3 ms·

Whilst my disability isn't as impacting as hers, I thought I'd contribute my own perspective on going through a similar process. I have very poor vision as a r

by javindo 13y ago

Whilst my disability isn't as impacting as hers, I thought I'd contribute my own perspective on going through a similar process. I have very poor vision as a result of occular albinism and because it's retinal it can't be corrected with glasses. This leads to endless frustration and ultimately finding creative solutions to many problems faced at university. The fact of the matter is there simply isn't support to do things "normally" with a disability, whatever it may be. People make adjustments but it's never quite right. As a computer science student, you might think this could be mitigated because a lot of my work involves using a computer and for the most part this is correct. I have good enough vision that I can tell, however, if a monitor is at a poorly configured resolution so I always prefer to have maximum resolution with zooming tools. This is going completely off topic but it is one of the reasons I still tend to use Windows a lot instead of a linux distro; they simply don't support ease of access as well. Windows recently introduced a "Win + +/-" zoom tool in Win7 which has honestly been life changing. On the contrary, trying to work out how to increase the font size in SWI-Prolog on a school machine was a fruitless endeavour. So what's my point? With a disability, there is no escaping it. You have to adapt and not rely on support because frankly it's just too much hassle. I can't read lecturers writing on boards in lectures so I borrow notes from friends, it's not ideal but I don't think it's worth the headache of pissing about with a ridiculously slow and difficult to use camera system provided by a disability support grant. I'm not sure what the solution is for my particular problems but I resonate the sentiments of the article; if you're disabled at university, you're going to have a hard time no matter what support they try to offer.

gcr 13y ago
Hey, awesome! I have vision impairment as a result of albinism too! (nystagmus; my corrected acuity is about 20/100 and 20/120-150 without glasses) Fellow red/blonde-haired pasty-white person unite~~! For those running Linux, it's easy to change the font size of GTK+ and QT programs, which affect on all major apps on the system. That combined with browsers' zoomability makes it possible to get by... though yes, I do have to concede, it doesn't top Windows' magnifying glass. Maybe a nice Wayland WM will get there some day. We'll have to wait and see. In the mean time, it is amusing to be working in the lab and have my coworkers be able to read the screen from halfway across the room... For those of you who are curious, this is the font size that I'm comfortable at: http://i.imgur.com/O7tTskY.png http://i.imgur.com/O7tTskY.png Agree with all your points. It's ironic that most of the coping/adjusting I do happens away from the computer. E.g. because I don't drive, I have to live in a city with reasonable public transport and have to depend on friends for shopping trips, etc. Maybe that's one reason why I like my job as a CS grad student: because I can adjust for my weaknesses to play to my strengths.
- javindo 13y ago
  Wow it seems we have incredibly similar situations! Here's my current zoom level on HN, sitting upright with my face about 2 feet (rough guess, maybe half a meter?) on a 27" monitor http://i.imgur.com/oCU01L9.png http://i.imgur.com/oCU01L9.png (Ignore all the noob tabs, I'm currently making a lesson plan to teach children PHP!) I'll definitely give linux another try, although I'll still have to keep my Windows install for gaming at home, my laptop could benefit from a nice distro. I also find it funny how people can read my screen from the other side of the room. Somewhat unrelated but funny anecdote is my friends staring in awe at my ability to use Visual Studio on a 14" ultrabook display - huge font size and lots of nice whitespace = not very many columns. A friend noted "your brain must have a huge code buffer"! I do agree though that of all possible career options, there are far more which could be hindered greatly than development. Edit: As a side note, I think the last figure I can remember for my vision was 6/36 - although that was years ago. I don't really bother with glasses now because the correction apparently just helps to "not tire my eyes so much from the nystagmus" - not an acuity correction unfortunately.
  - gcr 13y ago
    > "your brain must have a huge code buffer!" Yeah, that's a great way of describing it. It's hard to code well and keep all that context in your head when you can only fit 21 lines on the screen... At least people still often stick with 80-character lines; it's awful when they spill over and begin to wrap.
edent 13y ago
Using Compiz (I think) I can use Win+scrollwheel to zoom in the entire screen. I can then pan around the screen with the mouse. Hope that's useful to you :-)
WalterBright 13y ago
I'm curious - why not get a video projector and throw the image on a wall? I understand this is not a portable solution, but for at-home, this might be just the ticket.
- eropple 13y ago
  My eyes aren't quite that bad (no albinism, just crappy eyes--worse than 20/40 corrected), but, having tried a projector, it wasn't until I was out of school and had an apartment of my own--no roommates--that I had enough space to make it big enough to be more clear than monitors given the bigger distance between my eyes and the monitors, and now that I have the room I already have the monitors so it's not really useful. I have to think it'd get worse with worse eyesight.
- tehwalrus 13y ago
  projectors are very very expensive; £2,000-ish per year for a bulb, if you have them on continuously like a monitor. You also need (as mentioned by sibling comment) a big, dark room to make the image bigger & better than a monitor.
  - runarb 13y ago
    Laser video projectors are dropping fast in price now. Some vendors claims at least Laser video projector a lamp lifetime of 20 000 hours, 4X longer than a conventional mercury lamp projectors.
- itsboring 13y ago
  The problem with huge displays is that the ratio doesn't work out in our favor. Great for movies, not for text. It's counter-intuitive, but with low vision, you still have to sit close enough that a wall-sized display is a ticket to neck problems. I actually prefer monitors on the smaller side so I don't have to move my head so much.
- javindo 13y ago
  Echoing what itsboring said; it's hard to describe but sometimes we just have to... be closer. For example, I can sometimes read incredibly small writing if I can just get it right up to my eyes and really squint but I physically can't read a number plate more than a few meters away no matter how much I squint even if, relatively, the size in my vision is the same if not bigger.
itsboring 13y ago
My brother and I both have the same thing. Like you, I don't really ask for accomodations because I find it not worth the trouble; I just come up with my own solutions. The only real pain in the ass is not being able to drive. I use public transportation all the time but kinda hate it. Nothing worse after a long day than a sweaty, over-crowded bus. Also really narrows the options when apartment-hunting. But all in all it's not the worst thing one could have by a long shot. Most days I don't even think about it. Actually, school was a lot worse than work. I've never had any problems that I can recall at a job, I just make it clear that I don't drive to meet clients or whatever. No big loss there.

