It's a bitch dude. I am partial, but can't really do coding visually, or much more than that these days. But, I end up getting lost in the nested if/then/else and it drives me nuts. The idea of reading code in braille is repugnant too, I have tried, I do have a display. I've just placed the closing brace before because I couldn't back track it well enough and well, it's either gonna work right or it isn't, in which case I'll know if I got it right. So annoying as sighted people could just look at the blocks and the lines coming off them in the editor and e like yep yep yep all good slap this here and we're golden.

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One thing I think people just \*do not\* get is that losing vision and becoming more dependent on auditory solutions is \*not\* the same as being born blind and dealing with this your whole life. The structure of your thinking is different. Born blind people seem to think in audio, or images made up of audio rather than visuals. It's not that way for me. Even now with most of my usable vision to the point where reading isn't viable, I still think in actual images, imagine things visually, etc. You can't just be like OK, time to switch that up. It's a difference in the way we're wired. I think we can adapt to a point, and I have been using screen readers consistently for 10 years, but I'm still not as good with them as totally blind people. I will never think fundamentally the way totally blind people do. SO, I often times feel trapped half way between the two worlds. My vision isn't good enough to exist in the sighted world, but I'm not blind enough to totally exist in the blind world.

Bioptics could possibly help, especially if you want to just sit back and not be so close to the display. Since the bioptic would be handsfree and magnification would come from the telescope instead of constantly zooming in and out on the computer, it might be much more efficient. Unfortunetly, the magnification would probably still give you the same limited field of view, but I imagine doing things like copying texts between files might be easier.

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Technology companies should aim to be more inclusive so that visually impaired individuals can do the same job and reach the same goal in the same amount of time as a sighted person, just with different hardware, devices and software. I work for a low vision specialist and there are too many patients that have had to switch careers or go on disability as they lose their vision. I hate you are dealing with this- does your low vision specialist have any suggestions?

Agree 100%!

I used to joke that I have a photographic memory but the pictures were all taken before magnification and therefore useless. When my cataract was deemed inoperable, I sincerely tried to make the transition to screen readers. I had Supernova and it was awesome. It looked so cool when my totally blind demonstrator ran me through it. An hour later I was in tears.

I don't have it. Whatever it is that translates visual spatial awareness into an auditory-based process is not in my repertoire. Messed up thing is, my partner has macular degeneration and I'm the defacto tech solutions guru in this house so I'm about to have to learn it so I can teach/troubleshoot for him.

They've corrected the cataract so I'm back to 20/200 but nobody is remotely trying to lay odds on the longevity of an eye that wasn't supposed to survive cancer treatment in infancy. The specter of forced dependence on a screen reader looms.

I'm 16 and code has been my entire life for what is probably 5 years now. I've worked on reasonably sized projects before, although to be fair most of these were my own self-created projects and none of them have been going for 10 years. Over the time I've used a screen reader, I've constantly upped the speech rate until its blazingly fast. Because I did this over a long while, I can still understand it, so this makes reading code much more efficient. I can't stand using a braille display when reading code (computer braille is too verbose and contracted is strange because brackets and other punctuation are one symbol in my brain, but sometimes multiple on the display, yet the arrow keys treat them as one symbol). I often read complex lines of code letter by letter, at a fast pace of course, so if I get confused or my brain falls behind I can just backtrack a few characters and move forward again.

In terms of editing, on windows VS code is unbeaten in its accessibility and general usefulness, with most of its features being accessible via the NVDA screen reader. Even just little things like the smart home key functionality makes programming nice. On linux, vim always has been and always will be your friend: it's so keyboard driven anyway it's really nice to use with a screen reader once you get used to it.,

Trying to use a screen reader without training probably didn’t go so well. If you have access to your state’s rehab agency, they could send you to a rehab training center so that you may learn how to use the screen reader in an intensive program, so that you may retain your employment. I’ve seen this being done with people in other fields of work.

I have 3 friends who work in the same field, doing complex coding. These people are blind, and they use JAWS, NVDA, and a Braille display. One of them can see enough, not to need a cane, and even then he uses the screen reader and the Braille display.

I'm going to say the unpopular thing: learn to use a screen reader. I code every day for work, using NVDA on Windows. After enabling audio indentation alerts, and tuning the punctuation so it speaks the symbols I need to know about, things work quite well. I'm still frustrated by sighted colleagues who can look at colors or other visual indicators to find missing braces and the like, but that's not common.

Now, the important thing is that I've been visually impaired to the same degree my whole life. Transitioning to screen readers is much, much harder than I had it, knowing them from little up. I'm not saying you'll be up and running in a week, or that you can instantly work out how to remember and parse text so you don't need to read the same line over and over to figure it out. I'm not saying things will be great. What I *am* saying is that a screen reader may be the best of some uncomfortable options for you at this point. It's the only way I know of to work more or less efficiently with the limitations you explained. I can understand wanting to keep doing things the sighted way, but when copy/paste becomes a challenge, it sounds like it's time to at least investigate a screen reader.

Please note that this is *not* the same as learning braille. That's a whole other level, and I don't know that you need it. I find it helpful, but not essential. Stick to speech first, and worry about braille once you can get around with speech. It will make your life easier, certainly, but trying to learn braille and speech at the same time is probably setting yourself up for failure. Start with speech.

I've been trying to find a way out myself. I get the worst headaches by the end of the day. I don't think reading alone is a huge part of the problem, so much as coding is rarely written in proper English. Like wtf does if ( let i = 0; i <= object.value.length; i += 1 ) *really* mean? I know that's not anything complicated, but I have to spend a lot more time and energy on anything that's not conventional English as my eyes get worse.

I wish I had help for you beyond complaining about being in the same boat.