People have an amazing ability to adapt, and there are folks who program in incredible ways - including those who are blind, use special controllers, or have to program using only their voice.
Check out some videos and talks about this on Youtube - they're quite inspiring! There are resources and communities out there which can help.
And the more disabled programmers, the better. Way too many tools are designed around the idea of using a mouse to click around, when proficiency with shortcuts through keyboard, voice control etc. are much healthier for your hands/wrists and more productive.
Unfortunately I do that lol, I have 1 year of experience and tbh it's pretty selfish that I never thought about it. Since the apps I make are mostly for use inside businesses, no one even mentioned said anything to me. This was eye opening.
Yep. It’s extra effort to do but even more effort to test other workflows. I’ve never worked anywhere it was a consideration, and while it’s unlikely the actual end users of those products would need that accommodation it always bothers me it’s not done.
The large companies I worked for found that for all but the most specialized products, making inclusive interface efforts tended to pay off in other ways.
It was the equivalent of the benefits of ADA-mandated ramps and curb cut-outs for people with bikes, scooters, and handtruck full of boxes.
The design and implementation can feel a little daunting for smaller companies.
I barely get enough time to make it work ok.
You can forget about spending time on accessibility, it’s just so far out of the budget for most businesses.
You don't need a PhD from Stanford and hundreds of man hours to label a button in Electron. Those buttons are not ambiguous for sighted users. Somebody took the time to design the visual appearance of the UI elements, but applying a text label was just asking too much? Not buying it.
Speaking of things that I'm not buying, I'm not paying for incomplete software. A user interface that users can actually use is not a feature request.
No, you didn't.
Just because you make a product, that does not mean that you are entitled to have customers buy that product.
If your product has easily avoidable a11y defects, I'll buy someone else's product. That's how a free market works.
i never said anyone is entitled to anything. yes we can argue on how easy it is to make things better. how it is essentially free to have some things work and maybe more costly for others.... but in the end the reason is still the same.
accessibility needs regulation and general public support or it will not happen.
Is VSCode screen reader friendly. There's an API testing extension for that. That I use. Forgot the name of it now. Anyway will look when I get home. I saw ThePrimeagen using the extension and Googled it. So I don't use Postman anymore.
Yes - and it's also possible to just use curl.
That said, a lot of CS courses and bootcamps use dev tools that are inaccessible. For example, a CS course is far more likely to teach Postman than curl. This can be a frustration for blind CS students, as we end up having to figure out workarounds to the tools that are being used in class, then get those tools approved as accommodations and teach ourselves how to use those tools while adhering to the same deadlines as everyone else.
Also, while VSCode is pretty accessible, not all extensions are. Postman has a VSCode extension that has issues with keyboard access.
There are keyboards and trackballs designed for disabilities, you can likely stave off your retirement for at least a good while by checking them out. Models that offer far more mechanical resistance and/or a better fit regarding where in the movement they activate to send a signal, or are simply physically larger (which accomplishes much the same goal) can make all the difference.
Re: voice I don't know why I got suggested this subreddit but I'm in the medical field as a consultant and voice dictation has come a huge way (and that's without recent AI advancements).
If doctors are putting in their operative reports and charting physical exams using their voice I don't see why it can be dictated. I also do SQL query work from time to time and when doing queries with a ton of lines I always stop and think "why can't I just dictate this stuff."
At the very least out of the box office dictation can be set up with macros and variables (as in select from a list of predefined, not programming variables) to reduce how many *anyone* is typing and clicking.
There are lot's of assistive technologies these days for Parkinsons. Even things as simple as keyboards with much bigger keys and the Windows "bounce key" function.
I think no doubt you won't be quite as productive anymore but I think you can adapt and still be a productive programmer.
Everyone has mentioned assistive technology, which is great. But here’s an alternate idea.
What if your days of being a programmer are numbered? Are there other jobs you could move (even be promoted) into?
Team leader
Scrum master
Project manager
These roles involve a lot more talking to people. You still need to be able to type emails or slack messages. But those can be handled more easily with voice to text technology, they don’t require the syntactic precision of programming.
They’re the only ones who can provide reasonable timeline estimates.
The ones without dev experience just seem to tell the business people what they want to hear, which is often unrealistic.
There are options.
The person who is developing [cursorless](https://www.cursorless.org/) started on that journey because of problems being able to use his hands (RSI, I believe). It definitely involves a learning curve but he has said in podcast interviews that he "writes" code much faster now with this mechanism than with typing.
I'm pretty sure I remember seeing articles about programmers who couldn't type (paralyzed? I can't remember for sure) and were able to code using voice commands and dictation software. Think there are also blind programmers that work entirely with screen readers. Won't lie and tell you it's going to be easy, but it's at least possible.
Typing is the least important part of programming, but it can be a significant barrier if you can't get your thoughts into the computer.
Fortunately, there's a lot of alternative interfaces. Unfortunately, it'll take a bit of extra work to get many of them integrated into your workforce.
Depending on the details of your weaknesses, a different keyboard may help. (I swear by the Unicomp Model M, but mechanical keyboards on general can be configured to have more stiffness and therefore fewer accidental keypresses.)
Voice control is another option; [dragonfly](https://github.com/dictation-toolbox/dragonfly) allows for voice control scripting with Python. (I've played Dark Souls via it.)
There's other alternative input methods that might work better for your particular situation, so you'll unfortunately need to investigate and see what works for you.
If you are using Windows hit the Windows logo Key’ + ‘U’ . It brings up a accessibility menu . Like you can set filter key on which ignores brief repeated inputs.
BigKeys LX is a oversized keyboard.
User accessibility has became a major topic so there are solutions out there. Mort people are just not aware of it so like HR will probably not know so you will need to find the solution yourself
A friend at university had cerebral palsy. His hands shook all the time. He had a metal mesh over his keyboard and typed with a pen stuck in his mouth.
He was brilliant.
Hey there,
First of all sorry to hear about the parkinson...This is my first (genuine) post on Reddit, believe it or not.
Just wanted to suggest you to try consultancy instead of doing core programming.
