Kavita Project: Voice Programming for People with Motor Disabilities

Abstract

Most computer programs are designed in a way that requires interaction based on finger movements and hand gestures. This type of environment, which assumes the dexterity of human hands, presents limitations for those with motor disabilities. This limitation excludes this population from learning to code and, for those who develop a musculoskeletal disorder in later stages, could jeopardize their programming careers. The objective of this research is to design a Voice User Interface (or VUI for its acronym in English) that allows the use of the user’s voice to program in an Integrated Development Environment (or IDE for its acronym in English). For this, a basic programming structure was defined using Alexa Skills, which allows the user to declare variables, print values, solve basic mathematical expressions, insert conditional expressions, and create loops. An online text editor was created using CodeMirror to run user input using the Python programming language. However, the results could not yet be evaluated since the application does not have a compiler integrated. In future work it is desired to add the compiler, and thus to be able to execute the user’s program in the online editor. The aim is to also add the ability to edit, debug and move the cursor using the Alexa Skill.