Code in a Box: Coding for Everyone - an Inclusive Workshop

Workshop Presentation
Paolo Degiovanni  

In December 2021, MUSE organized the “Open Access Hackathon”, a 24-hour marathon to design new tools and technologies to get the museum more accessible and inclusive for blind or visually impaired people. Since then, our efforts to achieve this goal have continued with the fundamental technical support of MUSE Fablab: the educational activity “Code in a box” is just one of the results of this partnership. Thinking about coding, our imagination goes immediately to software, computers and other digital tools. However, the “Code in a box" laboratory offers a different method: an unplugged mode that allows people to approach the basics of coding without any digital support. Throughout the whole activity, everyone is able to learn the very basics of coding and thus nurture his/her own computational thinking. Problem-solving skills and the so-called "soft skills", such as collaborating and dealing with other people, will also be indirectly involved. Moreover, this laboratory raises awareness about blindness since people without sighting impairments will wear a mask over their eyes to feel an experience as close as possible to blindness. Actually, this activity is designed to be accessible to everyone, as well as blind and visually impaired people because touch is the only sense to rely on. In a nutshell, "Code in a box” is an inclusive workshop allowing users to engage sensory experience-driven learning.