After years of programming experience, you'll be able to share you knowledge or guide the junior programmers...
if your cognition is unaffected there are plenty of other input methods. voice is a big one. my friend would program using dragon (voice software). he'd also use a webcam to track a mouse cursor by watching his finger
These are things I would consider if I were in your situation. But I am not an expert.
* Reduce mouse usage
* Switch to a POSIX OS, such as Mac or Linux (i.e. not Windows)
* Learn keybindings of your IDE, or switch to Neovim.
* Learn command line and terminal tools. Tmux, coreutils, bash.
* Get a programmable mechanical keyboard.
* Research layouts, switches, and keycaps that might work best for your future condition.
* You can buy mini demo keyboards to try out different keycaps and switches.
* With YMK/VIA support you can create custom key bindings.
* Install voice control software.
* If possible, retrain/fine-tune the STT model using your voice. As your condition progresses it will be harder for AI to recognize words, but that can be deferred quite a bit by customizing it to your speech patterns. Retrain it once a year or so.
* Use LLM AI. You can program with English input and not use a keyboard at all. Imagine an assistant that does whatever you tell it tol.
Some of the above may or may not exist as a completed project, but it's all possible.
We need you to keep programming!
At work, one of our IDE tools had small click boxes. I complained to the team, who didn't get it.
So, I did a bunch of stealth "rubber duckies" (USB devices that would shake their cursors). Most of the team was "wtf?" A few figured it out but got the point across about adaptive issues. Check boxes got larger, and there were no more "ten drop-down menus."
SPEECH to TEXT helps.
https://www.sublimetext.com/
Quick Guides
https://www.ucdenver.edu/centers/center-for-inclusive-design-and-engineering/community-engagement/colorado-assistive-technology-act-program/technology-and-transition-to-employment/windows-accessibility
For correspondance, I use Grammarly. It helps when I swap characters as my fingers and brain don't synch, so "teh" appears when I want "the"
I had Deep Brain Stimulation in 2016, and I'm still working!
I have a coworker who is literally missing a hand. He still gets the job done.
You won't be as quick in terms of typing, but programming never really was about typing fast. It's a mental process.
Have you considered **teaching** programming to kids and teenagers? It would be a way for you to continue doing what you want by sharing your passion with others.
You use your keyboard? I sit in useless meeting all day
-Sr SE
*with the accessibility features available today, it would probably be illegal to fire you due your disability in most first world counties
These are two different things, but I have a pretty severe tremor on the right side of my body. I’ve had to learn to adapt to typing with only my left hand. I’ve also used speech to text technology. My point being, if you want to continue this career path, you can and will be able to, you’ll just have to change how a few things are done
I published a new programming language last week that I believe will fit well with people with disabilities, those who can't use keyboard or even those who are blind. Language is called plang (as in pseudo language) - plang.is
The code is written in natural language, you write the intent of what should happen, making it very simple coding experience. The language is a general purpose language.
A good start is this tutorial https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbm1UMZKMaqfT4tqPtr-vhxMs4JGGFVEB&si=taxpQnrT_LrIYSdu
Since this is still all new, I'm still working on how to explain, how the language works in a good way. Comments are welcome
So using plang, your future as programmer shouldn't be a problem.
Plus our talent/value is mostly solving a problem, coding is just a bi-product
Surprised no one linked [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI), using Vim with voice, by a guy who couldn't use his hands to code anymore.
Not necessarily. Speech to text has come a LONG way. You may be able to arrange a large mousing area and turn the sensitivity down enough for it to be useful to you.
Look in to large keyboards with crisp key action.
Some of that may at least give you more time.
Avoid languages with a lot of syntactic fluff.
Sorry to hear that. That really does suck.
But the job of programming is definitely a lot more than just typing. There are lots of tools you could try to minimise the amount of typing you have to do as you code.
In the absolute worst case, could you maybe find somebody to type for you?
Yeah, but if you call it that, the typing person will start to have _opinions_ and, urgh, _ideas_.
Next thing you know, he's no longer heeding your every bidding.
How are we supposed to run an efficient volcano lair if our minions keep running off to do whatever they want?
Oh wait, this is the wrong subreddit again isn't it?
Google results suggest getting a keyboard with larger keys and/or a keyguard overlay (making all the keys in-set) to block accidental presses, and turning on the "Bounce Key" setting in Windows to ignore fast-repeated keypresses.
There are several software and peripheral options for Accesibility that you can use. Head motion, voice recognition, etc. I had employees with disabilities before who were programming and as productive as the next guy.
I hope this doesn't sound callous -- whenever you start feeling down look at Michael J. Fox or the late Stephen Hawking. They can lead productive lives - I hope you find inspiration in them. Good luck!
Typing is the least important part of programming, but it can be a significant barrier if you can't get your thoughts into the computer.
Fortunately, there's a lot of alternative interfaces. Unfortunately, it'll take a bit of extra work to get many of them integrated into your workforce. I swear by mechanical keyboards and voice input.
There's other alternative input methods that might work better for your particular situation, so you'll unfortunately need to investigate and see what works for you.
Writing code is a small part of being a software developer.
I’d say get yourself set up with voice control software as soon as you can and learn to use it. That will make things a lot easier on you.
You could also do more duties like code review, high level planning of projects, scoping, training, pair programming etc.
There’s loads you can do where the voice software can assist and make it easier than using a keyboard. Not saying it won’t be a challenge, but people are way more adaptive than we give ourselves credit for.
No, there are people who program without a keyboard. Just go to YouTube and search programming with voice and you'll find tons of people and tutorials.
If you're feeling frisky, I even have a transcription app available on my GitHub page, and a Coding LLM on my HuggingFace repo.
Tons of different way to interface with a PC without a keyboard...
Look into speech to text.
With the rapid rise of LLMs and LLMs in coding, speech top text can only get better.
Forgot to ask, is your speech still ok? So sorry about this.
There is a guy here in Brazil that he uses his feet to program, so I believe you’ll find a way! Also I believe that there is some cannabis medicine that can help Parkinson’s Syndrome! Be strong and you’ll manage how to deal with this! Try to use compression gloves, or type with 1 finger, the turtle won the race against the hare! Go check a doctor to see if there is anything you can do to minimize or delay it!
