Are there any visually impaired PHP programmers?

Question

Hi there folks !

I'm a PHP programmer from Bulgaria. I have a visual impairment called Keratoconus which worsens my vision with time, and although it's not very probable that it's going to develop much further I'm a bit worried about my programming career. Especially dealing with the front end work technologies like HTML/CSS/AJAX coding. Do you know any visually impaired PHP programmer out there? I was even thinking if I would switch to another language so I can concentrate solely on backend work .... but it would take several more years to gain the same experience with another platform :/

Do you know any PHP programmers with visual disabilities?

Answer 1

Not personally, but I've seen a comment on the php|arch website from a PHP developer who had difficulties figuring out where the input elements where because he was color blind - I'll try to find it.

EDIT: Here it is, no contact information however... Perhaps you could Google him or ask php|arch.

Answer 2

Whilst not specifically aimed at PHP this previous answer might have some useful information for you: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118984/how-can-you-program-if-youre-blind

You could always out source the front end if the need arose or employ someone to do it or become business partners with a web designer.

Answer 3

I'd say that aside from the problems it may cause, it will also give you a special quality when it comes to developing web applications. You know from first hand how to spot a website which is not accessible for people with a visual impairment, so you can point that out to your team/apply it yourself.

That being said, I've got two more things for you to consider:

• Does PHP automatically mean you have to deal with markup? Can't you do backend work only in PHP?
• Is it ever a bad idea to broaden your skillset, learning new concepts and/or languages?

For me, both questions can be answered with 'no', although you're probably right if you say a lot of PHP programming is in some way mixed with a bit of frontend stuff.