kismetjeska

I know I’ve posted lots of comments, but I wanted to make a top level one because lots of people don’t realise that many blind people can and do use the internet.

Most use screen readers, which read text aloud. They can’t do images, which is why things like image descriptions and alt text exist- the screen reader will read that instead.

Some people use refreshable Braille displays. The former is made of pins that can raise or lower to create Braille sentences, and therefore convert text into Braille. Reading with these is slower, but it‘s a good option for blind-deaf people.

Also, the majority of blind people don’t see ‘nothing’. Their vision may be very blurred, or only really be colour, or only really be shifting light patterns, but most blind people still have some residual vision. This means some legally blind people can read very large text,

As for how they might respond- even sighted people touch-type! That’s why there’s those little bumps on the J and the F keys- it lets you align your hands on the keyboard. They could also use a Brailler, which is like a typewriter for braille, but accessibility technology is sadly expensive.

Blind people have said a ton of times that keyboard smashing memes are both vaguely offensive and annoying, because their screen readers will read the whole thing out. Writing dots like Braille is the same thing, plus it’s just pretty dumb.

I’m passionate about accessibility and disability but I’m not blind, so apologies if I got anything wrong!

Thanks for the correction, but I already knew :) 'Man', 'dude', 'sweetie', 'honey' and 'babe' are all gender neutral terms to me. Party on, dudebabe.

Sorry to be a butt, but can you have kids? And, if so, would you want to/ would your disease be passed on to them? Sorry if that's too personal a question. Thanks for doing this AMA; you seem like a wonderful person.

At which point, in your opinion, did molecular self-replication become something that could be considered 'life'? Is that a line we can ever really draw?

Well done on graduating, man! You rock.