Manu Sekar, CEO of Hask Hack Code, believes anyone can do computer coding. He set out to achieve what he deeply believes in—breaking down barriers for both the neurodiverse population and the marginalised community as a whole. Read on to know more about HashHackCode.
Can you tell us about your journey from an entrepreneur to a social entrepreneur?
I did my graduation abroad. After coming back to India, I started my company. It amazed me at how one could start something with just a laptop and internet connection. I realised that there were two things important to my success, one being my English language skills and then, of course, programming. Irrespective of one’s background, I would like everyone to gain this skill set of coding.
Even with my first company; we were hiring people from diverse backgrounds. We trained girls from marginalised backgrounds in programming and hired them. Eventually, we got good at explaining coding to people of all ages, experience, and backgrounds. Now, when we speak of diversity, we mostly think in terms of gender, race, culture. Not so much of the human brain and its networks. The way we approach coding is very different. It has been a journey for me as well.
One of my client’s daughter is an autistic individual. They invited me to a workshop to explore the possibility of teaching coding to their children. While I knew about autism, my knowledge was limited. I didn't have any personal experience either. Our guiding principle that has held us in good stead, always, has been that everyone can learn and each person is unique. When we met our first student, we saw him for who he is, his capabilities, and autism was farthest away from our minds. That laid the right foundation for us to develop further.
We started with 3 students and we have over 100 students across the globe.
Why the name “HASH HACK CODE”?
First you hash it, hack it and then code it. The curriculum we have designed is intuitive and hence easy to understand. We don't focus on how to make an output or syntax. The focus is on the logic and computational thinking process. As a spinoff, this enables critical thinking, creativity and academics. Reiterating, irrespective of whether you choose to be a programmer, coding will definitely improve your logical thinking. We have observed that children get little opportunity to develop their skills in this area. No matter what career you take, coding skills will help you.
Our goal is also to make them understand their own learning processes. Each one has a unique way of processing the information. Why push them into a standard format that may not work for them? As far as coding goes, it is about analysing and figuring out how to debug. It's the thought process we work on.
Could you tell us about the program?
We have an online program. There are three stages- Foundation, Advanced and specialisation.Our first vision was to build an inclusive tech education. This has been validated by the success of our students.. Now our second goal is to build inclusive work tool kits. We shifted focus, primarily because we noticed that placement is also a serious concern. Many of our adults, even though they are skilled, do not get meaningful work. There are problems integrating them in a workspace. We must address these issues when we talk of inclusion.
Another aspect is the interest level. It is very important to maintain their interest, especially for autistic individuals. We teach coding through patterns and designs. So, all our students are involved. As things get tougher, they should be motivated to take it up on their own. Our efforts have been successful in curating their interests. We have been able to improve upon their patience levels, working focus all in a graded manner.
All our classes are 1-1. We have different courses in foundation and the duration of the course depends on the uptake of the child. It’s a process. Typically, the whole program takes about 2 years.
Using our learning methodology, we have built a base. We have figured out a technique to help them code. And we will continue to work on that. Coding is a vast field. We are creating our own frameworks, which I referred to previously as creating toolkits for the workplace. Like, the Hash framework which is a frontend animation library.
How does the course move forward from foundation to specialisation?
As the students advance, we reduce the mentoring required and encourage independent learning. The first two levels comprise teaching and mentoring. In specialisation; we are partnering with companies and working on certifications, etc. The certifications are meant to enable jobs and projects for the students.
The pathway we follow is this, the student does 10 levels of creative coding, which can take about 8-12 months. Then he/she moves to independent coding. This is followed by advanced creative coding, where they can choose to do freelancing. It is about setting up a career for them.
Where does it go from here?
It is not always necessary that the students go to work somewhere; the students could also work as consultants. We are building our own company and employing our students. The whole concept of a 9-5 job is not there anymore.
Our focus is on skilling, projects and jobs.
“Accessible information” for neurodiverse people? Can you expand on that?
We live in an age where information is easily available, and there is so much you can learn on your own. But how much of this information is accessible to neurodiverse individuals? We speak in terms of modes of accessibility, low vision mode, screen readers. But do we miss out on one major factor that is significant to autistic individuals? How much of the information is cognitively accessible? For people with autism, the context and presentation also matters.
We have a lot of developer tools. The tasks might be easy to do, but the guide and the tutorials is a barrier. Sometimes, we also find it difficult. The task itself is easy, but comprehending the information is not. That's where we step in to support.
Many times, when we talk about cognitive accessibility, people associate it with simple language. Simple wording will not help one grasp the concept. There is a graded fashion in which we teach. We evaluate our instruction so that it is intuitive and builds on prior knowledge. This allows the students to advance at their own rate.
You have also iterated the importance of skill building. Can you elaborate on that?
Majority of us mistakenly believe that education is a once-off experience. Most people take care of their primary and secondary schooling, but not their tertiary education. There are very few opportunities in this space for people with different cognitive abilities.
We live in a world where skill sets matter and not your degrees. Tomorrow, when our adults go to a workplace, irrespective of their disabilities or their lack of social skills, they can still deliver with their capabilities. That's the only thing that matters in the end. Hire them for their skills, not charity or sympathy. We have also observed most of our students reached the same skill set, only the time varies.
I have been reading about the different experiences of the coders of Hashhackcode; The invite from Google to interact with their developers, how they hosted a Hackathon event for over 350 girls from TechDiva.
Yes, both have been wonderful experiences. Developers from Google reached out to us to host a coding workshop in their event. The finer aspect was that our neurodiverse students served as mentors for the developers; teaching and sharing their knowledge with them.We had a similar experience when our coders trained girls from Techdiva on coding. All these experiences have validated and strengthened our beliefs. When we taught coding, we also worked on communication.
When we do events like, the organisational abilities of the students also come to the forefront. I think these things matter a lot. A game changer is that they help others instead of being helped. Inclusion also means that you are including others in your space and is not only about being accepted by others.
Moving on to the communication aspect of the training.
We have observed verbal or otherwise, all of them communicate with each other. Suppose there are 5 lines of code, and the third line can be done differently; there is a reason to communicate and a system in place; the children communicate with each other.
In a developer's role, language will not be a barrier, but as you move on to a leadership role, it can be an impediment. So again, we work on the expression of thoughts and conceptualisation of ideas. As the students move on to bigger responsibilities, we find this an area of challenge. As a leader, you have to enable others, come up with ideas and connect them into one big scenario by weaving them together. This is another area where we have made some progress.
Mothers have an important role to play in this training.
Yes, both mothers and fathers. Initially, the parents help their children to code. As the student advances, he begins to work independently with his teammates.
We realised, in the process, the mothers’ also learned coding and could look at pursuing a career for themselves.
Thank you, Manu Sekar, for having taken time out to do this interview.
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