Who has the power to create with technology? While coding is increasingly part of educational curricula across Canada, many students with disabilities are being left out. These students often depend on assistive technologies designed by others to participate in class, communicate with family, and share with their friends. They have the most at stake in learning to become producers of their own personal technologies, rather than simply consumers.
The Coding to Learn and Create project, collaboratively led by the research team at the Inclusive Design Research Centre
with Bridges Canada, is co-designing new accessible coding tools and activities alongside learners with disabilities, their teachers, and families. We are researching new forms of visual, audio, and physical programming that can offer greater creative agency to all. Our goal is to help learners create their own digital worlds, express themselves using code and storytelling, and grow their social, learning, and creative capacities. This project is part of a larger research effort to address systemic inequities in computation more broadly. Visit our website at codelearncreate.org to learn more and to participate
