lessthanseventy

70% of blind and visually disabled people are unemployed. As a visually impaired person with a degenerative condition I want to change that. I firmly believe that these people could become amazing coders precisely because of their disabilities.

Nearly every activity that a fully sighted person performs thoughtlessly has to be broken down into a series of very carefully orchestrated steps. I think that this algorithmic pattern of thinking would make for extremely trainable people. Who better to do QA and accessibility testing? And QA and accessibility testing in and of themselves could make a great training ground for any career trajectory.

I'm at my wit's end and am not sure what is the best way to proceed. I have been working at my current job for about 7 months. I am the front end developer for a chain of retail outlets in Denver. I work on our website, our customer facing kiosks, and our POS systems. There are only two other developers and one of them has become a nightmare and is making it impossible to work there. I have been verbally abused, belittled, blamed for things that weren't my fault, had my accomplishments diminished and taken credit for.

The guy is well known for this kind of behavior. I'm not the only person that has had a problem with him but it's just excused as "the way he is." After yet another round of it I sent screenshots of our conversation to our boss and was told "that's just how we communicate around here. He told me to go fuck myself just last week." I'm afraid of losing my job if I report him. We just moved here and are still not quite on our financial feet after some personal disasters last year. How should i proceed? Just suck it up until i find a new job?

What language is easiest to reason about non-visually? I'm also wondering about things like IDE support for screen readers, and any tools built/adapted specifically for the blind?

I live in an area with not that great public transportation, and due to a visual disability I am unable to drive. I'm commuting six hours a day right now which includes seven miles of walking and I can't keep it up forever. My life would be so much easier if I could work from home. Is a remote position something I can hope for as my first development job? What should I have to show I would be capable of it and how can I best work towards it? Is freelancing my best bet for awhile to try to get a foothold?

It might not be super impressive but I've got a personal page up at lessthanseventy.com. What kind of projects can I work on that might be enough for someone to give me a shot? I just want to get as much direction and focus into my learning as I can since my free time is pretty limited at the moment and I would appreciate some advice.

I have a visual disability that is causing me to slowly lose my sight. I would like to talk with someone working in industry that is blind or visually disabled about how I can enter the field myself. I have a family to take care of and limited time to make something happen. I'm willing to learn whatever I need to, move wherever I have to, and do whatever has to be done to ensure that they are cared for. I'm fairly competent with HTML, CSS, and Javascript, but would like some direction as to where to continue my education as far as real world skills are concerned.