HN Explorer

Ask HN: How hard is it for blind people to code?

12 points by n4bz0r ↗ HN
I've read some stories about blind people who code successfully, but can't really imagine debugging using screen reader. Well, even reading, and navigating through a code sounds frightening.

Can anybody here share their experience first-hand?

3 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 17.2 ms ] thread
LukeBMM
Not first-hand, but I found this fascinating:

https://www.vincit.fi/en/blog/software-development-450-words...

n4bz0r
Oh, thanks! That's quite an interesting article.

Although author doesn't go into much detail about difficulties of learning how to efficiently use those screen-reading tools, I liked that he gives a broad picture of blind people's everyday code-related routine.

BTW, how does one understand all that synthesized gibberish? I bet it could give you a headache :D

phaus
Yea I would like to know how he understands the synthesized speech @ 450 wpm. I'm not sure what the WPM rate is, but when I listen to lectures anything over 1.5-2x normal speed is usually where I start missing stuff. If someone talks faster than normal, even 2x is too much for me.