Barriers, challenges and strategy use of students with high-incidence disabilities

Abstract

Computer science (CS) education K-12 has spread at a remarkable pace over the last few years. As CS education becomes more and more a part of the general curriculum, students with disabilities, who spend much of their time in general education classrooms, will be included. Yet, there is little research on how to equitably and rigorously include students with disabilities in CS education. To begin to understand how best to provide CS educational services to diverse learners, we must first understand the challenges and barriers they face and what strategies they are already using to enable their success. This basic qualitative interpretative study utilized video screencast data of three upper-elementary students with high-incidence disabilities engaged in block-based programming. Findings confirmed students encountered multiple barriers and challenges, both unique and shared, across classrooms. While students utilized several problem solving and debugging strategies, they seldom did so in a systematic fashion.