XCode works well with VoiceOver especially now with the advent of SwiftUI taking the place of Interface Builder. I code with VoiceOver on the Mac and have no issues, and I primarily write codein TextEdit and have a VoiceOver activity set so when I'm in that app, it speaks all punctuation, characters typed, and speaks the number of tab indents . I use Terminal with no issues using the TDSR screen reader that is free and built specifically for navigating the command line interface for us blind folks. XCode has pretty robust code editing tools and I'll switch over to that if I need to make large, sweeping changes in my Python or when refactoring a project, but writing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and Python all in Textedit and running tests in Terminal has been fine for me, along with using Node.js or managing git repositories.

Last time I tried Visual Studio Code with VoiceOver it was nigh on inaccessible, however I've since heard that it has an accessibility mode that I might have missed, so the problem was likely between the chair and the keyboard, and it wasn't the desk.

Like /u/Marconius I use Xcode for Apple stuff and find it very accessible, and TextMate 2 for all my editing needs when coding in other languages like Rust. I've been warming up to the possibility of using Emacspeak lately, but the fact that I have to install so much stuff on my Mac to use it is putting me off, though I might give it a try on my Raspberry Pi once I find the time.

Finally, there are a few little details that make me prefer VoiceOver over Orca or NVDA for coding: the ability to quickly jump from function to function using the rotor both in Xcode and TextMate, which helps navigate large source files, and the way the screen-reader reacts when I move the text cursor with the arrow keys. Regarding the latter I find the fact that the NVDA and Orca always announce the next character whenever I move the cursor instead of announcing the character that I jumped over to be rather confusing. VoiceOver has an option to make it work the way other screen-readers work for those who are used to it, but sadly other screen-readers do not have an option to work like VoiceOver.

Interesting thread I thought about creating such one, but you did and I didn’t. This is fascinating. My mentor uses mac and apple only and he runs a software company and. An isp. He was happy to hear I mostly use a mac hahaha! And he’s blind also totally blind.

Yeah VoiceOver is Mac OS, so if you are on a mac you use VoiceOver, if you're on Windows you use either NVDA or JAWS.

As for which one is better ...I think nVDA/JAWS will give you more out of the box without having to install additional things. Coding using VoiceOver can certainly be done but imho it requires a bunch more setup and tweaking to do well, which I personally find annoying to such a degree that I don't bother. I tried a few months ago and did not like the experience with VO very much where VS Code is concerned, particularly where things like intellisense, selecting code etc. are concerned.

So yeah, I'd recommend giving it a whirl with NVDA if you can, also make sure you turn on indentation reporting in document formatting so you can keep an eye on the way VS Code autoindents your nested functions and such.

WELL VoiceOver is only available on Mac, iOS etc. I'm not sure how well it works with VSCode either.

Go NVDA.

Given NVDA is for Windows, and VoiceOver is for iOS/MacOS, I'd say your choice of platform dictates your screen reader choice. Unless you're choosing the OS based on the screen reader. They're both pretty good.

I’m a full stack programmer but due to my blindness I tend to shy away from the front end stuff. Do you have enough vision to see the front end? If not, how do you ensure that things look the way sighted users expect? I mean sure, I speak RGB and CSS, but knowing exactly how that translates visually isn’t always easy

I'd second what u/zersiax said. Both are workable, but NVDA with VSCode is my preference. I have far too many focus issues, delays, and other problems with VO and Xcode to feel efficient. With NVDA, there's no lag, automatic suggestions work better, and VSCode offers a lot of customization in its accessibility settings.

Sure, using a text editor will work, but you lose a lot of IDE functionality. I've used VSCode for about three years, and I still shudder to think of the time I lost using Notepad++ as my coding environment. No error warning sound, no auto-complete, no automatic speaking of the next parameter, no quick way to find a project file, no function/symbol browser... The difference is night and day. If you decide to go Windows, use VSCode first. Do some searching online to get a handle on how to optimize it for screen readers, and you'll soon love it.