Teenagers with disabilities learn coding at Melbourne camp

Tyler Vazquez
Florida Today
Lex Pitt went from being a coding novice to building his own websites from scratch over eight weeks.

Lex Pitt knew nothing about coding when he started camp eight weeks ago. 

By the end of the summer, he had written the code and built websites for a hypothetical doughnut shop and a digital Magic 8 Ball programmed to answer yes-or-no questions. 

What had been foreign languages to him before — CSS, HTML and JavaScript — were now skills he could turn into concrete results. 

Lex and six other teens with disabilities all took part in the camp at CodeCraft Works, a Melbourne educational technology company that trains students and educators in computer science.

"I can't really put it into words," Lex said. "It was just really fun." 

Seven teenagers with disabilities were able to go through a seven-week course to learn coding and Google analytics.

The camp was a joint effort between CodeCraft Works and the Brevard Achievement Center, a nonprofit that aims to provide people with disabilities with opportunities to achieve personal success. Most of the teenagers at the camp were on the autism spectrum or had learning disabilities. 

Each student went through Google training, eventually passing the Google Power User course, which four of the students passed with a 100 percent score. The Google training allowed the students to provide website analytics to local companies to find out more about their customers 

"They could get a job at almost any IT company today with that Google certification. They could go in and start doing the work," said Keri Goff, Brevard Achievement Center's community relations manager. 

Through the camp, the teenagers were paired with local businesses to do paid analytics work on their websites. The kids pored through analytics data for businesses based on their Google training

"They had access to our site and pulled some reports, said Gerald Delvaille with Creative Network Innovations, a Viera-based IT company. "They put together a report on who's using it and what search terms are helping people find our site." 

"It was really cool to team up with them in that way," Delvaille said. "Knowing that it was a student, I was impressed, but it was also exactly what we would look for from someone who worked for our company." 

Joshua McKenzie was able to immerse himself in the JavaScript coding language at the eight-week camp for teenagers with disabilities.

Joshua McKenzie, who graduated from Melbourne Central Catholic this year, already had a grasp on CSS and HTML but was able to immerse himself in the JavaScript language and learn Google analytics through the camp. 

"I feel like I've accomplished a whole lot this summer," McKenzie said. "I plan on making a career out of computer sciences in the future."  

Angela Cormier was moved to see her son's growth over the course of the camp. Not only has he acquired professional and academic skills, but his social skills have improved. 

Cameron Cormier, a Palm Bay High School student on the autism spectrum who has had trouble socializing, started to come out of his shell thanks to the confidence he gained from camp, his mom said. 

At Monday's showcase she watched with awe and pride as Cameron showed off his progress with confidence to members of the public.

"I was really shocked when they said Cameron was being really social. He seems proud to be talking to people and showing off his work,"  Cormier said. "Are you sure we're talking about the same student?" 
