The alphabet in colour

1. The alphabet in colour A window on the world

2. Project team • Kassandra Soares – Student • Rachel Leclair – School Principal • Louise Bonneau – Teacher • Denis Joncas – Teacher • Éric Roussel – Teacher • Daniel Tourigny – School board IT • Jocelyn Hamelin – Microsoft Canada • Donald Belcham – Edmonton .Net user group • She wants to read novels and go on the Internet like the other children in her class. • The technology developed does not allow such high volume and such great versatility. • The CSMV calls on Microsoft...

3. Centre suprarégional en déficience visuelle Commission scolaire Marie-Victorin Longueuil

4. Kassandra Kassandra arrives at our school in 2001-2002. She is placed in a group of 7 pupils with multiple handicaps. Like her classmates, she wants to learn to read and write. An optical atrophy limits her vision to perception of patches of colour. A severe motor and sensory insufficiency prevents her from learning Braille.

5. Possibilities considered • Use of voice synthesis as a learning method. • Use of communication boards with coloured pictures. • Use of a colour communication mode.

6. 1- Identification of 10 easily perceived colours 2- Insertion of 10 colours in rectangles. Creation of the first 10 letters. 3-Insertion of a white strip under the 10 coloured rectangles. Creation of 10 new letters. 4- Insertion of a black strip under the 10 coloured rectangles. Creation of 10 new letters. Creation of the colour alphabet • The colour alphabet is created. All you have to do is experiment with it.

7. Comparison Braille vs color

8. Unforeseen disadvantages The alphabet takes a long time to colour. The letters are difficult for Kassandra to pick up. Kassandra can’t colour or cut out her letters without assistance. The pupils can’t read Kassandra’s messages. Kassandra learns quickly and needs a lot of letters. Choosing a colour communication mode. • Anticipated advantages • The alphabet will be easy to create. • It will be used easily. • It will favour Kassandra’s participation. • It will be inexpensive. • It will evolve as she learns.

9. 1 3 Experimentation phases 2 4

10. Letters, paper, scissors, glue... Everything it takes to learn to read and write.

11. Kassandra learns to read The letters are computer generated, printed and cut out. They are then glued to form words, sentences, exercises and books. The work is long and difficult but Kassandra perseveres and learns.

12. Éric the computer teacher replaces the letters on our standard keyboards with Kassandra’s letters, using the automatic correction option. Progress for teachers…

13. Adaptation of school material… a daily chore. We can print texts with the colour alphabet and thus create learning material faster. However, Kassandra doesn’t have enough visual acuity and fine motor skills to use a regular computer keyboard.We are still adapting all her school material.

14. The arrival of computer technology lets us introduce punctuation, accents and numbers…

15. While offering Kassandra a wider variety of learning material.

16. Discovery of the flat keyboard The flat keyboard (Intellikeys) can be programmed with Overlay Maker. Just remove the existing interface and replace it with the one produced with Kassandra’s coloured letters. 2 1 4 3

17. The flat keyboard lets Kassandra write on the computer like her friends.She can thus continue to learn more independently.

18. Problem at this point… • Kassandra’s demands are growing. • She wants to read novels and go on the Internet like the other children in her class. • The technology developed does not allow such high volume and such great versatility. • The CSMV calls on Microsoft...

19. Possibilities • Use existing software • Create a font • Develop a translation application

20. Bio Donald Belcham • Independent Consultant • President of Edmonton .Net User Group • MS MVP C# • www.igloocoder.com • donald.belcham@igloocoder.com Dave Woods • Independent Consultant • MS MVP Security • www.haveyougotwoods.com • dave@solidhouse.com

21. Making contact • John Bristowe – MS Developer Evangelist • Email contact with Jocelyn Hamelin • Direct contact with Daniel Tourigny

22. The Process • Agile methodology - www.agilemanifesto.org • Software requirements are driven by the users • Soliciting constant feedback • Providing users with many opportunities to see progress • End product should not be a surprise • All communication is via email • Feature requests and defects via website

23. Technology, Techniques & Tools • Microsoft .NET 2.0 • C# • Office 2003 • Test Driven Design (TDD) • Iterative Development • Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 • NUnit • RhinoMocks

24. The Code

25. Availability • Open/Shared Source • Download at www.codeplex.com/kassandra

26. Demo

27. Long term • Driven by the users and community • We have some ideas though • More input formats • More output formats • User defined image sets

28. Results obtained: Thanks to her determination and perseverance, Kassandra has learned how to read, write and count, despite her handicaps.

29. « Élever un enfant c’est lui apprendre à se passer de nous.» Ernest Legouré

32. Thank you... To Kassandra’s family, to our trainees, coaches, educators and other staff, thank you for accompanying us in this process. To our colleagues, pedagogical counsellor, principal and school board, a big thank you for your support throughout this adventure. Louise, Denis and Éric,