[Journal First] A Comparison of Program Comprehension Strategies by Blind and Sighted Programmers

Programmers who are blind use a screen reader to speak source code one word at a time, as though the code were text. This process of reading is in stark contrast to sighted programmers, who skim source code rapidly with their eyes. At present, it is not known whether the difference in these processes has effects on the program comprehension gained from reading code. These effects are important because they could reduce both the usefulness of accessibility tools and the generalizability of software engineering studies to persons with low vision. In this paper, we present an empirical study comparing the program comprehension of blind and sighted programmers. We found that both blind and sighted programmers prioritize reading method signatures over other areas of code. Both groups obtained an equal and high degree of comprehension, despite the different reading processes.