Becoma an employed c++ programmer?

[Zerpent]

This will be quite personal but I need to ask some professional employed programmers of what they think. Here is my long question:

I have a problem with my eyes that reduces the eye sight so much that I am not even allowed to drive a car (for example so you understand how bad). Now I hace always been interested in programming and I have a passion for becoming a professional programmer. I will even enter the university where I will learn programming and computer science for 5 years to get the master grade.

However, because of my eye problems, it can be hard for me to read texts so I have to use the magnyfing glass and low resolutions to scale up the text a lot. In theory I believe that because of this, I read slower and work slower than what I would have done with perfect vision. I also have to take breaks about every thirty minutes so not strain my eyes too much.

I wonder, as a professional well paid programmer, do you ALWAYS have to work as fast as anybody else and can you take breaks whenever you need to? Do all programmers work very fast in general and do most have a high pressure on them when it comes to dead lines. Because I am worried that although with all the knowledge in my head, my eyes might slow me down and I will probably not be able to work fast enough (compared with others) if being employed in the future.

What do you think? Do programmers often work in different speeds just naturally?

Btw, optical help like glasses nor laser helps in my case since its a rare eye problem.

Thanks for reading this and for answering.

[kev82]

I don't have any major eyesight issues, but I would imagine that someone fully competent with a screenreader should be just as productive.

A project to make vim accessible to the blind: http://code.google.com/p/phonim/

Story of a blind programmer: http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/22/screenreader-enables-blind-programmer-to-succeed-on-the-app-store-exclusive/

From my point of view, I would find it hard to consider someone significantly slower than average, but I do believe there are tools that can make someone with eyesight issues just as productive as anyone else.

[hanst99]

Well, he's not blind, he has bad eyesight. Which means he's unlikely to have learned braille, and is probably still faster when looking at a screen than by having it read out to him.

[Zerpent]

Yes, I am not blind. I only have problems to read on the monitor. But thanks for your answers and if you have any tips for good fonts, please tell me.

[AbstractionAnon]

I have worked with a blind programmer in the past. She used a braille readout device. While she was not the fastest writing code, the code she produced was of a higher quality. I would much rather have someone on my team that produces high quality code than someone that turns out code fast, but requires a lot of rework because of errors. Fast but sloppy programmers do not last very long on my team.

[Zerpent]

Ok thanks for the reply again, it means a lot. I am not really sure what I should do though, I am still worried that I will "waste" 5 years of education on programming which I really like learning, but I am still not sure if I will be effective enough. But thanks for the reply. Maybe I will be able to solve it somehow.

Any other tips and replies are still welcome.

[beakie]

Monitors are cheap. You can easily account for the font size by adding a few.

The companies I have worked for would be more than happy to supply more if needed!

I have to agree with AbstractionAnon. Fast code isn't always the best code. If breaks are what you need then most managers would be more than happy to let you take them... as long as your code was good enough.

[Zerpent]

Ok that is good to hear. I have thought of getting another monitor. One with all the menus in the IDE and one with fullscreen over the text editor. I think that it would be a good option.

Thanks for the help.

[beakie]

2 monitors is the minimum nowadays :)