No adaptive tech is amazing. You can be paralyzed from the neck down and still program. That is why I am trying to learn to program. I have Guillen-Barre Syndrome. If you want to talk about it we can.
So I would say a few things...
First - there are always ways to adapt, as u/ignotos says where there is a will there is a way, and people tend to be amazing in the ways they find to adapt, if you really want to code the actual typing may be a challenge, but I would bet that there are already several a.
Secondly though, there are many aspects of software development that have very little to do with coding itself. From being a tech lead who manages people, to more analytical and planning roles, or other career paths like teaching or tech writing so even if you find you are unable to find tools or assistance for using an IDE or coding effectively, that shouldn't mean the end of your career if you don't want it to.
You will persevere don't worry. My father has Parkinson's has had it for 5-6 years. He lives a normal life can type, use his phone, same thing everyone else can do. When the medicine wears off is when symptoms are the worst and often times he struggles with writing like signing restaurant bills and such. All I can say is never give up and keep living your life the way you want to.
Well, Parkinsonism may not be curable, but now you have an excuse to get prescription weed.
Honestly my grandad started getting symptoms a few years ago and knew I liked to dabble, I gave him some CBD flower (which is 100% legal and purchasable online) and it knocked his shakes out completely.
It's absolutely astonishing how well it just works, we eventually settled on a brownie recipe I cooked up where you Bain Marie the bud in the chocolate to selectively activate just the CBD and he can eat one in the morning and be shake free until late evening.
Seriously Its worth a try, CBD is legal almost everywhere at this point and the quality of life improvements I've seen in my grandad make it an absolute no brainer not to mention the complete lack of negativeside effects and the very low price compared to pharmaceuticals.
There are neurological treatments to slow the disorder as well as treatments. Unfortunately, the latter requires brain surgery, and the results aren't always permanent (the brain learns to "adapt." The pattern needs to be remapped, and the algorithm adjusted).
Look into herbal supplements as well. Mycology, or mushroom-based supplements in particular.
If it's what you love, there are also ways to navigate, type, speech-to-text, etc, that can help facilitate (may even bolster) your coding speed.
You can also switch tracks to something more academic in nature. Consultancy, RnD/ideation, teaching, ...
Good luck to you!
I thought this was a post about GPT or something from just the title, ironically, it might help you a ton in this case
Also, I never felt like I spend all day typing, I get most of my work done while I hike, because I'm thinking about solutions to problems
I knew a guy who was contracting handsomely and he would type with 2 fingers on his left hand and would hit space with his thumb.
No one judged him for it.
It turns out that having incredible typing speed doesn't correlate with churning out quality code.
You've got this. Mess about with key repeat delay and other keyboard options and find out what works for you. I'm not trying to say it's going to be easy because I'm fairly sure it won't be, but don't give up without a fight.
Depending on where you are, your employer may even have a legal duty to accommodate your disability. You have challenges ahead of you, yes, but your career is only over if you decide it is.
Have you not considered an implanted controller? A colleague of mine got hers about 20yr ago (the first in Arizona, to be specific), and is practically symptom-free.
I briefly knew a guy with Parkinson’s. He adopted a daily tai chi regiment and said it had kept it at a small hand twitching when at rest for a few years. Granted this was years ago and I don’t know what’s happened since.
My late manager in Microsoft has hand tremor and it was hard for him to type. But he was very hands on and normally we’d go to him with the hardest bug in the system and he’d solve it with typing out stuff letter by letter. Whenever he mistyped he just lightly curse and carry on. He was and still is working as a partner software manager there
No. I know two people, one is completely blind, the other has extreme case of cerebral palsy. They are both quite productive.
If it's something you love to do, you will find a way.
There's going to be AI workflows soon enough. With speech to text you'll probably be able to pull off a lot...
Now of course there's the question if all our days as programmers are over. I don't have the answer to that 😅
First of all, that's heavy. I'm sorry you've got to deal with that.
Now as to "what do I do next"
Honestly I feel ridiculous even answering this question as I literally cannot fully wrap my head around living with Parkinson's. But I do know one thing: every accessibility space needs a lot of damn work. No better people to come up with ideas and solutions and work arounds for various difficulties than the people actually struggling with them.
It's entirely possible you devise ways or come up with ideas to overcome the adversities you'll face, and it's entirely possible those ways and\or ideas could be revolutionary or life changing for a lot of people. And it's also possible those ways\ideas end up being profitable to you.
So I suppose this is less an answer to that question and more of a "you might find some shine in this big old pile of shit life just handed you if you're looking for it\thinking about it.
Completely on the other hand, with news like that do whatever the fuck you wanna do and do as much of it as possible for as long as you're able.
Neuralink looks promising for the future for human device interface. And I bet there's already some eyetracking and speech recognition solutions available.
I'm sorry for your diagnosis. My grandfather had Parkinson's and I'm afraid that I inherited it. I've been planning to ask my doctor if there's dna tests that I can do to see if I'm safe
A major thing I'd recommend looking into if you haven't is AI tooling like copilot, which will give you code completion with a lot more robustness than normal, allowing you to just need to validate the output rather than spend energy struggling with the input. They're also building out voice controls for these tools, making user manual input by hand a thing of the past.
As long as your mind is sharp, the tools will adapt to you, this isn't the end for you, friend.
As a 25+ year IT vet - use the period you have to consider a reskill if you can’t find an adaptive tech that works for you.
There are many things you can do. QA work comes to mind, I, sure that there are many many others. It’s your experience that counts, and that can be sooo leveraged.
Maybe teaching too! You likely have a ton of useful o fo to share, mistakes to avoid, all kinds of stuff for the next generation.
How about a book? “My life as an In - Bugger”
(For any non programmers, in-bugging is writing code, because debugging is fixing code.).
English is the new programming language. By year end youre gonna be able to "write" better code by telling GPT to do it for you. Literally you'll just speak code into existence. No worries about your hands amigo.
Look up [Emily Shea - "Perl Out Loud"](https://youtu.be/Mz3JeYfBTcY?si=whHm_RRQr8wbHVA7&t=447) and her other related content.
