Quorum Day: Help blind and visually impaired students participate in robotics.

Quorum Today seeks to expand the use of the QUORUM programming language to allow blind and visually impaired students to participate in competitive robotics by encouraging manufacturers to allow QUORUM to be used as an accessible coding language.

There are so many resources available to the modern teacher to assist students with disabilities. Modern innovations remove almost all limitations from those with various disabilities. But teachers cannot assist their students if they do not understand the issues.  Please review the key points below and watch Gina Fugates video to get an  understanding of the key issues.

Watch Gina's video to get a good understanding of the issues and principles teachers can use to include students with disabilities.

Gina Fugate

Gina, Lego Engineering & Technology Teacher for Maryland School for the Blind, summarizes her years of experience and education into a must watch overview of the issue. Read More About Gina Here.

  1. Quorum is an evidence-based language and it's accessible. The language becomes easier to use over time as more people use it, give feedback, and as the broader scientific community gathers more reliable evidence. Evidence means the use of appropriately constructed randomized controlled trials and field studies.

  2. Are your curricula and tools accessible? If not, make changes and “celebrate” them.

  3. Quorum is one example of a programming language and an IDE that is committed to accessibility.

  4. Purposefully incorporating accessible tools saves you time upfront and saves you more time by having to scramble in a panic when you receive a student who must have accessible tools.

  5. Accessible curricula and tools teach all of your students about inclusion. Ramps, elevators, and curb cuts are mandated by the ADA. A lot of people use them on a daily basis that don’t need them, yet they benefit from them. You are teaching tomorrow’s teachers, engineers, doctors, and inventors.

  6. Two Lego teams from The Maryland School for the Blind had success for multiple years with Quorum Lego Robotics.  What would happen if Quorum Lego Robotics via First Lego League wasn’t one of a couple experiences available? The community has many brilliant children that just happen to not see well. They just want to be meaningfully included.

  7. Accessibility is a specialization that is in high-demand. Learn how to make documents, software, videos, and products accessible.  This can empower your career path.

  8. Can you program using Quorum? Have you ever used a screen reader to access an IDE that is accessible as well as one that is not?

  9. QDay is a day to celebrate Quorum, accessibility, and inclusion. Join us on May 4th, 2023.

Andreas Stefik

As a Professor of Computer Science at University of Nevada, Las Vegas Stefik has focused his efforts on designing programming languages with human factors decisions in mind and is the lead developer of the Quorum Programming Language. Read More About Stefik Here.

John de Lancie

John who is well known for playing the character "Q" on Star Trek brings "Q" to the fight for accessible tools for STEM and other educational requirements of blind and limited vision students. More about John Here (wikipedia) or Here At His Official Website.

Gina Fugate

Gina, Lego Engineering & Technology Teacher for Maryland School for the Blind, summarizes her years of experience and education into a must watch overview of the issue. Read More About Gina Here.

Marco Ciavolino

Marco is the creator of https://RobotMats.com and https://EmpowerMats.com. He has worked closely with Gina Fugate over the past few years. to create more awareness of the need to consider accessibility in the design of curriculum and equipment. You can learn more about Marco's daily work here:  https://enktesis.com 

Project Lead:
XCORP2014 / Enktesis LLC

http://enktesis.com
410-838-8264
*enktesis, LLC assists clients in a range of web technology solutions, marketing communications, business development, and communications research efforts

In cooperation with:
Robot Mats
https://robotmats.com
Build the skills of your current team with our universal training mats. They provide every scenario required to teach all the fundamentals programming and similar robotics systems.
Empower Mats

https://empowermats.com 
Tools to empower visually impaired students to participate in competitive robotics programs.

In cooperation with:
Geyer Instructional

https://www.geyerinstructional.com
Geyer is the exclusive marketer, manufacturers, and distribution partner for Robot Mats and Empower Mats. Build the skills of your current team with the universal training mats. They provide every scenario required to teach all the fundamentals programming and similar robotics systems.

In cooperation with:
Quorum
https://quorumlanguage.com
Quorum is a full-featured, robost programning environment that enables blind and visuall impaired students to program robots and other technologies.

In cooperation with:
Maryland School for the Blind
https://www.marylandschoolfortheblind.org
The Maryland School for the Blind provides outreach, educational, and residential programs to children from birth to 21 years old who are blind or low vision including those with multiple disabilities.

This project is being funded through a generous grant from the Vision Advancement Foundation (VAF) of Oklahoma. The VAF exists to provide excellence in eyecare, especially among those with distinctive needs.

This website is developed and maintained by Enktesis at https://enktesis.com

Copyright Quorum Today and Enktesis LLC. Resources may be freely shared with attribution.