[nfbcs] Is majoring in information technology in a mainstream college a good idea?

[Jim Barbour]

Hello Amy,

I agree with Jack that a CS or IT degree is a very good degree for a blind person to go after.

However, the road won't be without bumps. I'd say this is probably true regardless of which career path you take.

Some of the bumps you're likely to encounter include inaccessible software, tools, reporting, etc.

Different people approach these problems differently.  I am a big proponent of readers to work with tools that you don't need to deal with daily.  Time cards and expense reports are easy example to point out.

I also highly advocate knowing how to use multiple screen readers well, and understanding something about how the accessibility faults in the tools your using interact with your screen reader.  This will make you a "power user" of various screen readers, which significantly increases the chances that you'll be able to use existing tools.

Another option is to write your own tools to replace the inaccessible ones.  This requires that you become a very practiced programmer. Maybe not the best, but able to figure out what needs to be done and then code it independently.

It's also a good idea to begin pushing for accessibility in the tools that your university or employer uses.  This raises the issue of accessibility and gets them thinking about it.  However, you'll generally always be stuck with a few tools that don't get updated often, or over whose developers you have little influence.

I am a blind person and have been working in IT for 30 years for various companies including Google, Yahoo, and Qualcomm.  I've been a systems administrator, programmer, systems architect, infrastructure architect, and now a cloud architect.  

Good Luck Amy!

Jim

On Fri, Aug 04, 2017 at 11:12:04AM -0500, Jack Heim via nfbcs wrote:
> Information Technology is a very good career for a blind person. So much so
> that many states used to have programs to teach blind people computer
> programming. Most of those programs are gon now but that is because they
> were trying to force square pegs into round holes. I attended one of these
> programs after I got my Comp Sci degree, which was kind of crazy in itself.
> But what I saw there was that they were trying to force people into careers
> in IT that just didn't have an aptitude for using computers.
> 
> I think you should take some IT courses and find out if you like it. Keep
> your options open. You can declare an IT major and switch to something else
> if you don't like it. But if you do like it, go for it because it is a very
> good career for a blind person.
> 
> PS: I do IT for the Math department at the University Of Wisconsin. I signed
> up to be a mentor for visually impaired students here. I'd encourage you to
> find out if there is a mentoring program at your school and if they have any
> visually impaired mentors.
> 
> On 08/04/2017 08:34 AM, Amy Albin via nfbcs wrote:
> > Hello All,
> > 
> > My name is Amy.  I just graduated from high school and will be
> > attending college in the spring semester.  I'm considering majoring in
> > information technology.  I'm a completely blind user of JAWS.
> > 
> > The only background in computer science I have is a course in Visual
> > Basic.  I relied on a sighted person to help me place objects, but I
> > really understood and enjoyed the coding itself; it was just the
> > accessibility issues.  Since my background is so scant, I don't know
> > what to ask Accessibility Services at my college for.  For instance, I
> > know that they use object oriented programming.  Is there a way to
> > make that accessible?  Should I change my major?  I'm basically diving
> > in the water not knowing how to swim.  If anyone could give me some
> > suggestions, please, that would be greatly appreciated.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Amy
> > 
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