We had a great day at The London Transport Museum on July 2nd. We were working with Accessibility CoderDojo (sponsored by Thomson Reuters and Sales Force) as part of the Designology exhibition they are running. We had 10 children, and several students come in and work with us over the weekend, to help create a digital accessibility trail.

They used BBC micro:bits to create a digital tour of the museum, using sound to ensure it was accessible to vision impaired people. The whole idea was to demonstrate the power of the Open Standard to museum visitors, getting them to think about how they move around a space, what directions and information they need and how it is transmitted to them.

Below is a Storify of the reactions from people who attended, as well as a short video created for the event.

It was inspiring to see the kids getting so engaged and excited about coding. Some of them had never tried it before so not only was it fun but they were able to get something educational out of it as well. We treated the exercise like a treasure hunt, with each child using their micro:bit to guide their partner around the museum while they wore a blindfold, to help them connect with what it would be like for a vision impaired person visiting The London Transport Museum.

If you want to come and see what we have been up to for yourselves then you can attend The London Transport Museum Late Debate: Social behaviour and mapping event on Thursday 28th July. You will be able to go on an accessibility trail around the museum using the BBC micro:bits the kids coded in the CoderDojo session.

Tickets to the Late Debate cost £12 (£10 concessions) and are for adults only (18+), you can buy them here.