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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

I dated a girl in the mid to late 1980s whose father was completely blind and worked as a software programmer. At the time, knowing little of computers, I didn’t think much of it. 30-35 years later, having worked as a programmer for nearly 25 years, I wish I was still in touch with the family so I could ask how he did it. I assume things would be easier now for a blind programmer, but, maybe not.

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I'm a totally blind software developer who was born in the mid 80's. From my experience and limited discussion with other blind individuals I was born at the beginning of when life became a lot easier as a blind programmer as well as a blind person in general. When I started to learn programming in the early 2000's electronic versions of a decent number of programming books were available. I don't know how I would have learned C from a print copy of the K&R book in the late 80's. By the time I entered college I had GPS to help me get around campus. PRetty much everything but math was also available in fully accessible electronic format. Ten years earlier it would have been a lot more dificult.

I’m very curious. When developing software I do /try/ to make it accessible. But sometimes I think certain things, there’s no point in making accessible because a blind person wouldn’t be able to use it. But this is my ignorance of not understanding how people who are blind consume information.

Are there things I can do better when developing software to assist with blindness?

Personally I would say don’t set arbitrary limits. I knew of a blind guy who played a computer game very well because it had such a rich and responsive soundscape.

What's the game?

I'm going to preface the following with the fact that I'm not an accessibility expert and accessibility is not a field I'm interested in. With out more info on the software it's impossible to give specific suggestions. For a tool that produces structured diagrams such as flow charts a way to move from node to node with arrow keys and have announcements on what connects to what would be a good way for me to read flow charts with out being able to look at them with my eyes. If your creating a color matching game for two year olds I can't think of any reasonable way to make it accessible. Other people may argue the game should announce colors and have a mode to pick them based on words only but at that point your starting to write a completely separate game.

Oxide and friends had this episode a bit back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9GVJg0LRX4

The guest is a blind person and the main topic is a history speech synthesizers but also goes into how that translates to his experience using and programming computers over the years too. You might find it interesting. (There was another episode a few before it too where the same person talked a bit about his experiences).

An old friend of mine in his late 70s who ran several software businesses is starting to experience vision deterioration. Of what type, I don't know, but it's interfering with his ability to do any kind of computer work. It really drove home for me that in the long run we're all disabled.

I have a bit set to try to learn how to use Emacspeak so I at least have a plan B for if/when my vision goes to the dumper -- or I lose it completely.

I started using Emacspeak in the late 1990's, and probably peaked ~2003-2006.

I have associates with visual impairments ranging from nothing (i.e.,completely gone (i.e. "blind")) to severe mis-alignment of vertical focus, ...and the standard of colour-blindness. I try to help them to the best of my abilities.

My own acuity (currently) allows the use of monospace typefaces/fonts and grey-scales. There are times when my vision cuts out pretty bad. I assume it will get worse and sometime in the future I think I will rely on Emacspeak. Also, pointer/mouse use is almost a complete wash for me.

Hence the "plan B" You mentioned.

Edit: I do not want to lose access to computers (screw networked ones (love those)), I really love (almost) any programming environment

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