Vision-Aid’s Spring semester of programming classes is currently underway. There are 15 students enrolled from all over India, and an equal number of volunteer mentors experienced in teaching programming from both the US and India, in the 10-week long training.
This is the fourth such batch. The classes are progressing wonderfully.
What’s new this time, are the two 13 years old! The bright shinning stars are Aarush and Bhuvi.
Aarush just started 9th grade this month in New Delhi.
Bhuvi will start 8th grade in June in Mumbai.
This semester, Vision-Aid is piloting a new introductory level programming course for visually impaired school age students. Thanks to Sulochana Devadas for designing this path breaking course, and to Sonal Patel for running the pilot .
Once the pilot is complete, Vision-Aid will initially roll this programming course into two blind schools and later to many more.
Bhuvi and Aarush are enthusiastic, energetic learners and path-breakers! Their teacher Sonal reports that she is constantly learning new things from them in each class. Their feedback is helping Vision-Aid refine and shape this program.
In case you are wondering how a blind, 13-year old learns programming, please watch this video from their first class. It is an “eye-opening” experience. The students enter this class without knowing anything about programming and leave the class having written and run their own, very first simple (Hello World”) program. This is a live/real class and not tailor made ,edited video so please bear with any minor video issues.
