How Blind Programmers Write Code

theodp writes: Yes, folks, there are blind programmers. There's Ed Summers, for one, who lost his vision at age 30 and now ghostblogs for Willie the Seeing Eye Dog. And if you've ever wondered how the blind can code, Florian Beijers, who has been blind since birth, explains that all he needs is a normal Dell Inspiron 15r SE notebook and his trusty open source NVDA screen reader software, and he's good-to-go. "This is really all the adaptation a blind computer user needs," Beijers adds, but he does ask one small favor: "If you're writing the next big application, with a stunning UI and a great workflow, I humbly ask you to consider accessibility as part of the equation. In this day and age, there's really no reason not to use the UI toolkits available."

Comments

The human will to succeed

[Anonymous Coward]

The human will to succeed.
Back when a IBM 3270 "dumb terminal" was the height of technology I worked with a programmer with no arms, and another who was legally blind.
A third was a quadriplegic.
When you hire, give everyone a chance.
Many thanks to my friends at Northeast Utilities, who taught me a thing or two.
Tom D

Proofreading must be quite challenging.

[rmdingler]

It's great we live in a relatively wealthy and enlightened time where the special needs of the few can be borne by the many. The things I'm taking daily for granted that others still only dream to do! And I still can't explain why I continue to allow myself to have an occasional bad day, despite this awareness.

Worked with blind programmer

[Anonymous Coward]

The man I worked with was one of the most talented programmers I have ever known. As a blind person he had a different perspective that was quit useful in evaluating problems.