Information Leaflet: Family Coding for the Blind and Visually Impaired 

In order to take part in OurKidsCode, all families must register. 

First, we need to get your consent to collect data about you and your family. 

Please scroll down to read what follows and then click the Register for OurKidsCode button to proceed ↓

Invitation Paragraph

We are asking everyone interested in attending our coding workshop for families with blind and visually impaired children to help us by participating as part of a research project. 

Before you decide if you want to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what taking part involves. 

By participating in the workshop and associated research, you can help us explore the benefits of such workshops and let us make them more enjoyable and effective. 

Please take the time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with your family. Please ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. 

What is the purpose of this study?

OurKidsCode is a research project which aims to increase parental involvement in children’s computing education through family creative coding workshops. This project currently focuses on sighted families. VISION CODE is a special programme which enables young people with vision loss to learn how to code and develop their computational thinking skills. We want to figure out how to bridge the gap between the two projects: adapting the OurKidsCode model to suit the needs of families with blind and visually impaired children. 

To do this, we will collect information from you at several times to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop. 

• About you: We will ask you to give us contact and family details so that we can arrange the workshop and further communication. We will also ask a few questions about you and your child(ren)’s experience with computing. 

• Online conversations: We will ask if you would be willing to give us more of your time and allow us to conduct an online conversation with you to talk more about your family and what you hope to get out of the workshop. If you agree to this, we may contact you to arrange a convenient time. We may also ask for a follow-up conversation to get feedback on the proposed workshop design. 

• Workshop progress: We will be recording some observations of what happens during the workshops. 

• Your reactions: We ask family members to tell us how the workshop went and whether your attitudes to computing have changed at all. 

All of these are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop and are not a test! 

Do I have to take part?

No. This is voluntary. Even if you decide to take part now, you are still free to change your mind at any time and without giving a reason. You can also decide to skip any questions you like. 

What personal information do you collect?

We need to collect and store your contact details to organise the workshop. So, to attend the workshop, you will need to read this information leaflet and sign a consent form. There will be a post-workshop interview which will be audio-recorded. All identifiable data will be processed as soon as possible and deleted safely within one year of the study completion. 

It is up to you to decide whether to take part. Even if you decide to take part now, you are still free to change your mind at any time and without giving a reason. You can also decide to skip any questions you like. 

You will be asked to complete a few online forms/interviews during your participation: 

• A registration/pre-workshop form where we will ask you for your contact and family details and find out a bit about your family’s experience and attitudes to computing.  

• An online conversation may be conducted with you to talk more about your family and what you hope to get out of the workshop. If you agree to this, we will contact you to arrange a convenient time. The interview will take place online at your convenience and will last around 20-30 minutes. We may also ask for a follow-up conversation to get feedback on the proposed workshop design. Both will be audio recorded. 

• A post-workshop form to try and measure the impact of the workshop at the end of the session. 

• A post-workshop focus group where we get your feedback on the whole process. 

In each form: 

• There are questions that have choices and others where you write an answer. 

• Do not mention yourself or other people by name – if you do by mistake, we will remove the names. 

• The registration/pre-survey form must be filled out as it is needed so that we can organise the workshop. 

• The other surveys are voluntary, and you can stop at any time – simply close the browser window. In addition, you may skip any question. 

• Each form will take about five to ten minutes to complete. 

We will also be observing what goes on during the workshop to see what works and what doesn’t. This along with the online conversations may involve some audio recordings.

What are the benefits of taking part?

We hope you and your family will benefit directly from taking part in a unique, accessible, creative coding workshop as we work together to give you the best experience possible. You will also be benefitting participants in future work on this project. 

Keeping you and your data safe

Our team are Garda vetted which means we are approved to work with families and children.  

Your privacy is important to us.  Apart from the registration data, which we need to organise the workshops, any information we collect from you will be anonymised as soon as possible so that it cannot be linked to you, your family, or your location and so that you or your family members cannot be identified. 

We will store personal information on secure password-protected servers at Trinity College for up to 7

years. Only the project team will have access to it. No hard copies of the data will be stored.  

The registration data will have the name removed so that your identity remains confidential before it is shared with anyone outside the project team. We will never share the audio files with any third parties. If you decide to withdraw from the workshops, you may request that we delete the registration data.  

Once the rest of your data has been anonymised, it is not possible to remove it. If you are at all worried about how your data is kept, please get in touch and we can answer your questions. 

It is very unlikely, but if we become aware of anything that may put a child at risk, we are legally required to report it to the appropriate authorities to ensure the child’s safety.

What will happen to the results of this research?

There may be media reporting, lectures, conference presentations and academic publications written as a result of this project, however you and your family will not be identified.  

What do I do if I have any further questions?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your participation, please contact our project team at contact@ourkidscode.ie. They will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. 

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Thank you!

This project is funded by Research Ireland and administered by the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin. The project team consists of Assistant Professor Nina Bresnihan, Assistant Professor Glenn Strong, Louise Caldwell, Mary O’Mahony, Dr Richard Millwood, Dr Hao Lucy Liu, and Ross Devine from Trinity College Dublin.

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Data Protection Information

What is the lawful basis to use my personal data?

Information will only be used for this research study which aims to inform the development of the OurKidsCode Programme The legal basis for processing your personal data is Article 6(1)(e) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data is Article 9(2)(j) GDPR. 

What are my rights in relation to your use of my personal data?

You are entitled to request any of the rights below unless it would make it impossible or very difficult to carry out the research study: 

• The right to access to your personal data;  

• The right to receive a copy of your personal data; 

• The right to ask us to restrict our use of your personal data; 

• The right to ask us to correct inaccurate information about you; or 

• The right to ask us to delete your personal data. 

You are entitled to object to any further processing of the information we hold about you (except where it is de-identified). You can exercise these rights or learn more about data protection in relation to this study by contacting the Project Lead at Nina.Bresnihan@tcd.ie or the Trinity College Data Protection Officer (contact details above). 

Please note that these rights relate to data which could identify you (personal data). If your data has been anonymised, we will not be able to access or delete it as we will have no way of being able to link the data to you. 

If you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data, you can raise a concern with the Data Protection Commission via their online form – https://forms.dataprotection.ie/contact – or contact the Commission at: 

Data Protection Commission 

21 Fitzwilliam Square South 

Dublin 2 

D02 RD28 

Ireland 

https://www.dataprotection.ie