AudioHighlight: Code Skimming for Blind Programmers

Abstract

Blind programmers use a screen reader to read code aloud. Screen readers force blind programmers to read code sequentially one line at a time. In contrast, sighted programmers are able to skim visually to the most important code areas, assisted by syntax highlighting. However, there is a place where there is a widely adopted approach to skimming a structured document: the web. Modern screen readers employ what is known as a virtual cursor to navigate structural information on webpages such as HTML heading tags. These tags can indicate different sections and subsections in the structure of a page. We harness the existing familiarity of blind computer users with this interface in our approach which we call AudioHighlight. AudioHighlight renders the code inside a web view, either as part of the Eclipse IDE or as a web service. It places HTML heading tags on the structural elements of a source file such as classes, functions and control flow statements. We compare AudioHighlight to the state of the art in code skimming represented by a previous code skimming approach called StructJumper. We also compare to the state of practice in reading code on the web as represented by GitHub. We found that AudioHighlight increased the quality and speed of code comprehension as compared to both approaches.