If I am at a place with only self checkout available, I explain my vision (or lack thereof) to them nearest employee, and explain that I need assistance. I have never had an experience (yet) in which an employee is not extremely helpful. The frontline employees know that self checkout is not a solution that works for everyone and they are not the ones who have chosen how the higher-ups have chosen how to run operations, so they will gladly help.

As far as I know the touch screens don’t have a screen reader program so how do you even enter in produce codes or choose you payment method?

TL;DR, it sucks.

Hate it. I'm tall, there's no good feature for telling what I'm pressing, so I have to BEND DOWN, hurting my back.
Also, I can't do anything myself, because I'm being rushed by other people. It basically takes AWAY the whole purpose of self checkout, when every asshole under the sun is reading over my shoulder to rush me so everyone else can get through.

Trying to find a small, low contrast bar code on a box is a pain in the ass. Sometimes the barcode is on one of the sides, and sometimes it's on the bottom, so you might have to scan 5 possible sides.

When measuring fruit that needs to be weighed, it would be very difficult to locate the sticker with the code. Some kiosks lets you do a search, but it you type in something like "apples", there could well be a dozen varieties that look very similar, but with different price tags.

Also, some things are stupidly heavy (like an 8kg/17 pound bag of rice), and lifting that to find the damn bar code. Previously, the cashier would see it and scan it in with a handheld scanner or type in the code for you.

I doubt I can go shopping independently. Honestly, I just get someone to do the self-checkout for me. It’s just quicker that way.

Ugh, back when I was in college, they replaced one of the cafes on campus with a lil self-check out snack store. I’ve only had one experience in there, but it was really crappy.

The person they hired to monitor the machines (seriously, why couldn’t they have just hired a cashier instead of a pay terminal babysitter?) was really rude.

Personally, i think pay terminals should be made accessible. I wouldn’t be fully against self checkout if they made the process more inclusive.

I've tried those in my country (I'm legally blind. 2% vision family member was curious too how if even i could use those) In that supermarket they already did 1/2 of their store self checkout and during severe covid was only sell check out so we tried it out. For visually impaired it may be enough: there were contrast options, very big touch buttons with well matched colours it had different languages too and NFC contactless payment (credit cards too i don't remember if was phone payment there too).

Maschine was loudly telling what to do, if any errors occured, if you did anything wrong. But there was no screenreader or even zoom function if you had to choose anything on screen. If weighting machine didn't recognized the product because it was fresh veggies to be chosen on touch screen from big picture and text list (tried using OCR and other recognition apps but they lack precision, didn't recognized what was on screen or recognized too much elements it taken but too long due poor signal quality and market wifi hotspot was very slow, i needed both hands so i switched to OrCam it recognized text labels i pointed at and touch buttons on machine too but of course not the pictures will try with EnvisionGlasses next time). Another problem is when some operations are taking bit too long some machines are canceling everything. I got stuck at choosing payment option there was no text at all tiny blurry logos of companies, weighting fruits and vegetables choosing them on screen list. Automatic barcode scanner was kind of fun there was 2 scanners and they scanned it automatically if i showed the barcode either horizontally or vertically by laying stuff on scanning area or lifting it and spinning product around till it was detected.
For sure cashier is millions times faster than me. In meantime we had to "apologize" few nervous people for slow use of it (there was many machines free to use) but self checkouts helper was very interested himself if and how i manage to do it, asked later for opinion because no blind or almost blind even trusted to try them I was first one in the store all others go to cashiers, he did some notes thanked us and said he will send that further so they try to improve.
I tried it on only one store.

Same with touchscreen scales for fruits and vegetables they're even more inaccessible even less time to press anything due time limit, absolutely mute no accustic cues at all. All of them inaccessible.

I have a lot of trouble seeing them.

I’ve seen places where you have to order food thru a kiosk now.

Ugh when I go out to eat part of what I go for is to talk to people. If I wanted to not be bothered I’d order Uber eats

Our stores with self-checkout still have employees overseeing them. One employee will watch \~8 terminals, typically. I just ask for help if I need it. It's never been an issue.

There are tons of fully sighted people who end up needing help with them for one reason or another anyway; accidentally scanned something twice, buying alcohol, something won't scan or got weighed wrong, etc. It's so frequent, I really don't think one more person asking for assistance even registers as significant - it's just part of their job.