Topic by kaigoku 2021-05-20 15:27:33

  • From: Internet
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OK I'm being a bit vulnerable here, so take it easy on me. smile
Not really looking for advice or pitty, but just wanted to get this out there to see if anybody feels the same.
For all you completely blind devs out there that know about accessibility, and I mean in a professional context like WCAG, ARIA, Section 508, etc. And also you know about front-end frameworks and can do much of the coding not related to visuals, which admitedly is a big part.
Do you ever feel kind of left out when you get a great job opportunity in your hands, only to have to let it slip away because your pretty sure you won't be much of an asset with all the visuals?
I won't mention specifics here, but I've received so many companies, big name companies, wanting to talk to me about great Front-end engineering roles, only for them not to work out. Sometimes I just say no thank you. Other times, I will get into the interview, and questions about design and such instantly bring doubt to my skills.
I worked for a big name company in the past as a front end engineer, and I was able to get to a point where I had team members who were more than happy to view my CSS and talk me through designs. But I know I was very lucky to get such support.
But damn, how ironic is it that blind people can't really be a big part of front end engineering to improve accessibility directly. Most people in the field get stuck as testers, but that's not really what I would be looking for. Back end is fine, and I'm good at it, but I kind of want to get into front end again.
Anybody has success stories in this area or can relate?

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Reply by visualstudio 2021-05-20 16:26:26

  • From: in the ground
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@1, unfortunately no.
even with frameworks like angular, react, and view, css frameworks like bootstrap etc, you have a lot to do and thats logical. because you cant watch the screen to check how the colors relate to each other, does it attract people or not, etc.

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Reply by cartertemm 2021-05-20 16:49:55

  • From: Missouri
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I'm a relative newcomer to the web accessibility space (3 years or so) and I've experienced this first hand. It sucks, it doesn't get better, and I genuinely believe I'd be in a different place right now were I able to do frontend development.

To be clear, I have a fundamental understanding of standards and possess a working knowledge of CSS tricks... But there's really a point where you're going to have to look at the screen, no way around that.

I mean, technically speaking, you can't even perform a full level AA WCAG audit without ensuring color contrast and scale. There are automated solutions that you can feed the URL to a page and get a contrast ratio, which seemed promising enough until I found false positives courtesy of a sighted team member who just happened to get annoyed when increasing the size of the page.

I've placed serious consideration into hiring someone to handle this for me, and chances are I'll eventually get there. I've had to decline two remediation proposals from clients this week alone. One due to an inaccessible WYSIWYG editor, another due to the fact that the company would rather not hire multiple Freelancers for accessibility on a limited budget, which is more than reasonable.

Six months ago I was approached by a well known e-learning platform. Part time, envious pay, fit my schedule and qualifications, really hit it off just to realize that what they were asking would be nigh on impossible for a total such as myself.

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Reply by defender 2021-05-20 16:57:28 (edited by defender 2021-05-20 17:00:36)

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This is why smart companies use teams of two.  Ideally with the sighted person also having some other testable disability as well.
As a user tester you can get hired specifically to test screen reader access, but as a website tester you need more to be truly comprehensive.

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Reply by arqmeister 2021-05-20 18:09:07

  • Registered: 2010-12-19
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I'd say be realistic when it comes to your limitations, yes being blind is a limitation. and don't get bummed out that it's not your fault. Sighted people on your dev team is the difference maker here.

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Reply by vortex1024 2021-05-21 22:29:42

  • Registered: 2018-12-04
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Yes, I can relate. Actually, I kind of predicted those things at the beginning of my career, so completely excluded frontend work. I realized that I don't know how the websites I use daily actually look like, so there is no chanse of me producing good looking UI in a competitive time. Thought about using a touchscreen to actually feel where the UI elements are, this makes me feel really good when developing for android, but colors, margins and things would still be a problem.

How I solved it? I found a company which accepted my backend only role. I heard there are more, but it's true this market is more limited. I've been thinking of getting into embedded systems / driver development / AI as potential frontendless domains, but I am just fine where I am right now. My own startup and/or investing into something else in  the tecnology field or not, are other alternative options.

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Reply by ogomez92 2021-05-22 08:48:57

  • Registered: 2010-02-08
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Hi.
At my current job we're working with Vue. I am working in the accessible components of our UI, and people have already done the visual styles. I think it can be done, if you work with other people for sure. Of course you won't be designing the css yourself as a blind person, but if you're in a team it can work out.

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