS ROBOLAB FOR THE BLIND NEEDED?

Across the country, engineering is beginning to be introduced to children in classrooms as early as elementary school.  The Lego Mindstorms kit is used in conjunction with Robololab to teach children the mechanics of building robots and what is needed to control them.  Response to this tool has been overwhelming.  It is not uncommon to hear of Lego robotics competitions happening across the country with the average age of participants as young as 10.

copyright 2005 LEGO GROUP

Mindstorms kits are used with much success at the NASA run Space Camp over the summer.  In addition to the standard camp programs, NASA hosts a camp specifically focused for blind and visually impared children – Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCIVIS).  It is no problem for the children to build the robots out of Legos, but programming presents a problem.  With text based programming languages, readers can be used to help the blind review what has already been written.

copyright 2005 NASA

Readers are separate pieces of software that dicate what is displayed on the screen and have been very successful with most standard text programs.  However, these readers are not compatible with Robolab.

The current solution at SCIVIS is pairing visually impared campers with blind campers. The size of the Robolab icons is drastically enlarged on the monitor so the visually impared campers can discern them while the bind campers build the actual robots.  While this setup allows for participation from all users, it is certainly flawed.

The major problem in this situation highlights what many blind people find when working, learning, or playing with sighted people.  Technology developed for general use has not been adaquetly adapted for blind use.  Visually based software, such as Microsoft Windows, is often modified for blind users.  However, the structure of the modified software is no longer the same as the original design.  When co-workers or students are trying to communicate ideas to each other, but their basic tools are not the same, barriers are built where they could be avoided. 

It is clear that work must be done to bridge the technology gap between the sighted and the blind.  The experiences of the blind are currently limited in ways that can be changed.  Opportunities can be expanded, providing the chance for the blind to explore careers in engineering and science that were not previously available, or simply giving children a toy in the classroom that everyone can play with.