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Comment by woliveirajr | Hacker News Reader

I met two blind programmers. The process they used was exactly how it's described in this video.

What was odd was that:

1 - they were given the worst place in the room: no windows, literally facing a wall. Took some time to realize why they didn't complain.

2 - The computer had monitors. Then I learnt that Windows (don't know what version it was) wouldn't work it no monitor was attached.

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As a blind programmer who uses a laptop I still got a second monitor that was not currently being used by anyone. My co-workers thank me when they don't have to hunch over to look at my laptop screen when going over code.

two thoughts:

1 - does sun light have no physiological/psychological value for blind people? the sun light might still be captured on the skin or even in the eyes and trigger relevant biological processes.

2 - having a monitor is also important for a blind person when working in a team.

I'm totally blind and have what I call no usable vision. I can see light if it's bright or the sun is shining. I can't tell anything about the environment from my vision though other then if there is bright light or not. Anecdotally from talking to other blind people the ability to see light helps set your body clock. Although I keep a fairly normally sleep schedule I know blind people who have no light perception and have a lot harder time keeping a normal schedule with out medicine.

The vast majority of visually impaired and legally blind have some degree of sight or at least light perception. The tiny percentage that does not still needs/like sunlight for vitamin D etc, but you don't get much sunlight form a window.

For those wondering: you can get lots of sunlight, but not any UVB (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19614895: "All glasses totally blocked UVB radiation."), and that's what your body needs to make vitamin D (https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/how-do-i-get...)

Quite a few legally blind people have some remaining vision that is both useless for them and extremely annoying, so they wear sunglasses, and prefer not looking towards light sources.

So, this may have been by choice.

The idea of someone using a computer with no monitor seems to bizarre.

I know blind people wouldn't need one, but somehow the lack of it brings up the wow factor.

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