Do I need braille to code?

Short answer no. You can do everything with just a laptop and a screen reader.

I like braille. You can feel every single character and their is something about braille that feels magical. feeling git add README.md in the terminal is really cool. Reading braille comes more close to reading visual character then hearing words.

Braille is useful for solving syntax errors because you can feel if their is a mismatched curly bracket. It made be more experimental with programming languages, for example I want the entire definition of a function to be on one line so it could fit on my braille display, so I chose haskell to accomplish that.

What is a braille display?

A braille display, for people who do not know is a device that have little points that can move up and down. This way, the characters are not static but dynamic. Content can change based on the context of your application. A tipple braille display contains about 40 characters. You can compare regular braille and a braille display to a poster and a monitor. A poster is static, but a monitor can change 60 times a second. A note in braille is static, but you can change the content of the braille display with buttons to go the next line.

But sadly, braille displays are expensive. A braille display costs between 3000 and 5000 euro's as am typing this in 2023. My government gave me a braille display because I live in a country where they provide good care for people with a handicap. If your government is willing to give braille displays to visually impaired people, please make sure you get your hands on it, it is fun to learn it braille can be very relaxing when you're reading a book.

Why braille makes me less productive

I use braille every now and then, reading books for example, but I do not use braille for coding because it makes me less productive. With screen readers, you can hear words insanely fast. I believe I can read my email twice as fast then how visual people would read their email.

From the people I spoke, including someone who only used braille and did not use any TTS technology where as fast as someone with sight or slower. Moving your hands between the braille display and the keyboard is slow. Yes you can type on braille displays but it is not as fast as typing with 10 fingers.

You cannot code with your laptop sitting on your lap, because you need your braille display. This seems as something that is not important but I like to code in the train for example or solving a advent of code puzzle in the living room.

Braille is slow. Not only reading braille but moving your hands between the braille display and the keyboard. Depending on a braille display is annoying too and it is expensive. You do not need braille to code.