UNC students have amazing ideas. But sometimes it takes a leader to push an idea in the right direction.
This is the case for Dr. Gary Bishop, a Computer Science professor who teaches enabling technologies. He held the first Maze Day after noticing a few of his students threw together an impromptu test to find out if blind children could complete a life size maze after practicing on a computer simulation with a force-feedback joystick.
“By the time I hear about this, 19 [blind] kids are coming,” Dr. Bishop said, “and these students think they’re going to do this in an hour before class. You can’t do anything in an hour with 19 visitors! I didn’t want the kids to be disappointed, so I cancelled class and threw together the first Maze Day because it was about their maze.”
Maze Day exhibits student-made games and programs made specifically for physically impaired children. Students have to keep in mind their audience when creating the programs, which teaches them to code and make software to aid those with disabilities like blindness, deafness and movement impairments.
The programs, which range from a head-tracking keyboard application to games involving tactile feedback, are not only fun for the children, but also are important to students and educators, who use Maze Day to find out how to make their programs and classrooms more accessible.
“Kids come and have a ton of fun,” Dr. Bishop said. “My students are motivated by the opportunity to do something for somebody else, and people all over our building jump in and volunteer to help.”
Maze Day, which will be held on Thursday from from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., is open to all members of the UNC community.
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