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by smoe 715 days ago
I had a couple of such sessions as part of accessibility certification when rebuilding a largish government website years back. It's definitely worth it for understanding the why of the accessibility recommendations, rather than just following a checklist. And if budget allows to do website improvements that go beyond.

The experience was also humbling in an awesome way. I think I still haven't seen anyone navigate the web as fast as this one blind person was capable of, due to the mastery of his tools.

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Indeed. I am reminded of the major catalyst that got me to become serious about learning vim: I saw a senior developer flying around in his text editor, editing things like a ninja, and I had to learn that skill. I've been extremely glad I invested the time.

Had the same feeling now three times while watching vision, impaired people using accessibility tools. They can absolutely fly through things much faster than a typical user can. Aside from the general awesomeness that is taking something that most people would consider a disability and turning it into a superpower, it makes me think that I am really missing something by not having that skill.

Has anybody done this before and can offer some advice for how to start, and where to go with it? I am a Linux-only user, which I assume is going to matter for the tooling.

I'm also glad I invested that two measly weeks back in 1994 which made me ninja.

Heh, I guess you are in fact a VI-sion impaired person flying through things when using these editors.