Here goes I suppose!
This blog spawned out of a Reddit thread I posted in where a young, aspiring developer was concerned about his future due to eventual blindness. This quickly led to a suggestion that I should start a blog, and I quite liked the idea, so here I am!
A Brief Background
So to give some context, I'm a 22 year old self-employed developer from the UK. I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at around age 10 - though it has been with me since birth and the condition ran in my family, so it was expected. At the point of first diagnosis I was registered as Partially Sighted, which is to say I had significant enough sight loss for it to affect my daily life, but still enough to generally live normally.
As it turned out I received very little in the way of support from the various associations or government departments that were meant to help. I ended up getting 'lost in the system' and having various pieces of paperwork not filed properly so I largely had to learn to deal with it on my own.
The next time I was properly seen by an ophthalmologist was at age seventeen, and after some back and forth with various tests they registered me as Severely Sight Impaired (or 'blind' for most people). Again a number of screw-ups with the paperwork lead to me not really know what that meant properly, and never really having a proper conversation with a doctor about any of it.
As of right now, I can definitely say that my eyesight is significantly worse than it was when I was registered as blind, but actually getting in to see a doctor and get up-to-date tests done is proving more difficult than learning whitespace, so I can't give accurate figures on my acuity and fields.
Not to delve too much into the extended history of yours truly, I skippd out on my University applications as my eyesight got sudenly dramatically worse and I didn't really know how to be, and after a couple years feeling sorry for myself and figuring things out, I decided to follow my main passion and try to be a freelance developer.
Present Day
So here we are. I'm a (struggling) freelance developer with a few pieces of software under my belt, a semi-adapted development environment and maybe a bit of help I can give to other aspiring blind developers. I'm hardly a seasoned pro by any stretch, in fact I'm probably less of a developer than anyone reading this, but maybe I can impart some helpful advice and prevent some mistakes I mad, who knows.
This Blog
The purpose of this blog is primarily going to be as a channel for me to discuss my discoveries of cool new adaptive technology, useful tips and tricks I've picked up and basically anything I feel like putting up. If it helps even one person, or provides an interesting read while you're waiting for compilation, then I guess it's done its job.
Cheers until next time.
This paragraph in the Retinitis Pigmentosa link is pretty entertaining btw:
ReplyDelete"Examining the back of your eye
Your retina will be examined each time you visit the hospital. You will be given eye drops to dilate your pupils to allow the ophthalmologist to see the back of your eye clearly. The dilating drops take about 30 minutes to work. They will make you sensitive to light and cause your vision to be blurry. The effects of the drops usually wear off in about six hours though sometimes it can take overnight. It is not safe to drive until the effects have worn off."
That last sentence. No shit, Sherlock. :D
It's not like were already there, because you were legally blind.
DeleteYeah, they always put that rubbish in things like that. My Eye Hospital appointments always end with "You will be given eye drops so please do not drive to the appointment."
Delete... Uh huh, I guess I'll leave my rally car at home then.