Our accessibility resources are growing! The BirdBrain Team knows that accessibility guidance can be incredibly important to student success with new learning tools.
We are dedicated to growing our resources, and are looking for partners with expertise to help us get there. Please reach out to us at support@birdbraintechnologies.com with questions and opportunities for collaboration.
For students with mild visual impairment, block-based languages can be adjusted by making the blocks larger.
In BirdBlox and Snap!, there is a zoom option under the Settings menu.
In MakeCode, the zoom button is in the lower-right corner of the screen.
For students with more severe visual impairments, block-based languages are not a good choice because they are not compatible with screen readers. We support two text-based options that are compatible with screen readers, Quorum and JavaScript.
Quorum is a language and programming environment focused on providing an intuitive and accessible programming experience for individuals with disabilities. Thanks to help from the Quorum team, we have developed libraries to use the Finch Robot 2.0, the Hummingbird Bit, and standalone micro:bits in Quorum. Our support for Quorum is currently in beta, and we do not have an accompanying curriculum, but the activities for Finch in block-based languages or Python are all possible within Quorum. Learn more about using Quorum with the Finch Robot 2.0 and the Hummingbird Bit.
Javascript With Screen ReadersMakeCode is accessible to screen readers if you use JavaScript instead of the MakeCode blocks. Select JavaScript instead of Blocks at the top of the screen.
The MakeCode JavaScript editor contains several useful features. When you begin to type in the editor, it will use autocomplete to suggest functions.
The Tab key can be used both to navigate between the focusable elements on the MakeCode screen and to add tabs to code in the JavaScript editor. To toggle between the two, use Ctrl+M on Windows and Ctrl+Shift+M on Mac. The first option after leaving the editor will be the option to download your code to the micro:bit.
For more information on accessibility in the MakeCode JavaScript editor, please see the MakeCode accessibility page.
BirdBrain Technologies uses video media to deliver many of its learning resources. The majority of the video resources include captioning or were originally designed without sound. The videos with captions (same-language subtitles) are currently only available in English and have been reviewed for accuracy by a BirdBrain team member.
Teacher Resources: Captioning is available for all videos on the Start Teaching pages as well as all Professional Development courses for block-based programming.
Teacher & Student Resources: The programming tutorials were designed specifically without sound and are accompanied by text descriptions to the right of the video.
