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Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#121

Post by solarengineer »

dan-robertson wrote: post #78
solarengineer wrote: post #65

Unorthodox suggestion: build up lots of capital ASAP, so that you don’t struggle later commuting to terms with loss of vision as well as potential loss of revenue. Some approaches to consider: Algo trading , creating and selling off products, creating stuff for startups for a stake in the profits. Right now, you may want to consider all options rather than regretting not doing so later. I have seen two blind persons…

I’m not sure I agree with this advice though I have no experience with being blind. Possibly creating/selling products/running a service would be a good way to have an income stream which is reasonably sustainable but I would worry about any graphical front end to any software product, and my general worry would be about loss of income because my expectation would be that finding a job while blind would be hard. I wo…

Building up a financial foundation as an employee can take years. The OP may not have that much time. I therefore suggested algo trading ( their programming skills come to use ), and creating and selling off products ( where they build things and sell them off, instead of building a SaaS business and getting caught up in all the business building).

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#122

Post by hnick »

Marsymars wrote: post #120
hnick wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll be amazed how good your memory will get without the crutch of sight That's all really interesting. I personally have a problem with my thoughts in that I need to "sound out" or read them aloud in my head. This sometimes really slows me down, I mull over a thought until it sounds right. Especially when I'm tired I can get stuck in a loop. And it applies when reading too, I can force myself to read faster but…

FYI that process is called "subvocalization" - I'm only passingly familiar, but if you search that term there's lots of literature about it.

Yes that's the one, I forgot what it was called. Always found this part interesting (from the wiki):

"This inner speech is characterized by minuscule movements in the larynx and other muscles involved in the articulation of speech. Most of these movements are undetectable (without the aid of machines) by the person who is reading."

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#123

Post by dchichkov »

Curious, when doing your research on the syndrome, did you encounter following article in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/jhg201029

And did you read majority of articles that cite this article? https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Gene...

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#124

Post by jimohalloranau »

A couple of years ago I was staring down the barrel of giving up a 20 year career in software development due to a degenerative eye condition.

I can't tell you how many hours I wasted chasing parse errors in PHP code because I literally couldn't see the difference between a "." and "," anymore.

My solution ended up being transplant surgery to replace one of my corneas, which has largely restored vision in one eye. I still use a lot of large fonts, high contrast, etc, but I'm able to manage much easier on a day to day basis.

I had a wonderfully supportive employer, so when it was clear to me that unless something changed dramatically (i.e. surgery) I would no longer be able to do my current job we sat down (at my instigation) and discussed what this might look like in terms of both what sort of role I could continue to do, and what I wanted to do (not always the same thing, and the latter is important).

My manager at the time said something which has stuck with me. He said that (paraphrasing) the thing he really valued was the care, thought and attention I paid to the work I did. And that the way that had been expressed was through fingers on keyboard writing code. We just needed to find a way of capturing that thought and turning it into code a different way.

We never fully made the transition into a completely different role because my surgery meant I was able to continue (after 20 years I still love coding and didn't want to entirely give that up). But for me, that was going to mean spending more time with junior developers, coaching, mentoring, etc. I didn't want to manage people, so moving up the chain into management wasn't an option for me. But Project Management, might be an option that allows you to leverage some technical skills, but be less dependent on your vision.

So, if your employer is amenable, don't try to do this alone. See what changes can be made to accommodate your needs. Having a degenerative condition where you're not going blind overnight is an advantage, because it means you can work with your employer to adapt your role over time to suit you.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#125

Post by sn »

My company (prgmr.com) gave a presentation about hiring our first blind engineer at SCALE last year:

https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/17x/presentations/accid...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvrQPdt1X30&feature=youtu.be

We hired another blind developer who occasionally does some frontend work. If any sort of visual layout is involved, that obviously needs review, but he's able to add on to existing pages. He's also trying selenium for testing the visual layout.

