I took typing lessons beginning in the third grade at age 8, but I say whenever the child is interested in finding stuff online than you as the parent have the responsibility to walk them through it with screen reading software.

Personally I'm a bit torn on the age thing... Small children and screen time is not a great combination. that being said, technology is a requirement these days;just look at all the remote schoolwork being done by students at home. My son is in 2nd grade and he and his classmates are expected to have basic computer skills and at least be able to type;not full touch typing but hen pecking typing is acceptable as a minimum.

They can learn the keyboard as they are learning the basics of the computer. As others have stated, Voiceover on an iOS device doesn't require a physical keyboard at all if one wants to go that route.

I'd say get them started with basic things that are on their level, teach them the specific computer's or tablet's ecosystem and work on touch typing. I'm totally blind and I've been working with my son on the computer, the iPad, and teaching him how to touch type. It's certainly doable.

My degree is not in computer science or voc rehab, however, I have been in a few situations where I ended up being a technology tutor and I like to use a lot of analogies. Although you're explaining a concept that is in a virtual space, try to find it's real world equivalent to help put it into context and make it more familiar.

Here are a few examples I've come up with in the past:

I'll open Pages on the Mac, or, Word pad on a windows pc, or have them do it. Then I'd say something like "This is a text document. This is like taking out a piece of paper and writing on it with a pencil, or, a slate and stylus." Or, opening the downloads or the documents folder, I'd say something like "This is like a filing cabinet in an office, or, a big long box. It can have files in it, like pieces of paper, and, it can also hold folders. Folders can hold files or pieces of paper too but we can use folders to keep ones we choose separate so we'll be organized and make it easier to find our files." If you're showing them the desktop for example, then actually have them touch a desktop! (I'd do this with a child... I probably wouldn't need to do this with an adult assuming blindness is their only disability.)

Anyways, this went on longer than I initially planned but with children, especially blind children, being able to draw parallels with objects in the real world that they can actually touch or at least have a passing tactile familiarity with is important for giving them a solid understanding of a virtual environment. Due to the different ways blind people interact with a computer or tablet when compared to sighted people, it's important they really get a solid grasp on it. Many things are designed in a GUI to be visually obvious/visually leading. With a screen reader, a lot of that is just out the window because it's simply not available to the screen reader.

We could go deeper on this in another thread if anybody would be interested...

Sighted children as young as two are now using iPads. It really doesn't matter whether you agree with this or not because it's the reality we live in. Because we want to ensure that blind kids have the same opportunities, I think they should also learn typing as soon as they know the letters of the alphabet. Typability is software that teaches typing in a fun, kid-friendly environment and also teaches the basic concepts of JAWS.

Whenever they want, I guess.

As soon as the child is able. Sighted children start using technology earlier and earlier so, in order to keep blind kids on par with their sighted peers, they should jump on the technology bandwagon ASAP.

Any age seems possible. There are iPad and iPhone screen readers also that don’t require typing skills.

Learning the 2 can kind of go together.