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RE: How to write software if you're blind
This is interesting. Since using mouse is in conjunction with vision, what editor/IDE you can recommend to write code effectively for blind people?
This is interesting. Since using mouse is in conjunction with vision, what editor/IDE you can recommend to write code effectively for blind people?
Yeah blind people don't use a mouse, I didn't even think of that before I read the article I linked to from a blind developer, but of course the mouse is just a device to move the cursor around, a visual element you can't see when you're blind, so the keyboard is really the only thing you use. You tab through all the different elements on the screen, listening to the computer tell you what element is currently selected, until you finally find where you want to go.
Due to the availability of EmacsSpeak, Emacs would seem to be a good choice as an editor and IDE. Emacs is known to have more keyboard shortcuts than you can possibly learn in a lifetime, you don't need a mouse for anything, which is great in this case and with EmacsSpeak the screen reader knows how Emacs works so can give you much more relevant information than a general purpose screen reader.
And Visual Studio on Windows. Microsoft products are supposedly the most accessible, including Windows itself, and the Visual Studio team has invested a lot of time in making sure it works with screen readers. On Linux you will have an issue with all Electron based editors like Visual Studio Code and Atom since Electron isn't accessible on Linux yet I believe, on Windows it is.
So your best bet is really to use Windows for now until the situation on Linux and macOS improves, and use Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code and Emacs. Say what you want about Microsoft, but when it comes to accessibility they seem to be doing a better job than any other tech company judging by the comments from blind developers I've read, followed by Apple who are doing a great job on iOS.
Ah, I've been thinking a minimal distro Linux (with only terminal or tiling window as the interface) should be enough. But seems Windows has a better text2speech program than Linux. What about Vim (or neovim), is it also suitable for blind people?
I've seen a few comments saying that vim doesn't work that well with screen readers. But you could probably use a Vim plugin for Emacs so that you can still make use of EmacsSpeak. The other famous Emacs joke is that it's the best Vim editor :) I just read that Eclipse is supposedly also a nice choice for blind people. I wonder how Intellij compares, their website says it's best to use it with Windows, only works "to some extend" on macOS and Linux isn't even mentioned, so on Linux Eclipse might be the better choice.