Free Scripting Training for Blind Programmers
Celebrating 25 years
14th Apr, 2011
"It was a brilliant day. It's amazing to come back to Dolphin and see the progress you've made, and I look forward to working with (or maybe for) you one day!"
Sean Randall, former RNCB student, is a screen reader scripter based in Herefordshire. Sean pioneered the user interface which became the basis for Qwitter, the Twitter client of choice for hundreds of screen reader users around the world. Qwitter bypasses the screen and sends output directly to popular screen readers including SuperNova Screen Reader.
Dolphin invited Sean to a free Dolphin Scripting training day, with a view to Sean choosing one or more projects which, if successful, can be featured on the Dolphin Scripting Zone.
Dave Williams Dolphin Blindness Product Manager says: "I remember life immediately after college clearly. It can be daunting for anyone with a disability trying to get potential employers to recognise your potential. It's the people who take the time to offer you the breaks, who can really make a difference. I wanted Dolphin to offer some scripting training to young scripters who have shown promise. Then showcase their work on the Dolphin scripting Zone. To me, someone like Sean Randall was a natural choices for these free scripting days. I am very much looking forward to showing off Sean's first Dolphin scripting project."
Sean originally learned to use a computer with Hal for DOS and Word Perfect 5.1. Sean's experience includes scripting for a range of screen readers, including working in Lua, the open source scripting language used by SuperNova.
"I felt well prepared. I downloaded a SuperNova demo and the scripting manual from the Dolphin website. The manual was useful and well-organised. During the course I gained a clearer understanding of the main differences between SuperNova and its competitors. I found SuperNova scripts to be modular and clearly structured. The ability to have extension scripts is unique."
Sean is keen to provide more example scripts for other budding scripters out there.
"I would be happy for anything I write, if it's up to standard, to go out as a scripting exercise, so those learning got the script itself, plus accompanying tutorial information I'd be happy to right."
About SuperNova Screen Reader more generally Sean writes; "SuperNova's Situation settings are really clever. I debug text adventure games. I don't want punctuation spoken during game play, but do during coding. I would probably need to write a script to achieve this in competitor products."
Accredited by the Institute of IT Training, Dolphin's Scripting trainings are delivered by Spencer Ellis. As Dolphin's lead script writer, Spencer has plenty of practical script writing experience that he was able to share with Sean, as he explains;
"Successful Script writing requires an interesting blend of skills. Understanding your customers, how they use their application and creating intuitive, productive access to that application is one half. Technical code writing skill is the other half. Rarely do you meet people with dexterity for both. However it was immediately evident that Sean has that essential mix. Ideas for new practical scripts were in abundance, as well as some technically very challenging questions! I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of his first Dolphin Scripting project."
Calling All Budding Script Writers!
If you are a budding code writer with a visual impairment and would like to further develop your script writing skills, we'd love to hear from you. A limited number of free places are available on Dolphin's Scripting & Mapping Accreditation. To read the course outline, course objectives and what prior knowledge you would require, visit the Dolphin Training Academy web pages. Contact Harriet Grant on harriet.grant@dolphinuk.co.uk to book your training.
As soon as Sean's first Dolphin Scripting project is ready to be test driven, Dolphin will be sure to make it available from the Dolphin Scripting Zone. We'll keep you posted on his progress!
