Introduction
Coding with eyes closed is for people who recently became blind or visually impaired and would like to code. This is not a tutorial on how to code. You already know how to write a program, but you're too inexperienced with coding with screen readers to do so. The goal of this book is to get you up and running again, and hopefully get back to work.
Coding with eyes closed is possible. It is hard, really hard, but not impossible. I've made a website using typescript and a reproducible build system with Nix, CI/CD with github actions and merged pull requests in various open source projects all without reading a single character. Everything with only the use of text to speech and a little bit of braille.
It is a challenging journey, and you may need to adjust your expectations about your skills. You may be the best programmer on earth, but in the first few months, your inexperience with screen readers will limit you in creating the most beautiful applications. I believe that if you like to code, you can do this.
This book is meant for people who depend on screen reader and text-to-speech (TTS) technology. It has useful elements for people with partial sight, but it is mostly meant for people who have little to no vision. I believe that how people with partial sight use technology comes closer to how a visual person would use technology. If you come from a sighted world and now depend on TTS, programming is way harder than working with magnifications for example.
I can now use my sight with magnifications., but programming with little to no sight made me a better programmer, because I had to be really careful where I had to put my functions, which made me better at thinking about separation of concern.
This book is highly opinionated. I will give advice based on my own experiences with my use of TTS technology. I had little to no sight between 2021 and 2023. The accessibility field is moving fast, and my recommendations regarding tooling will some day be outdated. It contains recommendations about tooling, but also tips that will still be useful 20 years from now. The book also contains exercises, to get you up and running.
How you should read this book.
You have to learn a lot of things when you lose your sight practically and emotionally. That is why I made a very efficient way to read this book.
To follow the fastest path possible to code with eyes closed, go to the cheat sheet section and read it and follow the advice. All the claims are linked to chapters that explain it in more detail, so you can read exactly how much you need. After reading the cheat sheet, you should try the exercises.
If you have sight but you want to learn how you can make your infrastructure more accessible for blind programmers, I recommend reading the language chapter and the cheat sheet.
Of course, you can also read this book from beginning to end.
This book gives advice, and every good coder experiments with tooling and languages to find a way that works best for them. That is no different for coders with their eyes closed. Experiment on your journey but not too much. Else you will waste your time.
Getting help
Please ask your questions on the matrix server
#coding-with-eyes-closed:matrix.org
Supporting this project
There are a few ways you can support this project.
- Opening a pull request or issue. English is not my native language and I have dyslexia. If you find a spell mistake, please submit an issue or pull request on the repo.
- Star the repository. This way more people can find the book.
- Helping other people on the matrix server