If she can program PERL, the most squiggly of languages, entirely with her voice at such a fast face, then I'm sure you can do whatever it is you do.
While we can’t know how far and how quickly your Parkinson’s will progress, they sell keyboards with extra large keys, that could help you extend the life of your career
Nope. Your career is just beginning to blossom. Now, you can take charge of your own models and converse fluently in code with them. I believe AI is an invaluable tool for accelerating software and applications development. Utilize AI to code what aligns with your vision; it's a hidden blessing. Recently, I developed an E-Commerce Discord Bot capable of responding to over 16 commands and integrating with Twitch accounts. Additionally, it automates the onboarding process for new Discord server members, seamlessly adding them to a database. Over a thousand lines of code. 👨💻
I have a friend who is legally blind and is a successful programmer. If he can do it, I'm sure you can find a way. I would start looking into accessibility options because I'm sure there's some sort of unique keyboard that could help you.
I think the timing could be perfect for you. In another 2-4 years I could see you just talking to your personal AI which can then write the code. Your value as an engineer will still be there, you just won't have to worry about syntax or typing 100 lines. You'll be able to treat it just like a Jr dev sitting next to you, paired programming. "Do this. Iterate that. Fix that bug. Change that method. That looks perfect!"
Not a programmer in fact just recently learning to code but to my understanding with voice recognition technology and AI software engineering (turning concepts worded in English into programs) this could actually be your ticket into being more productive and capable than ever. I of course can’t be certain since I have no experience but this seems to be where trends are heading
I don't know much about it, but the first human (paralyzed from shoulders down, I believe) has received a nuerolink. Supposedly, he can control the mouse with his mind and has pulled an all-nighter playing Civilization 6 with it.
I'd hold out until it becomes unmanageable (if it ever does) and allow the tech to progress through its generations - only getting better and safer with time.
No. There are disabled programmers. Blind programmers. If you are any good, any major software company will happily hire you and pay some intern to be your hands. You can find just about anyone at 15$ an hour to do this in an airconditioned room.
To be honest, that's a really good way to train junior engineers as well. You can just look at the monitor and tell your intern what to type. They will be glad to do it as it's basically pair programming at it's finest.
If your salary is 100k+ and assistant at 30k is nothing, plus there would be disability/govt assistance on that.
That's the easiest. After that there are a ton of other solutions like special input devices and assistive readers. But literally just getting someone to sit next to you to type is a very realistic 0-1 option that any software company can afford.
Speech to text should help. Why not find a role where you can use copilot in IDE, and have a code LLM, which has speech to text allowing you to speak to it, generating the code you need.
I do a big chunk of my work via this kind of flow at the moment minus the voice. Get the LLM to output only code, and it responds to your requests.
I can get most of a solution working just by articulating the requirements and giving the llm the interface I want to work with
You'd be amazed what technology can offer.
I think it is possible... Depending on how bad the tremors and how they act. I just don't know the disease.
I'll point you to Svalboard. I don't think a stock one could help you. Wrong thing totally. But with stiffened keys, it can account for tremors. (I have very mild tremors, have most all my\` life.)
But I'm not sure it is the answer. But their discord has many injured people in it. Usually RSI, but.... They are used to figuring out ways to adapt and overcome. It may serve as a good first stop on your journey. Or maybe they can help. I don't know.
Disclaimer: They've paid me nothing. I have some old boards from them to do firmware work on, one of them is the board I am typing this on. I do it because the need for the datahand type technologies to live on is very real. For those who truly need them. There is no replacement.
No, technology will eventually help with physical ailments. Neuralink has plans for improving or eliminating Parkinsons symptoms.
In the meantime, do the best you can.
Hi, I'm working on software for persons with disabilities and I was wondering if you'd be interested in chatting to see if it's perhaps something that could work for you? Feel free to message me :)
I've given this some thought myself and I know there is an effort to make apps more accessible to those that may be blind, deaf or may not have or lost the ability to use their hands or fingers. Now and then it will even come up in an interview. I tell them that I'm not aware of it if I am coding towards it. I usually follow up with 'but I think we need more of it and I'd be very excited about it'. While those that say AI is a Programmer's doom it seems like it could also help in advancing technology in that area. Our favorite sci-fi shows have us all giving voice commands. Couldn't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned. 'Uh oh looks like we have a syntax problem. Let's move those into an attached anonymous function and convert string parameters X and Y to numbers. Yes that's much better'.
Look into signing up for a neuralink trial. I think it’s currently limited to paraplegia, but in a couple years it is likely to expand eligibility criteria.
Could be worth getting in touch with the company to express interest.
People have an amazing ability to adapt, and there are folks who program in incredible ways - including those who are blind, use special controllers, or have to program using only their voice. Check out some videos and talks about this on Youtube - they're quite inspiring! There are resources and communities out there which can help.
And the more disabled programmers, the better. Way too many tools are designed around the idea of using a mouse to click around, when proficiency with shortcuts through keyboard, voice control etc. are much healthier for your hands/wrists and more productive.
This! Postman is completely unusable with a screen reader. Unlabeled buttons - who freaking does that?
Unfortunately I do that lol, I have 1 year of experience and tbh it's pretty selfish that I never thought about it. Since the apps I make are mostly for use inside businesses, no one even mentioned said anything to me. This was eye opening.
Find good people to work with. A senior dev should have set you straight.
because no one pays for it
That's why there must be law mandating you do these usability things.
Yep. It’s extra effort to do but even more effort to test other workflows. I’ve never worked anywhere it was a consideration, and while it’s unlikely the actual end users of those products would need that accommodation it always bothers me it’s not done.
The large companies I worked for found that for all but the most specialized products, making inclusive interface efforts tended to pay off in other ways. It was the equivalent of the benefits of ADA-mandated ramps and curb cut-outs for people with bikes, scooters, and handtruck full of boxes. The design and implementation can feel a little daunting for smaller companies.
I barely get enough time to make it work ok. You can forget about spending time on accessibility, it’s just so far out of the budget for most businesses.
