DODO

Understanding computers and studying the basics of coding help children grow an appreciation of how things work. However, it becomes a challenge for visually impaired people because frequently, tools for programming are not suitable for them. 

Students have struggled, alongside their teachers, to reach an acceptable programming skill level. Visually impaired children have a hard time remembering the programming context, professors are more concentrated on teaching a programming language and comprehending written code, and there is also the psychological side where visually impaired students are not motivated to learn because difficulties in programming learning have remained present and are considered as a hard task. 

In a world with 2.2 billion people estimated to live with visual impairment of some description globally, where 1.4 million are blind children and 89% of visually impaired people live in low-income countries, it is extremely important and urgent to develop an affordable proposal based on the student's needs that not only allows students to clearly understand coding concepts but that also provides a dynamic alternative to increase their motivation.

DODO is a set constructed by different 3D paper modules (blocks) whose goal is to provide an affordable tactile-interactive way for visually impaired persons to learn computer coding. Each module has its unique paper texture and color. The dynamics include the scenarios of a child listening to different missions and expressing the solution through the paper modules. The child will receive instant feedback through the DODO program with real-time object detection through the camera to move to the next level. 

DODO is a set constructed by different 3D paper modules (blocks) whose goal is to provide an affordable tactile-interactive way for visually impaired persons to learn computer coding. Each module has its unique paper texture and color. The dynamics include the scenarios of a child listening to different missions and expressing the solution through the paper modules. The child will receive instant feedback through the DODO platform with real-time object detection through the camera to move to the next level. 

The proposal incorporates digital technologies through real-time detection used to detect the paper modules that the child shows to solve the audio-mission of the game.

DODO is a dynamic and affordable proposal that allows visually impaired students to learn coding according to what they want and need, learning through tactile gaming, increasing their interest, and facilitating the understanding of coding thinking. 

This project benefits society by being a proposal that seeks inclusion. When interviewing students with visual impairments, we realized how important it is to have a perspective of everything they can achieve from an early age, since this influences the security they feel regarding the capacities they can develop when choosing a degree for example. Through DODO, children will have a basic understanding of programming from an early age, so they can choose and be confident to pursue a career in science. 

Likewise, this will benefit the local economy by having more people prepared to enter the labor market in areas with a great impact. More and more people are needed to fill technology-related positions. 

Our team involves team members who have always had the sensitivity and empathy to develop projects that bring benefits to society. An example of this, is the case of Professor Rafiq Ahmad, who during the start of the pandemic developed a respirator project to keep front-line workers safe from COVID-19. Additionally, the four members decided to work together to make more people feel included in our area of science and engineering. We empathize about how difficult it is for visually impaired people to feel included and visualize a life in science, specifically in the area of programming where everything is highly visual. 

We gave ourselves the task of conducting interviews with visually impaired students to understand how their experience has been, what they need, what motivates them, what stops them, and it was during this process that we became even more aware of how important it is that they can have an approach to science since they are children, as we noticed a pattern where undergraduate students told us that they chose a career in the area of social sciences because they never thought it was possible for them to have a career in science or engineering until they heard of someone else that could do it. We want to give visually impaired children a perspective in science, we want them to feel safe with a start in programming that opens up the panorama for them to be able to pursue the career they want without feeling a limitation when they are adults.

Our goal in applying to Solve is to grow our network and receive guidance on how to take this project to the market stage. Additionally, we also want the DODO project to have more exposure so that it can change the lives of more people and that is the same, to finding more people who are interested in contributing something to the project.

Our solution involves a different way of facilitating programming learning in visually impaired children because it involves audio games and physical blocks to learn the basics of programming while having fun. It is expected that by starting with this proposal, more companies will start offering more fun and dynamic games to teach more topics in an inclusive way.  

When conducting the benchmark to understand what kind of toys/games currently exist on the market for children to learn to program, we found a large number of options for sighted people, but when we narrowed it down to toys for children with visual impairment, only Code Jumper by Microsoft was found as competition, which involves modules that emit sounds to make connections to produce sentences or songs but does not allow a deeper scope to teach more concepts and delve into missions to challenge children intellectually. Similarly, acquiring Code Jumper costs around $1000 USD, making it difficult for many families to acquire. 

DODO becomes a unique solution as it is a comprehensive proposal in a blue ocean where there are not yet so many options to teach programming to visually impaired children in a fun and interactive way with a low-cost solution.

In the coming months, more audio missions will continue to be incorporated into the game to have a validation test for children with visual impairment in July. The interaction with DODO will be analyzed from this validation, and the different improvements required will also be identified. Once we have this information on improvements, we will proceed to work for 6 months on the design of the paper blocks and on the DODO program to incorporate them. 

Once having the product with the improvements, a validation will be done once again in month#12, the last necessary modifications will be adjusted, and the final version will be programmed, which is estimated to take between 12 to 18 months to have the final version of DODO.

To measure the impact, three stages were defined: research, design, validation and commercialization. We are currently in the design/prototype stage, where the DODO platform is still being developed. The progress metrics for this phase are:

-Paper block design
-Prototyping the paper blocks
-Design the missions of the DODO platform
-Program platform missions

As the objectives are met, it is the way we know that we are moving towards the final goal which is that many visually impaired children have access to this learning tool.

DODO will have a direct impact on the inclusion of visually impaired people in the world of science through the different games and dynamics that will give children not only the programming knowledge but also the confidence so that they do not feel a limitation when they feel attracted to pursue a career in science, which will only be the beginning to give rise to a more inclusive community by having visually impaired people ready to fill technology-related jobs. 

The DODO project was presented with people from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) who positively validated the project. Similarly, the project was presented at the IV International Conference of Inclusive Technology and Education 2021, where positive comments were received regarding the innovativeness of the proposal since there is no similar tool being used. In addition to this, the project has been presented in meetings with professors where comments have been received, validating that different activities can be created to teach different programming concepts and even other engineering-related topics through the modules.

Finally, there was feedback from some teachers of children with visual impairment, who validated that incorporating this type of tactile blocks and games is a key combination to make children feel interested and attracted to learning.

DODO is a dynamic and affordable proposal that allows visually impaired students to learn coding according to what they want and need, learning through tactile gaming, increasing their interest, and facilitating the understanding of coding thinking. It incorporates digital technologies through real-time detection used to detect the paper modules that the student shows to solve the audio-mission of the game.

In the work team, each member has a different nationality, in the same way the team leader is a woman and thanks to the diversity of backgrounds of each member of the team we managed to have a project with different interesting points of view, where each has an understanding of minorities in their context.