Very slowly, with lots of swearing, and preferably with your depressant of choice nearby…

Jokes aside, I’m currently doing math blind for a computer science major, and it is challenging. I have to adapt to basically everything I do. I talk a lot with a Disability Resource Center on my college campus, and sometimes it just comes down to trial and error. I use a lot of braille and text to speech since that’s the only method accessible to me. Even if I had a vision, I would probably still rely on braille for math content because of how much effort it used to take for me to read it visually back when my eyes worked a little better. Optical character recognition, school staff and faculty, and sometimes just good old going up to a friend and asking them to read something for you. Oh and I was only half joking about having your depressant of choice on standby

Haben Girma, a DeafBlind woman, graduated Harvard Law School. Her autobiography could prove a good read for you.

She’s also on Twitter, and someone worth following.

On a computer, a screen reader will read everything out to you and instead of using a mouse with an on screen pointer, everything is simplified to keyboard commands and shortcuts. It is not as difficult as it sounds once you get used to it. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure I am able to navigate elements on a computer much faster than a sighted person because I don’t have to move a mouse in point and click on buttons.

I am legally blind and currently doing a master's program in English linguistics and literature. I use Jaws for TTS because fortunately in my country you can get a 1 year licence for free and renew it every year if you are visually impaired. (I use Jaws as I found it to be the most packed with features TTS so far I anyone knows a better one pleas inform me) I usually try to find audiobooks for my readings because they are way more pleasent than to listen to a robotic synthesised voice. In terms of writing, I can perfectly use a regular keyboard since I learnt the alphabet, actually I kind of learnt them together. Also my university is great for visually impaired students because we have a dedicated support service where we can ask for help with almost anything in connection with our studies if needed. They even can transport disabled students from their home or dormitory (of course only in the city) to the various buildings scattered in the city and also take you home or to your bus and naturally they also help us to get to the classrooms where are classes are held. Honestly I haven't even used most services they offer in my 4 years because I'm just fine with using my laptop and communicating with my teachers if any problem comes up and with the help of my friends I can get around the building where my classes are fortunately.

Kurzweil 1000 got me through my PhD. I’m not totally blind, but there’s no way I could have done all the required reading by sight. Kurzweil has optical character recognition for scanned or digital documents, the ability to easily add notes and bookmarks to documents, and an in-built screen reader. Only problem is, it costs over $1,000 so not easily attainable for many people (I had a bursary to cover it). There are probably cheaper, albeit less fully-featured, and/or less good options for OCRing and reading text. It’s been a few years since a finished my doctorate, so I don’t know what’s on the market now.

I’m reading this on Apollo like many sighted people here, but am totally blind. The key is a screenreader; built into iOS and Android.
If app developers write clean and accessible code, such as labeling all elements and universal use of descriptive alt text, then blind people can do anything. I won’t say what I do professionally, but it’s something most people are surprised that a blind person can do.
Like you I have not always been blind, but now am completely. I had to teach myself a lot and use automation to accomplish more. Sometimes you have to get pretty creative to solve problems when losing a sense.

Tl;dr - Screenreader, VoiceOver or Talk Back. Humans are adaptive as hell and I’m a persistent, blind one.

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In my Masters program now to be a VRT so unique position to comment, as I’m going to school so that I can prepare other people with BVI too go to schoo, if they desire. So here goes. . .


Technology: Software such as JAWS, Fusion, NVDA, Hardware such as refreshable Braille displays, ORCAM and OCRs, iPad/iPhone Apps such as Voice Dream reader with Bookshare, NLS, and BARD, Follett’s RedShelf. Digital recorders like a Victor reader.

Learning Braille, slate/stylus, Perkins brailler, Mountbatten, and an embosser.


Of course they could dictate as well.

There are as many answers to this question as there are people with BVI, because none of us are the same and what works for one May or may not work for another.

I went totally blind in 2015, in 2018 I decided to get off my butt and go back to school. In 2020 I received my Associates degree in psychology. And 2 weeks ago I started my new job. I have used various Technologies to help me reach my goals. I had tether a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPad and iPhone and that was how I completed my courses. Voiceover on iOS and Apple devices is amazing! If I could give any advice to anybody that is visually impaired or blind and wants to go to school, I would highly recommend talking to the disability resource center at the school you plan on attending. They can offer many accessible ways to help you complete your coursework. In my instance I was able to get my textbooks put onto a victor reader device which allows me to listen to the books in audio format. I did have some struggles with some graphs and other things that are visually represented.. are use windows 10, macOS, iPad, iPhone. All of these devices allow me to interact with the world. Do not feel that just because you’re losing vision or if your vision has gone that you cannot enjoy things that everybody else can. It is all in whoever you are or whoever you want to be.
One other thing I would recommend is if you have access to a support group for blind people then I would go there and also talk to those people because they can teach you a lot.
I hope this helps.
Wishing you the best.
Stay safe

Decades ago, I knew a blind student at Harvard Law School. He was, of course, very smart, and had an excellent memory. He also had several human readers. Today, he'd use some text reader software. For writing, I believe he touch typed. This was before computers, so it was a lot harder to edit.

Not to be glib, but normally by doing twice the work everyone else is doing. Doing it is not the hard part, because the alternative is sitting at home being a loser. The hard part is keeping on smiling while you do it and everyone else floats through life having it way easier.

Alcohol.

And here’s a post in the statistics subreddit that has lots of good links:

https://www.reddit.com/r/statistics/comments/qolp6y/e_to_what_degree_can_my_legally_blind_son_with/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

This podcast about a blind judge may be of interest:

https://hadley.edu/podcasts/hadley-presents-conversation-experts/life-law-and-vision-loss-judge-tatel