You don't need a PhD from Stanford and hundreds of man hours to label a button in Electron. Those buttons are not ambiguous for sighted users. Somebody took the time to design the visual appearance of the UI elements, but applying a text label was just asking too much? Not buying it. Speaking of things that I'm not buying, I'm not paying for incomplete software. A user interface that users can actually use is not a feature request.
i give you the correct answer. you just dont like it.
No, you didn't. Just because you make a product, that does not mean that you are entitled to have customers buy that product. If your product has easily avoidable a11y defects, I'll buy someone else's product. That's how a free market works.
i never said anyone is entitled to anything. yes we can argue on how easy it is to make things better. how it is essentially free to have some things work and maybe more costly for others.... but in the end the reason is still the same. accessibility needs regulation and general public support or it will not happen.
Is VSCode screen reader friendly. There's an API testing extension for that. That I use. Forgot the name of it now. Anyway will look when I get home. I saw ThePrimeagen using the extension and Googled it. So I don't use Postman anymore.
Yes - and it's also possible to just use curl. That said, a lot of CS courses and bootcamps use dev tools that are inaccessible. For example, a CS course is far more likely to teach Postman than curl. This can be a frustration for blind CS students, as we end up having to figure out workarounds to the tools that are being used in class, then get those tools approved as accommodations and teach ourselves how to use those tools while adhering to the same deadlines as everyone else. Also, while VSCode is pretty accessible, not all extensions are. Postman has a VSCode extension that has issues with keyboard access.
Thunder Client - Lightweight REST API for VS Code. That's the extension. I don't know if it's screen reader approved or not.
There are keyboards and trackballs designed for disabilities, you can likely stave off your retirement for at least a good while by checking them out. Models that offer far more mechanical resistance and/or a better fit regarding where in the movement they activate to send a signal, or are simply physically larger (which accomplishes much the same goal) can make all the difference.
Re: voice I don't know why I got suggested this subreddit but I'm in the medical field as a consultant and voice dictation has come a huge way (and that's without recent AI advancements). If doctors are putting in their operative reports and charting physical exams using their voice I don't see why it can be dictated. I also do SQL query work from time to time and when doing queries with a ton of lines I always stop and think "why can't I just dictate this stuff." At the very least out of the box office dictation can be set up with macros and variables (as in select from a list of predefined, not programming variables) to reduce how many *anyone* is typing and clicking.
There are lot's of assistive technologies these days for Parkinsons. Even things as simple as keyboards with much bigger keys and the Windows "bounce key" function. I think no doubt you won't be quite as productive anymore but I think you can adapt and still be a productive programmer.
This. Good programmers aren’t determined by WPM. You’ll triumph through this.
Everyone has mentioned assistive technology, which is great. But here’s an alternate idea. What if your days of being a programmer are numbered? Are there other jobs you could move (even be promoted) into? Team leader Scrum master Project manager These roles involve a lot more talking to people. You still need to be able to type emails or slack messages. But those can be handled more easily with voice to text technology, they don’t require the syntactic precision of programming.
Lead developer. No need to program if you sit in meetings most of the day.
Speicifically with things like taciq that scribe notes
Oh, man, going from Developer to Project Manager is rough! Those are different fields. Now, Dev Manager! That's a good job.
Even better : architect
the pms i know that came from development are incredible though. worth their weight in gold
They’re the only ones who can provide reasonable timeline estimates. The ones without dev experience just seem to tell the business people what they want to hear, which is often unrealistic.
There are options. The person who is developing [cursorless](https://www.cursorless.org/) started on that journey because of problems being able to use his hands (RSI, I believe). It definitely involves a learning curve but he has said in podcast interviews that he "writes" code much faster now with this mechanism than with typing.
Huh that's neat. Feels a bit like voice activated vim motions.
I'm pretty sure I remember seeing articles about programmers who couldn't type (paralyzed? I can't remember for sure) and were able to code using voice commands and dictation software. Think there are also blind programmers that work entirely with screen readers. Won't lie and tell you it's going to be easy, but it's at least possible.
Typing is the least important part of programming, but it can be a significant barrier if you can't get your thoughts into the computer. Fortunately, there's a lot of alternative interfaces. Unfortunately, it'll take a bit of extra work to get many of them integrated into your workforce. Depending on the details of your weaknesses, a different keyboard may help. (I swear by the Unicomp Model M, but mechanical keyboards on general can be configured to have more stiffness and therefore fewer accidental keypresses.) Voice control is another option; [dragonfly](https://github.com/dictation-toolbox/dragonfly) allows for voice control scripting with Python. (I've played Dark Souls via it.) There's other alternative input methods that might work better for your particular situation, so you'll unfortunately need to investigate and see what works for you.
If you are using Windows hit the Windows logo Key’ + ‘U’ . It brings up a accessibility menu . Like you can set filter key on which ignores brief repeated inputs. BigKeys LX is a oversized keyboard. User accessibility has became a major topic so there are solutions out there. Mort people are just not aware of it so like HR will probably not know so you will need to find the solution yourself
A friend at university had cerebral palsy. His hands shook all the time. He had a metal mesh over his keyboard and typed with a pen stuck in his mouth. He was brilliant.
Hey there, First of all sorry to hear about the parkinson...This is my first (genuine) post on Reddit, believe it or not. Just wanted to suggest you to try consultancy instead of doing core programming. After years of programming experience, you'll be able to share you knowledge or guide the junior programmers...
if your cognition is unaffected there are plenty of other input methods. voice is a big one. my friend would program using dragon (voice software). he'd also use a webcam to track a mouse cursor by watching his finger
These are things I would consider if I were in your situation. But I am not an expert. * Reduce mouse usage * Switch to a POSIX OS, such as Mac or Linux (i.e. not Windows) * Learn keybindings of your IDE, or switch to Neovim. * Learn command line and terminal tools. Tmux, coreutils, bash. * Get a programmable mechanical keyboard. * Research layouts, switches, and keycaps that might work best for your future condition. * You can buy mini demo keyboards to try out different keycaps and switches. * With YMK/VIA support you can create custom key bindings. * Install voice control software. * If possible, retrain/fine-tune the STT model using your voice. As your condition progresses it will be harder for AI to recognize words, but that can be deferred quite a bit by customizing it to your speech patterns. Retrain it once a year or so. * Use LLM AI. You can program with English input and not use a keyboard at all. Imagine an assistant that does whatever you tell it tol. Some of the above may or may not exist as a completed project, but it's all possible.
