Hello World! Due to blindness, I was forced to retire from Computer Science & Electronics Engineering after 35 wonderful years! Though I currently live a Simple Life in the Philippines, I miss developing software!
For most blind persons, especially those in 1st world countries, such as the USA & UK, learning Swift is as easy as commuting to the nearby educational institution. For other blind persons, having a sighted programmer human is a good thing. -- But, what about the low-income blind person without any nearby, real-world, in-person assistance?
After researching iTunesU & Apple Books for learning the Swift programming language, I realized, Apple has NOT published a way for a blind person to self-learn Swift! Also, the VoiceOver screen reader does NOT have the intelligence to know the difference between a normal text box & a text box for a compiler! I'm unaware of any VoiceOver gestures that can tell VoiceOver that you are coding versus traditional screen reading.
At Apple's WWDC 2019, I heard of accessibility updates for iOS 13, but no inclusion for older adults that are blind and wish to learn Swift! Sure enough, Apple touts buying a Mac Pro and code with Xcode, but at the same time, leaving out the blind iPhone users. Also, from my access to the Apple App Store from the Philippines, Apple has NOT produced any developer tools for coding in Swift! Note, I'm in the Philippines, not in the USA!
Back in 2006, long before I became blind, I remember downloading Xcode from Apple onto my iBook G4, when I was in USA. And then, when I moved to Philippines, I downloaded Xcode 2.5 from Apple without any problems. -- That's my expectations of Apple, now that I'm blind!
There are many tutorials for learning Swift, most of which are either for sighted persons or younger, visually-impaired persons, but NOT for older adults that are totally blind. I remember when I was in my 20s & 30s and it was EASIER to learn stuff. But now, I'm almost 50 and blind; I can NOT compete with the younger generations!
No, I can NOT learn from videos; not because I'm blind, but because I am Generation X! Also, because I'm Generation X, I have difficulties learning from an eBook or electronic book. Reminder, I'm 49, not 21!
Thanks for reading my latest post in AppleVis forums! Have a Great Day!
Marcos
Comments
Swift Playgrounds?
Hi Marcos,
Apologies if you have already investigated Swift Playgrounds ... but Apple claim someone using Voiceover can learn to code with the Swift Playgrounds app.
https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/
Swift playgrounds is only available on the iPad.
Unfortunately Swift playgrounds is only available on the iPad, not iPhone.