Designing Integrated Development Environments to Support Students with ADHD

Accessibility in education is a consideration whose importance cannot be understated, especially in such important fields like computer science. While we are in a time where technology develops at a rapid pace and our programming education works to keep up with the pace of industry, we must ensure students with disabilities are not left behind. This paper will discuss how students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can benefit from better design of Integrated Development Environments and how by creating a more inclusive and usable digital ecosystem, students will be able to better engage in programming education and as a result the wider computer science curriculum with the absence of barriers in one of it’s major topics. The paper outlines a research through design approach to the work, involving think aloud and co-design as core components of identifying and understanding design considerations and discusses the work done so far.