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The Tools of a Blind Programmer

parhamdoustdar.com

1–10 of 58 posts

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#3
Cool, there is also a stackoverflow thread which is pretty interesting: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118984/how-can-you-progra...

What I think stinks is that companies seldom thinks of accessibility. In many cases, there are more people in need of special accessibility tools than support for lower web browsers, yet all focus is on the latter when it comes to web development.

A good thing can be to follow the standard: https://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#5
I wonder if it might be worthwhile for sighted developers to set up a system that a blind person would use and then blindfold themselves, and start using the system...

Perhaps that would make it easier for us to develop software that works well for blind people?

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#6

I wonder if it might be worthwhile for sighted developers to set up a system that a blind person would use and then blindfold themselves, and start using the system... Perhaps that would make it easier for us to develop software that works well for blind people?

I imagine that if we tried to make programming by voice more practical, that would help solve part of the problem. A few developers have made it work but it requires a lot of setup.

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html

More resources here:

https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra...

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#7
post #4

Is it really that hard for a blind person to intuit geometry? I would have figured one does not require working eyes to understand space.

I'm genuinely curious how you would think of three dimensional objects without ever being able to see them...

I guess you would have to describe them. As a suggestion - and not an attack in any way because I'm not sure how I'd do it! - without reference to anything you can see with your eyes, how would you describe space?

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#8
post #4

Is it really that hard for a blind person to intuit geometry? I would have figured one does not require working eyes to understand space.

I'm genuinely curious how you would think of three dimensional objects without ever being able to see them... I guess you would have to describe them. As a suggestion - and not an attack in any way because I'm not sure how I'd do it! - without reference to anything you can see with your eyes, how would you describe space?

As a counterpoint it's routine in topological mathematics to work with 8 or 12 or 11 dimensional objects.

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#9
post #6

I wonder if it might be worthwhile for sighted developers to set up a system that a blind person would use and then blindfold themselves, and start using the system... Perhaps that would make it easier for us to develop software that works well for blind people?

I imagine that if we tried to make programming by voice more practical, that would help solve part of the problem. A few developers have made it work but it requires a lot of setup. http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html More resources here: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra...

But what about making it work with existing tools? My u der standing is that when developing software there are a variety of things you must implement so that these tools work well.

I'm interested because LibreOffice has an accessibility layer which I've never explored but that is cross platform.

Re: The Tools of a Blind Programmer

#10

I wonder if it might be worthwhile for sighted developers to set up a system that a blind person would use and then blindfold themselves, and start using the system... Perhaps that would make it easier for us to develop software that works well for blind people?

Part of the problem is that most accessibility software has a hell of a learning curve, that the blind have implicitly overcome already to use the thing at all. (e.g. emacspeak) It can be very daunting to try to use it as a sighted person with a blindfold over their eyes.
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