51–60 of 73 posts
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There a number of really good threads on HN where blind users contribute from their own experience. I strongly suggest you go and read them before deciding it's not a viable career: "Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22918980 "Ask HN: How to prepare as soon-to-be blind developer?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30339187 "Ask HN: Blind progra…
One of my coworkers was blind. With an screen reader, he used Excel, LaTeX and other computer stuff, but IIRC he didn't program. I'd recommend to skip Scratch and clones. Jump directly to Python. The indentation may be a problem, so you must find out how to configure the screen reader to say this invisible spaces of the indentation. Perhaps it's better to use tabs for the children, because they are easier to count. (…
There's also lisps, like racket, that might be worth trying?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, OP here. This is great! I’d love to get this into the hands of Adrian (that’s the kiddo’s name). Unfortunately, my hardware assembly skills are next to zero. Is there any chance to get a pre-assembled prototype? I’d happily pay for the BOM and blog about Adrian’s experience with this.
I'd be happy to make it for free just for the feedback! My contact info is in my HN bio. The downside to a motorized display is the cost. Each motor is roughly $1.50 USD. When you include all the other stuff (electronics, 3D printed parts, etc.), it's at about $2/pin. A relatively small 10x20 display (minimum size for a Tetris board, for example) would cost $400 USD just in raw cost. At retail, that 10x20 board would…
I do hope that research goes into a more cost effective non-mechanical bump map. In a hybrid display, this would be useful for sighted persons too. For example having tactile feedback from the screen on the car's console would let the driver keep eyes on the road. And then of course let's remember that blindness isn't just seeing darkness, plenty of blind persons have enough usable vision that a hybrid display could be quite useful for them too. I know that's all pie in the sky, but the sad fact is the best accessibility technology is built on building blocks that are useful to sighted people. The iPhone's literally life-changing VoiceOver technology is the most striking example that I'm familiar with. It's a shame Apple ditched the haptic technology on their displays.
One of my coworkers was blind. With an screen reader, he used Excel, LaTeX and other computer stuff, but IIRC he didn't program. I'd recommend to skip Scratch and clones. Jump directly to Python. The indentation may be a problem, so you must find out how to configure the screen reader to say this invisible spaces of the indentation. Perhaps it's better to use tabs for the children, because they are easier to count. (…
Fwiw I'd say ruby would be similar to python, but without the semantically significant whitespace. There's also lisps, like racket, that might be worth trying?
It's very difficult to use Racket with and editor that does not support parenthesis highlighting, and with parenthesis highlighting you can just look pass the parenthesis. I use Geany with a small customization to make the parenthesis highlighting easier to see.
Perhaps after the Rhombus project (initially known as Racket2) is finished, I'd recommend to use it. It mixes some of the significant space of Python to remove the parenthesis. There is a live demo, but I guess it still needs a few years to iron out all the details.
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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34072827
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34064916
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33772786
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33693135
Therefore I've banned the account. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with.
One of my coworkers was blind. With an screen reader, he used Excel, LaTeX and other computer stuff, but IIRC he didn't program. I'd recommend to skip Scratch and clones. Jump directly to Python. The indentation may be a problem, so you must find out how to configure the screen reader to say this invisible spaces of the indentation. Perhaps it's better to use tabs for the children, because they are easier to count. (…
Just a wild thought I had. I have no idea how screen readers treat indents, but it would be interesting to have indents indicated by speech tone. So the text on the same indentation level has the same tone and the town gets lower or higher the farther it is from the screen edge. There's probably a better solution, but I felt like sharing a random thought.
Should do the trick I'd think.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coboblocks/coboblocks-s...