New features for making Scratch more accessible

CreatiCode

Introduction

Although MIT Scratch is an extremely popular programming language for K-12 students, it has several accessibility issues that limit its usability for students with disabilities. For example, it relies heavily on the visual programming editor, which makes it difficult for those who use screen readers or have low vision to interact with the coding environment effectively.

On the CreatiCode platform, we have enhanced Scratch with many new features to enhance its accessiblity, and this article will give an overview.

Explain Blocks Aloud

On top of the code editor, there is a speaker button. When it is clicked, an AI voice will talk through the program block by block in the language selected by the user. If the button is clicked again, the voice will stop.

This tool will benefit several groups of users, such as:

Visually-impaired users
Users with reading difficulties
Neurodivergent learners
Beginner users

Explain only one script (stack of blocks)

When there are a few scripts (stacks of blocks) in a sprite, we may want to use AI to talk about only one script. This can be done by right-clicking on any block in that stack, and select the “Use AI to talk about this script” option.

Voice-Input for Blocks

You can also find a microphone button on top of the code editor. When you click on it, the Microphone of the device will be activated, and your speech will be recognized as text. You can use the language you selected in the playground when you speak. Everytime a complete sentence has been recognized, it will be processed by an AI agent, which will modify the blocks in the code editor accordingly. You can not only add new blocks, but also update or remove blocks. Here are some example commands you can try:

move 30 steps: will add the ‘move (30) steps’ block
actually, change it to 50 steps: will edit the block to change 30 to 50
now, let’s turn left 45 degrees: will add a new ‘turn left’ block.
start over: will remove all the blocks except for the green flag clicked block

Note that after you complete a sentence, the AI assistant will switch from ‘listening’ to ‘coding’, and after the program is updated, it will switch back to the ‘listening’ mode. You can only start a new command in the ‘listening’ mode.

This tool also has several benefits:

Users no longer need to search for and drag blocks into the editor. This is especially useful for users with limited fine motor skills or mobility challenges
Users on mobile devices or phones where the screen is small and it is hard to drag blocks
Visually-impaired Users
Neurodivergent learners
Young users who struggle with reading or typing

Simplified Motion Blocks

In the motion category, a set of simple blocks are added that can make the sprite move or turn without. To use them, students do not need to know about coordinates, count of steps or degree of angles. This makes the platform more accessible to young learners or learners with difficulty in working with numbers.

The blocks are:

Up/Down/Left/Right Arrows: these blocks will make the sprite glide 40 steps to the given direction with a short animation.
Point Up/Down/Left/Right: these blocks will turn the sprite to the given direction with a short animation.
go to center: this block makes the sprite move to the center of the stage instantly.
forward/backward: these blocks make the sprite move along its current direction forward by 40 steps with a short animation.
turn left/right arrows: these blocks make the sprite turn left or right 90 degrees, relative to its current direction, with a short animation.

Update Background Color

You can change the background color of the code editor using the dropdown menu on top of the playground:

This feature will benefit any user that find the original white background too bright, or its contrast with blocks too low.

Update Custom Block’s Color

You can also change the color of the new custom blocks you define:

Again, this allows users to increase the contrast of block colors.