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Merscythe: An accessible E-Textbook that Teaches Python Coding!
Merscythe: Adventures with the Codue, and accessible e-texbook, teaches Python programming to students with visual impairments and blindness.
Learn how to code through the storybook game, Merscythe: Adventures with the Codue! This is an educational e-textbook that teaches students the Python programming language. It is an interactive story-based game with tutorials, practice exercises and story chapters. The main character, Merscythe, is a thirteen-year old who is armed only with his Codue, an old, dusty-looking calculator. Merscythe finds himself accidentally in the midst of a battle in an underground world. He quickly realizes that the Codue is a powerful programming tool that he will need to learn to program.
For more information and a video about the e-textbook, go to KickStarter’s Merscythe: Adventures with the Codue.
Radhika, with SPEL Technologies, Inc. shares the following information about this coding game:
“We were motivated to create our accessible website and computer programming e-textbook after discovering that there were no educational resources to teach computer programming to students who have visual impairments and blindness. Our website has an accessibility panel through which users can specify and save their preferences for font colors, sizes, contrast, etc. They can also enable the text-to-speech reader option that is built into our site, so the entire site can be navigated without a screen reader. Our innovative talking editor, Loquacious, makes programming easier for those who have visual impairments and offers features that a screen reader used with a regular editor cannot provide. This is the first and only online speaking Python editor available currently. Our programming language of choice is Python – not only is this a great language for beginners but it is also widely used in the tech industry.
We have special educational rates for schools – only $10 per student per semester. Additional discounts are available for bulk purchases. We are also offering training to teachers. The cost of this training is $150, but this fee is waived with the purchase of a subscription worth at least $150.”
By Diane Brauner
