4 ms·

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 be

by jareds 4y ago

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.

philliphaydon 4y ago
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?
- jareds 4y ago
  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.
- dundercoder 4y ago
  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.
  - rhn_mk1 4y ago
    What's the game?

by jareds 4y ago

philliphaydon 4y ago

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?

jareds 4y ago
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.
dundercoder 4y ago
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.
- rhn_mk1 4y ago
  What's the game?