AudioQ: A Debugging Extension for Visually Impaired Developers
Sehej Kumar, Shreyas Kotla · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023) · doi:10.1145/3597638.3615655
Summary
This extended abstract presents AudioQ, a Visual Studio Code extension designed to improve the debugging experience for visually impaired software developers. The extension addresses a specific gap in current accessibility tools: while screen readers can read code and error messages, they fail to clearly communicate the error location (line number) and error category in a way that supports efficient debugging workflows. AudioQ works by pairing with the NVDA screen reader — when a user navigates to a line of code and presses a keyboard shortcut (Alt+L on Windows or Opt+L on Mac), the extension generates an informational pop-up that NVDA reads aloud, providing the current line number and the category of error present. The extension was built using VS Code's Extension Builder with TypeScript and Java. The authors note that visually impaired developers often resort to braille keyboards, speech synthesizers, and various third-party plug-ins to debug code, but these tools can be volatile and inconsistent, reducing debugging efficiency.
Key findings
Testing with visually impaired developers of varying experience levels showed that novice developers spent an average of 5 minutes and 30 seconds debugging with AudioQ compared to 7 minutes without it — a 1.5-minute improvement. Novice participants reported in post-study surveys that they found AudioQ beneficial for debugging. However, experienced developers averaged 3 minutes using their own established methods versus 5 minutes with AudioQ, indicating that the extension was less efficient for developers who had already developed personalized debugging workflows. The testing tasks involved 40-line code files with 10 errors each, written in Java, C++, and Python to accommodate participant language preferences. The extension currently works well with recognizing syntax errors across multiple programming languages but does not yet handle run-time errors or read surrounding lines of code for context.
Relevance
AudioQ represents a practical, lightweight approach to improving IDE accessibility for visually impaired developers — an underserved population in accessibility research. While the extension is early-stage and limited in scope (syntax errors only, small sample size), it highlights a real gap: mainstream development tools still do not adequately support non-visual debugging workflows. The finding that novice developers benefited more than experienced ones is instructive — it suggests that accessible debugging tools may be most impactful for lowering the barrier to entry into software development careers for visually impaired people. For the broader accessibility community, the work reinforces that making programming accessible requires more than screen reader compatibility; it requires rethinking how error information is structured and delivered. Future development directions include run-time error detection, contextual code reading around errors, and testing at larger scale.
Tags: software development · blind and low vision · screen readers · debugging · IDE accessibility · Visual Studio Code · NVDA