Motivation

I wrote my first line of code when I was about 11 years old. I had a great interest in ios app development and making games in unity. Game development was nice because I could make the art, music and the code by myself.

But this all changed about two years ago. I was diagnosed with Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON). This is a genetic disease which brought my vision from 100% to 1% in 6 months. I was 16 and I had to do things differently. I could not see the screen anymore so I turned on VoiceOver, was handed a braille display, learned braille and started using my mac with VoiceOver.

Mobility, traveling with public transport, and navigating technology were all straightforward for me. But coding with closed eyes is hard. Reading one line at a time is a big limitation for example. I knew that it was possible, because I saw all sorts of people coding with their eyes closed on the internet. But I could not find a good guide on how to do it.

But then I spoke someone who was completely blind and made websites with HTML and he did the styling with css without sight. He said to me that I should just practice and try to make very small stuff. Hello world with HTML. It was really hard but it felt so good when I succeeded. I made the challenges harder and harder to the point that I've made a servo motor turn via an arduino, and connecting all the wires myself.

I can program now, but it took me a long time. More than a year before I could call myself a programmer. I want a book that you can read to get up and running again as fast as possible. So quicker than a year. I also want it to be accessible for everyone. No money or rich institute needed.

I was glad of open source tools on my journey to this point and this is a way of saying thank you for all the accessible tools.

So, shall we start?