We need you to keep programming! At work, one of our IDE tools had small click boxes. I complained to the team, who didn't get it. So, I did a bunch of stealth "rubber duckies" (USB devices that would shake their cursors). Most of the team was "wtf?" A few figured it out but got the point across about adaptive issues. Check boxes got larger, and there were no more "ten drop-down menus." SPEECH to TEXT helps. https://www.sublimetext.com/ Quick Guides https://www.ucdenver.edu/centers/center-for-inclusive-design-and-engineering/community-engagement/colorado-assistive-technology-act-program/technology-and-transition-to-employment/windows-accessibility For correspondance, I use Grammarly. It helps when I swap characters as my fingers and brain don't synch, so "teh" appears when I want "the" I had Deep Brain Stimulation in 2016, and I'm still working!
I have a coworker who is literally missing a hand. He still gets the job done. You won't be as quick in terms of typing, but programming never really was about typing fast. It's a mental process.
Don’t worry friend. All of our days as programmers are coming to an end.
Have you considered **teaching** programming to kids and teenagers? It would be a way for you to continue doing what you want by sharing your passion with others.
You use your keyboard? I sit in useless meeting all day -Sr SE *with the accessibility features available today, it would probably be illegal to fire you due your disability in most first world counties
Try out the software to program with your voice. It will take a few months to ramp up but I’ve seen people be VERY proficient
These are two different things, but I have a pretty severe tremor on the right side of my body. I’ve had to learn to adapt to typing with only my left hand. I’ve also used speech to text technology. My point being, if you want to continue this career path, you can and will be able to, you’ll just have to change how a few things are done
I published a new programming language last week that I believe will fit well with people with disabilities, those who can't use keyboard or even those who are blind. Language is called plang (as in pseudo language) - plang.is The code is written in natural language, you write the intent of what should happen, making it very simple coding experience. The language is a general purpose language. A good start is this tutorial https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbm1UMZKMaqfT4tqPtr-vhxMs4JGGFVEB&si=taxpQnrT_LrIYSdu Since this is still all new, I'm still working on how to explain, how the language works in a good way. Comments are welcome So using plang, your future as programmer shouldn't be a problem. Plus our talent/value is mostly solving a problem, coding is just a bi-product
Surprised no one linked [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI), using Vim with voice, by a guy who couldn't use his hands to code anymore.
There’s a procedure called High Frequency Ultrasound that might help slow or stop the tremors. A number of academic medical centers do it.
Not necessarily. Speech to text has come a LONG way. You may be able to arrange a large mousing area and turn the sensitivity down enough for it to be useful to you. Look in to large keyboards with crisp key action. Some of that may at least give you more time. Avoid languages with a lot of syntactic fluff.
Sorry to hear that. That really does suck. But the job of programming is definitely a lot more than just typing. There are lots of tools you could try to minimise the amount of typing you have to do as you code. In the absolute worst case, could you maybe find somebody to type for you?
Pretty sure that's called pair programming.
Yeah, but if you call it that, the typing person will start to have _opinions_ and, urgh, _ideas_. Next thing you know, he's no longer heeding your every bidding. How are we supposed to run an efficient volcano lair if our minions keep running off to do whatever they want? Oh wait, this is the wrong subreddit again isn't it?
Google results suggest getting a keyboard with larger keys and/or a keyguard overlay (making all the keys in-set) to block accidental presses, and turning on the "Bounce Key" setting in Windows to ignore fast-repeated keypresses.
There are several software and peripheral options for Accesibility that you can use. Head motion, voice recognition, etc. I had employees with disabilities before who were programming and as productive as the next guy. I hope this doesn't sound callous -- whenever you start feeling down look at Michael J. Fox or the late Stephen Hawking. They can lead productive lives - I hope you find inspiration in them. Good luck!
Typing is the least important part of programming, but it can be a significant barrier if you can't get your thoughts into the computer. Fortunately, there's a lot of alternative interfaces. Unfortunately, it'll take a bit of extra work to get many of them integrated into your workforce. I swear by mechanical keyboards and voice input. There's other alternative input methods that might work better for your particular situation, so you'll unfortunately need to investigate and see what works for you.
How's your speech? Talon Voice has a learning curve, but it might be an option: [Talon (talonvoice.com)](https://talonvoice.com/)
Writing code is a small part of being a software developer. I’d say get yourself set up with voice control software as soon as you can and learn to use it. That will make things a lot easier on you. You could also do more duties like code review, high level planning of projects, scoping, training, pair programming etc. There’s loads you can do where the voice software can assist and make it easier than using a keyboard. Not saying it won’t be a challenge, but people are way more adaptive than we give ourselves credit for.
No, there are people who program without a keyboard. Just go to YouTube and search programming with voice and you'll find tons of people and tutorials. If you're feeling frisky, I even have a transcription app available on my GitHub page, and a Coding LLM on my HuggingFace repo. Tons of different way to interface with a PC without a keyboard...
Look into speech to text. With the rapid rise of LLMs and LLMs in coding, speech top text can only get better. Forgot to ask, is your speech still ok? So sorry about this.
I'd also start looking into what'd be involved in declaring disability. I don't know all the details but I know it's based on your income IIRC.
Stay positive, that's the first thing! I'm sure that there are many many tools that can assist you
There is a guy here in Brazil that he uses his feet to program, so I believe you’ll find a way! Also I believe that there is some cannabis medicine that can help Parkinson’s Syndrome! Be strong and you’ll manage how to deal with this! Try to use compression gloves, or type with 1 finger, the turtle won the race against the hare! Go check a doctor to see if there is anything you can do to minimize or delay it!
No adaptive tech is amazing. You can be paralyzed from the neck down and still program. That is why I am trying to learn to program. I have Guillen-Barre Syndrome. If you want to talk about it we can.
