TACTOPI: a Playful Approach to Promote Computational Thinking for Visually Impaired Children

Abstract

The usage of playful activities is common in introductory programming settings. There is normally a virtual character or a physical robot that has to collect items or reach a goal within a map. Visually, these activities tend to be exciting enough to maintain children engaged: there is constant feedback about the actions being performed, and the virtual environments tend to be stimulating and aesthetically pleasant. Conversely, in adaptations for visually impaired children, these environments tend to become poorer, damaging the story at the cost of the programming actions and its dull mechanics (e.g., place a arrow block to move the character forward). In this paper, we present TACTOPI, a playful environment designed from the ground up to be rich in both its story (a nautical game) and its mechanics (e.g., a physical robot-boat controlled with a 3D printed wheel), tailored to promote computational thinking at different levels (4 to 8 years old). This poster intends to provoke discussion and motivate accessibility researchers that are interested in computational thinking to make playfulness a priority.