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Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

blog.silktide.com

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Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#51

Post by DigitalJack »

user24 wrote: post #27
Mahn wrote: post #14

Am I the only one who thought this has startup potential? It sounds like a problem in search of a solution. I can picture for instance a service that would take a page, scan it, remove all the unnecesary clutter and make it as much screen reader friendly as possible.

I thought it has startup potential too, but in a different direction; a league of blind people you can hire to give feedback on your website.

Yes, exactly. But you could go even further: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5021748

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#52

Post by DigitalJack »

jareds wrote: post #48
chewxy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to be insensitive, but I am morbidly curious about your condition (mainly because 23andme said I am prone to macular degeneration, a thought that terrifies me). How does one program without sight? I have done something similar to OP on my latest project (I tried to use my product blindfolded + screenreader), and I found that it was a terrible experience. My site was absolute shite. It was only through my…

I was born blind so have never known any different and have always done everything on the computer with speech and brail. From talking to people who have lost their vision later in life it generally seems the older you are when you lose your vision the harder it is to adapt and live a normal life after vision loss. Since you know it may be a possibility though I assume may have some time to at least cope with the fac…

Have you found some programming languages to be easier to work with due to their syntax?

For example, I was thinking I would have an easier time hearing Python vs hearing Clojure. I think that even if it were brail, something like Clojure would be more difficult to track.

Although giving it some more thought, I suppose the indentation of python might be the more difficult thing to deal with.

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#53

Post by 3A2D50 »

digitalengineer wrote: post #25
heyitsnick wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is floaters are quite common and many in the population suffer from them. I've had them for a few years, I visited my optician and he said not to worry, and he could actually 'see' the floaters when he looked at my eye (it's litereally bit of debris floating about in there) so he knew it wasn't anything serious like a retinal tear. He said only if there is a rapid increase in them should I seek emerg…

You are correct: Floaters are normal. Fixed spots are not. Floaters, well they float . You can easily see the difference when you look left and quickly look right. Floaters keep moving a bit because of the motion. Try it in front of a clear blue sky or white wall for best results.

Floaters can be a real annoyance. I managed to damage my right eye from over focusing four months ago. I now have a brown floater that takes up about 5% of the right eye's vision. Fortunately it doesn't settle directly in my line of focus, but manages to swing by when I shift my vision. Very distracting. It becomes very noticeable in daylight, as it appears that there are many fine threads connected to it that span the lower quarter of my vision.

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#54

Post by embplat »

Read about WCAG (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag), that's what you need to follow to make web sites accessible, not markup validation, which really means "jack shit".

Visual impairment does not necessarily equal total blindness. Accounting for text size, contrast level, etc. is a lot to consider. AA conformance level (middle level, so to speak) is very hard to achieve.

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#55

Post by [deleted] »

jareds wrote: post #22

As a totally blind software developer everything he has in the article is accurate. There are two things he did not do though which I do on a regular basis and assume most other blind users do as well. First is using the feature of screen readers that allow you to view all links on a page as one giant list. While this isn’t helpful when initially browsing a page if you use a site on a regular basis and know where you…

[deleted]

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#57

Post by bostonpete »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #4

As great as this article is, the title should be "10 things I learned about accessibility by pretending..." I was hoping it might be about somebody who was 'blind' for a week in everyday life, and the potential shifts in their subjective perception of reality this might have caused.. it's something I've wanted to do for a while – anyone know of anything like that, actually?

> anyone know of anything like that, actually?

No, but Eddie Murphy famously pretended to be white for a while and the results were frankly shocking (got free newspapers, easier time getting loans, etc.)

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#58

Post by ars »

ebiester wrote: post #43
lmm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was trying to find a succinct way to express that I had no disabilities rather than just that I can see. I'm aware my phrasing was awkward but hope people would realise there is no offence intended.

The politically correct term is "temporarily abled." This sounds goofy at first, until we realize that if we live long enough, nearly all of us lose our abilities in one way or another.

Have you never heard of the euphemism treadmill?

It doesn't matter what you call it - nothing is going to change the reality. You might as well use the first word that was coined for it and stop. Every new word you find will eventually have the same emotional significance, since the underlying reality isn't going to change.

And calling something by how you're not going to have it is ridiculous - yes, please walk into my charred pieces of wood, while I search for my soon to be lost keys and give you a ride in the crushed metal.

Re: Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week

#60

Post by heed »

pja wrote: post #41
digitalengineer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct: Floaters are normal. Fixed spots are not. Floaters, well they float . You can easily see the difference when you look left and quickly look right. Floaters keep moving a bit because of the motion. Try it in front of a clear blue sky or white wall for best results.

IIRC the really small white ones that you see when looking up at a blue sky are actually white blood cells in the arteries on the inner surface of your eyeball.

It's called 'blue field entoptic phenomenon.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon

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