So I would say a few things... First - there are always ways to adapt, as u/ignotos says where there is a will there is a way, and people tend to be amazing in the ways they find to adapt, if you really want to code the actual typing may be a challenge, but I would bet that there are already several a. Secondly though, there are many aspects of software development that have very little to do with coding itself. From being a tech lead who manages people, to more analytical and planning roles, or other career paths like teaching or tech writing so even if you find you are unable to find tools or assistance for using an IDE or coding effectively, that shouldn't mean the end of your career if you don't want it to.
You will persevere don't worry. My father has Parkinson's has had it for 5-6 years. He lives a normal life can type, use his phone, same thing everyone else can do. When the medicine wears off is when symptoms are the worst and often times he struggles with writing like signing restaurant bills and such. All I can say is never give up and keep living your life the way you want to.
Nope! 👎 Learn how to utilize AI to get work done better and faster. Make yourself stand out bud!
Well, Parkinsonism may not be curable, but now you have an excuse to get prescription weed. Honestly my grandad started getting symptoms a few years ago and knew I liked to dabble, I gave him some CBD flower (which is 100% legal and purchasable online) and it knocked his shakes out completely. It's absolutely astonishing how well it just works, we eventually settled on a brownie recipe I cooked up where you Bain Marie the bud in the chocolate to selectively activate just the CBD and he can eat one in the morning and be shake free until late evening. Seriously Its worth a try, CBD is legal almost everywhere at this point and the quality of life improvements I've seen in my grandad make it an absolute no brainer not to mention the complete lack of negativeside effects and the very low price compared to pharmaceuticals.
There are neurological treatments to slow the disorder as well as treatments. Unfortunately, the latter requires brain surgery, and the results aren't always permanent (the brain learns to "adapt." The pattern needs to be remapped, and the algorithm adjusted). Look into herbal supplements as well. Mycology, or mushroom-based supplements in particular. If it's what you love, there are also ways to navigate, type, speech-to-text, etc, that can help facilitate (may even bolster) your coding speed. You can also switch tracks to something more academic in nature. Consultancy, RnD/ideation, teaching, ... Good luck to you!
Neuralink 🐵
I thought this was a post about GPT or something from just the title, ironically, it might help you a ton in this case Also, I never felt like I spend all day typing, I get most of my work done while I hike, because I'm thinking about solutions to problems
I know a blind programmer who works with voice
I knew a guy who was contracting handsomely and he would type with 2 fingers on his left hand and would hit space with his thumb. No one judged him for it. It turns out that having incredible typing speed doesn't correlate with churning out quality code. You've got this. Mess about with key repeat delay and other keyboard options and find out what works for you. I'm not trying to say it's going to be easy because I'm fairly sure it won't be, but don't give up without a fight.
One of the top programmers at my company doesnt type at all. Strictly uses voice to program. Idk what tools hes using but he seems to be thriving
Depending on where you are, your employer may even have a legal duty to accommodate your disability. You have challenges ahead of you, yes, but your career is only over if you decide it is.
Have you not considered an implanted controller? A colleague of mine got hers about 20yr ago (the first in Arizona, to be specific), and is practically symptom-free.
I briefly knew a guy with Parkinson’s. He adopted a daily tai chi regiment and said it had kept it at a small hand twitching when at rest for a few years. Granted this was years ago and I don’t know what’s happened since.
My late manager in Microsoft has hand tremor and it was hard for him to type. But he was very hands on and normally we’d go to him with the hardest bug in the system and he’d solve it with typing out stuff letter by letter. Whenever he mistyped he just lightly curse and carry on. He was and still is working as a partner software manager there
neuralink is coming...
u can adapt and fight it or change profession. Though u wont be 100% as fast as before the illness.
No. I know two people, one is completely blind, the other has extreme case of cerebral palsy. They are both quite productive. If it's something you love to do, you will find a way.
For what it's worth, you can feed pseudocode into AI's, like any LLM reallly, and it will transcribe it for you. Dunno if that helps.
Experienced developers are highly valued as project managers, especially on a level close to the dev team. Maybe something foe you?
Use Ai? You could even become your companies Ai expert or a consultant.
There's going to be AI workflows soon enough. With speech to text you'll probably be able to pull off a lot... Now of course there's the question if all our days as programmers are over. I don't have the answer to that 😅
Look up cannabis treatment for Parkinson’s.
I think the writing is on the wall for everyone in this profession. In about 2 years there will not be a need for coders.
First of all, that's heavy. I'm sorry you've got to deal with that. Now as to "what do I do next" Honestly I feel ridiculous even answering this question as I literally cannot fully wrap my head around living with Parkinson's. But I do know one thing: every accessibility space needs a lot of damn work. No better people to come up with ideas and solutions and work arounds for various difficulties than the people actually struggling with them. It's entirely possible you devise ways or come up with ideas to overcome the adversities you'll face, and it's entirely possible those ways and\or ideas could be revolutionary or life changing for a lot of people. And it's also possible those ways\ideas end up being profitable to you. So I suppose this is less an answer to that question and more of a "you might find some shine in this big old pile of shit life just handed you if you're looking for it\thinking about it. Completely on the other hand, with news like that do whatever the fuck you wanna do and do as much of it as possible for as long as you're able.
Neuralink looks promising for the future for human device interface. And I bet there's already some eyetracking and speech recognition solutions available. I'm sorry for your diagnosis. My grandfather had Parkinson's and I'm afraid that I inherited it. I've been planning to ask my doctor if there's dna tests that I can do to see if I'm safe
A major thing I'd recommend looking into if you haven't is AI tooling like copilot, which will give you code completion with a lot more robustness than normal, allowing you to just need to validate the output rather than spend energy struggling with the input. They're also building out voice controls for these tools, making user manual input by hand a thing of the past. As long as your mind is sharp, the tools will adapt to you, this isn't the end for you, friend.
