ToPSen: Task-Oriented Priming and Sensory Alignment for Comparing Coding Strategies Between Sighted and Blind Programmers

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Hauptverfasser: Ehtesham-Ul-Haque, Md, Billah, Syed Masum
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Ehtesham-Ul-Haque, Md
Billah, Syed Masum
author_facet Ehtesham-Ul-Haque, Md
Billah, Syed Masum
contents This paper examines how the coding strategies of sighted and blind programmers differ when working with audio feedback alone. The goal is to identify challenges in mixed-ability collaboration, particularly when sighted programmers work with blind peers or teach programming to blind students. To overcome limitations of traditional blindness simulation studies, we proposed Task-Oriented Priming and Sensory Alignment (ToPSen), a design framework that reframes sensory constraints as technical requirements rather than as a disability. Through a study of 12 blind and 12 sighted participants coding non-visually, we found that expert blind programmers maintain more accurate mental models and process more information in working memory than sighted programmers using ToPSen. Our analysis revealed that blind and sighted programmers process structural information differently, exposing gaps in current IDE designs. These insights inform our guidelines for improving the accessibility of programming tools and fostering effective mixed-ability collaboration.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_22414
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ToPSen: Task-Oriented Priming and Sensory Alignment for Comparing Coding Strategies Between Sighted and Blind Programmers
Ehtesham-Ul-Haque, Md
Billah, Syed Masum
Human-Computer Interaction
This paper examines how the coding strategies of sighted and blind programmers differ when working with audio feedback alone. The goal is to identify challenges in mixed-ability collaboration, particularly when sighted programmers work with blind peers or teach programming to blind students. To overcome limitations of traditional blindness simulation studies, we proposed Task-Oriented Priming and Sensory Alignment (ToPSen), a design framework that reframes sensory constraints as technical requirements rather than as a disability. Through a study of 12 blind and 12 sighted participants coding non-visually, we found that expert blind programmers maintain more accurate mental models and process more information in working memory than sighted programmers using ToPSen. Our analysis revealed that blind and sighted programmers process structural information differently, exposing gaps in current IDE designs. These insights inform our guidelines for improving the accessibility of programming tools and fostering effective mixed-ability collaboration.
title ToPSen: Task-Oriented Priming and Sensory Alignment for Comparing Coding Strategies Between Sighted and Blind Programmers
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22414