I've noticed that when I'm signed in, Programming is the 5th item in the first section of the forum, and I need to scroll down to select it. When I'm not signed in, it's the 4th item, and I don't need to scroll.
Today, I logged on and off, to see what was actually happening, since I stay logged in most of the time.
The Introductory Tutorials topic comes and goes, as I log on and off.
Is there some reason why guests can't see the Introductory Tutorials, too?
What do you mean "not signed in"? 
Uh ... let's see ... Guests, Newbie, and Jr. Member are set to (X) - Disallow. I have no idea what is different between "Disallow" and "Deny". Ugh. Off to Google because the SMF programmers have forgotten how to reasonably label an input.
Update: Got it. Deny is subtractive. It overrides an implied Allow. Disallow does not override Allow.
That does not explain why the section disappears.
Got it. Those settings define who can VIEW a section. There is a different bunch of settings that define who can CREATE topics / CREATE posts. The moderators do not have access to that second set. Whoever created that section tried to restrict CREATE to "senior" members of the forum (an excellent choice in my opinion; an understandable mistake in my opinion).
The SMF programmers definitely need a lesson in communications.
Time for some fixin... Done.
@PaulS, thank you for reporting the trouble! Please let us know (use Report-to-moderator!) if you find anything else.