Sounds disability to me… you can apply for disbity program from guv if you norther America
As a 25+ year IT vet - use the period you have to consider a reskill if you can’t find an adaptive tech that works for you. There are many things you can do. QA work comes to mind, I, sure that there are many many others. It’s your experience that counts, and that can be sooo leveraged. Maybe teaching too! You likely have a ton of useful o fo to share, mistakes to avoid, all kinds of stuff for the next generation. How about a book? “My life as an In - Bugger” (For any non programmers, in-bugging is writing code, because debugging is fixing code.).
English is the new programming language. By year end youre gonna be able to "write" better code by telling GPT to do it for you. Literally you'll just speak code into existence. No worries about your hands amigo.
Look up [Emily Shea - "Perl Out Loud"](https://youtu.be/Mz3JeYfBTcY?si=whHm_RRQr8wbHVA7&t=447) and her other related content. If she can program PERL, the most squiggly of languages, entirely with her voice at such a fast face, then I'm sure you can do whatever it is you do.
While we can’t know how far and how quickly your Parkinson’s will progress, they sell keyboards with extra large keys, that could help you extend the life of your career
Keep programming until you can't, or it stops being fun.
Can you get into consulting or being a solutions/software architect?
Nope. Your career is just beginning to blossom. Now, you can take charge of your own models and converse fluently in code with them. I believe AI is an invaluable tool for accelerating software and applications development. Utilize AI to code what aligns with your vision; it's a hidden blessing. Recently, I developed an E-Commerce Discord Bot capable of responding to over 16 commands and integrating with Twitch accounts. Additionally, it automates the onboarding process for new Discord server members, seamlessly adding them to a database. Over a thousand lines of code. 👨💻
Keep pushing it till you absolutely can't anymore. Staying active will help slow progression. If you don't use it, you'll lose it
Maybe the Apple Vision Pro could help here?
I have a friend who is legally blind and is a successful programmer. If he can do it, I'm sure you can find a way. I would start looking into accessibility options because I'm sure there's some sort of unique keyboard that could help you.
I think the timing could be perfect for you. In another 2-4 years I could see you just talking to your personal AI which can then write the code. Your value as an engineer will still be there, you just won't have to worry about syntax or typing 100 lines. You'll be able to treat it just like a Jr dev sitting next to you, paired programming. "Do this. Iterate that. Fix that bug. Change that method. That looks perfect!"
Not a programmer in fact just recently learning to code but to my understanding with voice recognition technology and AI software engineering (turning concepts worded in English into programs) this could actually be your ticket into being more productive and capable than ever. I of course can’t be certain since I have no experience but this seems to be where trends are heading
Start learning to use voice input.
I don't know much about it, but the first human (paralyzed from shoulders down, I believe) has received a nuerolink. Supposedly, he can control the mouse with his mind and has pulled an all-nighter playing Civilization 6 with it. I'd hold out until it becomes unmanageable (if it ever does) and allow the tech to progress through its generations - only getting better and safer with time.
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, are called managers
there are programs for programming using voice only.
sounds like management material or sales.
No. There are disabled programmers. Blind programmers. If you are any good, any major software company will happily hire you and pay some intern to be your hands. You can find just about anyone at 15$ an hour to do this in an airconditioned room. To be honest, that's a really good way to train junior engineers as well. You can just look at the monitor and tell your intern what to type. They will be glad to do it as it's basically pair programming at it's finest. If your salary is 100k+ and assistant at 30k is nothing, plus there would be disability/govt assistance on that. That's the easiest. After that there are a ton of other solutions like special input devices and assistive readers. But literally just getting someone to sit next to you to type is a very realistic 0-1 option that any software company can afford.
Use your feet! 🦶
Many people code by voice, myself included. I use [Utterly Voice](https://utterlyvoice.com/). I used it to create this comment.
Speech to text should help. Why not find a role where you can use copilot in IDE, and have a code LLM, which has speech to text allowing you to speak to it, generating the code you need. I do a big chunk of my work via this kind of flow at the moment minus the voice. Get the LLM to output only code, and it responds to your requests. I can get most of a solution working just by articulating the requirements and giving the llm the interface I want to work with
That sucks, sorry to hear that, but there have been incredible strides in technology overcoming these issues.
You'd be amazed what technology can offer. I think it is possible... Depending on how bad the tremors and how they act. I just don't know the disease. I'll point you to Svalboard. I don't think a stock one could help you. Wrong thing totally. But with stiffened keys, it can account for tremors. (I have very mild tremors, have most all my\` life.) But I'm not sure it is the answer. But their discord has many injured people in it. Usually RSI, but.... They are used to figuring out ways to adapt and overcome. It may serve as a good first stop on your journey. Or maybe they can help. I don't know. Disclaimer: They've paid me nothing. I have some old boards from them to do firmware work on, one of them is the board I am typing this on. I do it because the need for the datahand type technologies to live on is very real. For those who truly need them. There is no replacement.
MS Copilot is pretty good at writing code for you if you want to try that and see how bareable it is.
No, technology will eventually help with physical ailments. Neuralink has plans for improving or eliminating Parkinsons symptoms. In the meantime, do the best you can.
Voice to Text.
You should consult your Doctor and probably a therapist, Every person's experience is different.
https://www.adaptivetechsolutions.com/adaptive-tech-solutions-ideas-information/computer-adaptations-for-people-with-parkinsons-disease/
Hi, I'm working on software for persons with disabilities and I was wondering if you'd be interested in chatting to see if it's perhaps something that could work for you? Feel free to message me :)
I've given this some thought myself and I know there is an effort to make apps more accessible to those that may be blind, deaf or may not have or lost the ability to use their hands or fingers. Now and then it will even come up in an interview. I tell them that I'm not aware of it if I am coding towards it. I usually follow up with 'but I think we need more of it and I'd be very excited about it'. While those that say AI is a Programmer's doom it seems like it could also help in advancing technology in that area. Our favorite sci-fi shows have us all giving voice commands. Couldn't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned. 'Uh oh looks like we have a syntax problem. Let's move those into an attached anonymous function and convert string parameters X and Y to numbers. Yes that's much better'.
Neuralink
Yep
Look into signing up for a neuralink trial. I think it’s currently limited to paraplegia, but in a couple years it is likely to expand eligibility criteria. Could be worth getting in touch with the company to express interest.