It will probably be more of a challenge for you since you're having to learn to deal with lack of vision as an adult rather than having been blind since a young age. In your position I'd seek out advice specifically from others who have gone through the same process.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#126

Post by bear8642 »

ddevault wrote: post #13

I recommend using a tiling window manager - they allow you to organize windows logically, rather than spatially. I have also written some plugins for using Vim (text editing) and Weechat (IRC chat) with speech synthesis: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/dotfiles/tree/master/lib/vim/vim... https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/dotfiles/tree/master/.weechat/py... And I have a script for Sway (a tiling window manager) which also gives…

Rob Pike's Acme editor is another powerful tiling editor you can check out.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#127

Post by zachrip »

nzealand wrote: post #118
zachrip wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This experience has been so humbling. I grew up in a rough household and when I had barely scraped myself past high school graduation and gotten work as a SWE and eventually made it to some fortune 50 companies I thought I had life figured out. Then I started bumping into things and struggling playing my favorite games. My eye doctor casually telling me I have RP and discovering I'd be going blind in the parking lot…

> discovering I'd be going blind in the parking lot post appointment That is devastating. Did you get a second opinion?

Yes this was 2 years ago, I ended up at Columbia Ophthalmology in NYC and they were able to get me DNA tested after another local doctor failed to assist me in doing so. USH2A is the name of the specific condition if you're curious.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#128

Post by shakna »

dannypgh wrote: post #107
chrisdone2 wrote: post #69

If i went blind tomorrow I would invest heavily in: 1. Emacs and Emacsspeak in particular. Emacs is the richest text-based user experience out there; imagine if all Terminal apps were configurable and scriptable under the same coherent framework. This is why Emacsspeak is an incredibly valuable asset that I would lean heavily on in the event of vision loss. 2. I would invest heavily in making sure that I have a very…

> Emacs and Emacsspeak in particular. Emacs is the richest text-based user experience out there; My naive expectation is that non-visual editors like ed and ex would be easier to use than visual editors like emacs and vi, but I'm curious to learn more about how people work here. How well do visual editors interact with screen readers? The screen readers would presumably need to offer an interface to reread parts of t…

I go temporarily blind at various unpredictable times, so I'm not 100% in the non-visual bucket, but I am sometimes. (Simplifying grossly).

I find next to no difference between vim, nano, and Sublime Text for useability under a screen reader. You can focus, grab menus, issue macros, all the same.

For the most part, the reader won't jump back to re-read something to you, unless you ask it to. But you can make it jump between real panes and text panes in much the same way.

(There can be a little configuration involved, for both curses and graphics based applications, depending on your reader, but it's generally a one-time setup that someone else has done first.)

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#129

Post by jedberg »

kolanos wrote: post #47

You can definitely continue as a software engineer. I'm living proof. It won't be easy, especially at first. For a while it will feel like you're working twice as hard just to keep up with your sighted peers. But eventually, the better you get with your tools, you'll find you have some superpowers over your sighted peers. For example, as you get better with a screen reader, you'll be bumping the speech rate up to 1.7…

> you'll be bumping the speech rate up to 1.75-2X normal speech. You'll be the only one who can understand your screen reader

Huh. I already listen to most podcasts and recorded presentations at 2x. Now you make me wonder if I could process information faster with a screen reader even though my sight works just fine...

Re: Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?

#130

Post by ddevault »

bear8642 wrote: post #126
ddevault wrote: post #13

I recommend using a tiling window manager - they allow you to organize windows logically, rather than spatially. I have also written some plugins for using Vim (text editing) and Weechat (IRC chat) with speech synthesis: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/dotfiles/tree/master/lib/vim/vim... https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/dotfiles/tree/master/.weechat/py... And I have a script for Sway (a tiling window manager) which also gives…

Rob Pike's Acme editor is another powerful tiling editor you can check out.

As a huge fan of Plan 9, I would strongly recommend against acme for visually impaired users. It's highly mouse-driven, requiring a spacial understanding of the interface and the ability to see where the mouse is and coordinate its movement to execute commands.
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