by javindo 13y ago

gcr 13y ago

Hey, awesome! I have vision impairment as a result of albinism too! (nystagmus; my corrected acuity is about 20/100 and 20/120-150 without glasses) Fellow red/blonde-haired pasty-white person unite~~! For those running Linux, it's easy to change the font size of GTK+ and QT programs, which affect on all major apps on the system. That combined with browsers' zoomability makes it possible to get by... though yes, I do have to concede, it doesn't top Windows' magnifying glass. Maybe a nice Wayland WM will get there some day. We'll have to wait and see. In the mean time, it is amusing to be working in the lab and have my coworkers be able to read the screen from halfway across the room... For those of you who are curious, this is the font size that I'm comfortable at: http://i.imgur.com/O7tTskY.png http://i.imgur.com/O7tTskY.png Agree with all your points. It's ironic that most of the coping/adjusting I do happens away from the computer. E.g. because I don't drive, I have to live in a city with reasonable public transport and have to depend on friends for shopping trips, etc. Maybe that's one reason why I like my job as a CS grad student: because I can adjust for my weaknesses to play to my strengths.

javindo 13y ago
Wow it seems we have incredibly similar situations! Here's my current zoom level on HN, sitting upright with my face about 2 feet (rough guess, maybe half a meter?) on a 27" monitor http://i.imgur.com/oCU01L9.png http://i.imgur.com/oCU01L9.png (Ignore all the noob tabs, I'm currently making a lesson plan to teach children PHP!) I'll definitely give linux another try, although I'll still have to keep my Windows install for gaming at home, my laptop could benefit from a nice distro. I also find it funny how people can read my screen from the other side of the room. Somewhat unrelated but funny anecdote is my friends staring in awe at my ability to use Visual Studio on a 14" ultrabook display - huge font size and lots of nice whitespace = not very many columns. A friend noted "your brain must have a huge code buffer"! I do agree though that of all possible career options, there are far more which could be hindered greatly than development. Edit: As a side note, I think the last figure I can remember for my vision was 6/36 - although that was years ago. I don't really bother with glasses now because the correction apparently just helps to "not tire my eyes so much from the nystagmus" - not an acuity correction unfortunately.
- gcr 13y ago
  > "your brain must have a huge code buffer!" Yeah, that's a great way of describing it. It's hard to code well and keep all that context in your head when you can only fit 21 lines on the screen... At least people still often stick with 80-character lines; it's awful when they spill over and begin to wrap.

edent 13y ago

Using Compiz (I think) I can use Win+scrollwheel to zoom in the entire screen. I can then pan around the screen with the mouse. Hope that's useful to you :-)

WalterBright 13y ago

I'm curious - why not get a video projector and throw the image on a wall? I understand this is not a portable solution, but for at-home, this might be just the ticket.

eropple 13y ago
My eyes aren't quite that bad (no albinism, just crappy eyes--worse than 20/40 corrected), but, having tried a projector, it wasn't until I was out of school and had an apartment of my own--no roommates--that I had enough space to make it big enough to be more clear than monitors given the bigger distance between my eyes and the monitors, and now that I have the room I already have the monitors so it's not really useful. I have to think it'd get worse with worse eyesight.
tehwalrus 13y ago
projectors are very very expensive; £2,000-ish per year for a bulb, if you have them on continuously like a monitor. You also need (as mentioned by sibling comment) a big, dark room to make the image bigger & better than a monitor.
- runarb 13y ago
  Laser video projectors are dropping fast in price now. Some vendors claims at least Laser video projector a lamp lifetime of 20 000 hours, 4X longer than a conventional mercury lamp projectors.
itsboring 13y ago
The problem with huge displays is that the ratio doesn't work out in our favor. Great for movies, not for text. It's counter-intuitive, but with low vision, you still have to sit close enough that a wall-sized display is a ticket to neck problems. I actually prefer monitors on the smaller side so I don't have to move my head so much.
javindo 13y ago
Echoing what itsboring said; it's hard to describe but sometimes we just have to... be closer. For example, I can sometimes read incredibly small writing if I can just get it right up to my eyes and really squint but I physically can't read a number plate more than a few meters away no matter how much I squint even if, relatively, the size in my vision is the same if not bigger.

itsboring 13y ago

My brother and I both have the same thing. Like you, I don't really ask for accomodations because I find it not worth the trouble; I just come up with my own solutions. The only real pain in the ass is not being able to drive. I use public transportation all the time but kinda hate it. Nothing worse after a long day than a sweaty, over-crowded bus. Also really narrows the options when apartment-hunting. But all in all it's not the worst thing one could have by a long shot. Most days I don't even think about it. Actually, school was a lot worse than work. I've never had any problems that I can recall at a job, I just make it clear that I don't drive to meet clients or whatever. No big loss there.