Anything computer or lab driven would be fine. There are so many adaptable technologies that can make those careers possible.

I'm 18 with LCA... People with Leber's are typically totally blind from birth so I'm in a weird situation. For me STEM is the only way I want to go and I've spoken with a couple of Deans from the Engineering Departments of schools I'm interested in. They have told me that they have several visually impaired students who are very successful. I'm for sure pursuing it, I think it's about making sure you are adequately prepared for it.

Your blindness will not be your largest impediment to your career goals. Lots of people drop out of engineering programs because they cannot commit the time and energy to learn the material and keep up with the workload. If you are responsible and committed in your undergrad studies then you can achieve these career goals just fine.

$1.

In particular $1 created a board that you can draw on and feel, and he would bring this board to office hours and ask professors to draw important graphs on them and he would annotate those graphs.

I worked with a man who had serious visual impairment, but was not completely blind. He was one of the most successful software engineers I've met -- and very productive. I think he had RP. I know that he needed high-contrast (bright text on black background) screens, had a dim office, and used a magnifier. But seriously, he was a beast of an engineer. I don't know what your prognosis is, but if you will retain limited sight, then I would encourage you not to exclude the possibility of a STEM career.

I've heard that many computer-driven fields are full of successful people with vision impairment. There are some GREAT tools for accessing information on your computer screen without sight. I'm not sure about the more traditional engineering fields, but anything in the realm of software should be very doable.

STEM Careers are not out of reach. Loosing your sight will mean that you have to find different ways of accessing the information you need to do what you need and want to do. For example: STEM requires a lot of charts and graphs, so you will need to learn how to read tactile graphics. While you can use Text to Speech programs to access information it will be more beneficial to learn to read braille. You can hear a program tell you a complex equation but you might miss details that you otherwise would catch if you were reading the material.

Look into $1 a blind astronomer who who was the Director of Research and Development at the SETI Institute and holds a PhD in Physics. There are many resources available to you, like the National Federation of the Blind, American Council of the Blind, Perkins, and so many others. Look for your local blindness organization and they can help you find information.

Like getting into any career you need to do your research, talk to people in the field, build connections, build your skills, work as hard as you can, and definitely use all the resources available.

I can only speak for engineering but I personally know one blind programmer who does just fine, and I've read about others. And math and its derivatives (physics, economics, etc) are completely doable. Euler who is the greatest math mind of all time (imo) did his best work after he went blind, he said "Now I will have less distraction."

There are relatively many resources for math/hard sciences for vision impared.

I don't have a for sure answer for you and not sure if you'll get one, but I'll just give you my $0.02.

I'm 19 and haven't been officially diagnosed yet but my optometrist has said I have myopic macular degeneration, and i'm currently going through tests to test for retinitis pigmentosa as my ophthalmologist said he thinks I might have it too. I was aiming to be a General Practitioner but have taken a year off school to get my eyes sorted out and decide what I'm going to pursue. I've though a lot about it and still am not totally sure what way I'm going to go but it will be very, very tough to pursue a medical career if my vision goes quickly, and i'd imagine the same for any STEM degree. There's really no putting it light that you may really need to consider something else. At the same time though if you plan on working around computers a lot i'm sure there are a lot of programs to help you with that so you might be able to do it. I've read about a guy that went to Business school and now works for a huge American Bank (I can't remember the name but i've seen it thrown around a lot), and i've read about a woman going to university and getting a Degree (Again it's slipped my mind) both while being blind, so there is hope. I'd imagine in astronomy and engineering you need to be able to see graphs and lines and things, i'd imagine that's going to be difficult blind.

So yeah just think about you future and what is reasonable. If a lot of your data that you work with is presented on graphs and other visual things, it might not be reasonable.

Stay positive though even if it gets hard, who knows what the future has in store for us, there are already bionic eye's in the making and maybe one day in our lifetime they will be good at manipulating stem cells to just grow a new retina or some shit.