Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Blind software developers: what's the best way to be introduced to the code base and product when joining a new company or team? (self.Blind)
submitted by mattmiller42
We'll have a blind engineer joining our team very soon. He's really experienced and I'm sure he has already developed his own methods for navigating and understanding the code structure. I wanted to ask in advance though for any insights on how best to onboard a new developer and give them a high-level walkthrough of the repositories and whatnot. Traditionally I would just pair with the other developer and share my screen, pop open some files and write some pseudo-code. Likewise, product managers tend to screenshare and demo navigating and using the end user software.
What are some more effective and helpful ways to assist a blind developer in getting acquainted with your company or your subdivision's product and structure?
What are some more effective and helpful ways to assist a blind developer in getting acquainted with your company or your subdivision's product and structure?
ten_ten_steve 7 points 2y ago
You're right to assume that they probably have their own set of preferred tools and techniques for navigating source code. When I need to pair up or collaborate with my team, I've had good success with VS Code's $1 extension. Similar to Google Docs, each participant can join a Live Share session from their own workstations. When I join the session, I'm able to use my accessibility tools and shortcuts the way I want without impacting others, or having to install specialty software on their workstations.
It's important to note that Live Share uses some cloud services to function, so be wary of your organization's security policies.
It's important to note that Live Share uses some cloud services to function, so be wary of your organization's security policies.
voidcraftedgaming 3 points 2y ago
Plus one for liveshare. Works super well, even supports sharing bash terminals and forwarding ports, on any network that can access the internet. Not 100% on the accessibility as I'm not VI but by itself it's a brilliant product.
CVRTCOMSCATIS 4 points 2y ago
I don’t have specific programming tips for you but the fact you’re asking is a good sign. I agree with the other comments that he already knows the assistive tech he prefers.
Pairing with a team member as usual sounds good and they can build in time to help identify specific barriers of his AT or process. He’ll know better than anyone what he needs. Once barriers are identified there are other resources (websites, blogs, mailing lists, voc rehab, etc) to work those out.
Screen sharing shouldn’t be a problem. If screenshots are shared descriptions will likely be needed. There is on-demand OCR available, but some info would be likely be lost or inefficient for him to access.
Having access to software, particularly in a training mode or test environment, will be helpful to get acquainted to the layout, navigation, and keyboard commands.
Pairing with a team member as usual sounds good and they can build in time to help identify specific barriers of his AT or process. He’ll know better than anyone what he needs. Once barriers are identified there are other resources (websites, blogs, mailing lists, voc rehab, etc) to work those out.
Screen sharing shouldn’t be a problem. If screenshots are shared descriptions will likely be needed. There is on-demand OCR available, but some info would be likely be lost or inefficient for him to access.
Having access to software, particularly in a training mode or test environment, will be helpful to get acquainted to the layout, navigation, and keyboard commands.
LearyTraveler 2 points 2y ago
Adding on to this that your company's Accommodation team should be able to procure any necessary assistive technology. Partner with them or HR to try to get accommodations in place by Day 1 to ensure a good onboarding experience!
Chaserly 1 points 2y ago
Hi, I was wondering if you had any tips on screen sharing. My job uses Skype to screen share but the problem is that I can’t use my software to screen read a screen share through Skype and zoom.
Is there another way to screen share? Or pair program that I could recommend my job start using?
I wanna bring this up to them, but I’ll need to have a solution as well.
Is there another way to screen share? Or pair program that I could recommend my job start using?
I wanna bring this up to them, but I’ll need to have a solution as well.
nkdeck07 3 points 2y ago
For the PM what ticketing software are you using? JIRA is kind of not exactly fun for accessibility as a whole and certain plugins can make it flat out unusable so worth doing a quick audit there.
mattmiller42 [OP] 3 points 2y ago
Good to know. Yeah, we use JIRA, so that's unfortunate...
nkdeck07 2 points 2y ago
Old view or new view? I have found that ironically the "new" view is actually a bit worse but I'd talk to your dev to confirm. A way it can be made "more accessible" fairly easily is there is a plugin that google Sheets has that pulls in JIRA content so might be more usable that way. Definitely talk it over with them but that could be a bit of a hurdle.
jage9 1 points 2y ago
Interesting. We're trying Jira this week and so far I find it relatively simple to manage. Also set up by another blind person on our staff who used the Nextgen template.
nkdeck07 1 points 2y ago
Cool! They might have fixed it a decent amount then, the vast majority of my accessibility testing work was maybe a year-ish ago (lord knows I filed enough tickets with them calling out the problems) so it could have gotten significantly better.
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