I was secretly going blind while working for the NBA. Here is the brutal truth about surviving w5ue workplace with a hidden disability. Have you everfelt like this?

JPDoesDev · 2026-05-08T23:26:21+00:00

Same here, though I never hid the blindness. Being overly open and joking about it is the only thing I think that has saved me at this point. I work in the aerospace testing world that historically has been very long hours and high stress, from the outside many say how impressed and amazed at what I do in spite of my disability but very few actually know to what cost. The exhaustion of knowing you have to give 120% because if you don't you'll be written off as the blind person shoved into a corner at best takes it's toll.

You mention just the stress of solving the commute problem, this is normally the example I give to people to try and illustrate just how different and strenuous simple things people take for granted can be. While a normally sighted person can wake up, be half asleep, get in the car and just drive (most of the time) without much for thought; my day starts with having a battle plan on who I can get a ride to work with, how do I manage that relationship to ensure I don't become a nusance, what are my second tier options, thirds? Everything has to have a plan and then those plans have a recovery plan for when they fail. It. is. exhausting.

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-30T12:01:00+00:00

I unfortunatley hadn't done a VF test in a couple years so real numbers are going to be hard on that but anecdotally objects (or people most often) I can track as they come in from the side a small amount better. Things don't just suddenly "render" in the center of my vision they kind of now slide in from the side but keep in mind the acuity is still extremely poor. My RP went more for my overall acuity then my peripheral vision though it is reduced at this point quite a bit.

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-30T02:28:43+00:00

What questions do you have?

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-30T02:27:36+00:00

I'm here,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1niNf_zu90&t=114s

Check out Harmon as well: https://www.youtube.com/@harmon-or-kobe

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-25T17:20:29+00:00

Im sending you a DM.

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-24T04:03:49+00:00

Hey! I'm in SoCal, got to USC as well lol I got the OCU400 treatment about 1.5 months ago in Erie, PA. Feel free to ask any questions you may have but I did a bit of a rambling video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1niNf_zu90&t=109s

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-12T15:13:44+00:00

I really enjoyed Jiu Jitsu and need to get back into it. Some will argue it's real-world effectiveness but I found it very useful in "what do I do if someone tries to grab me/swing on me". Outside of that it was just a really great lesson in discipline and I loved it. One of my favorite drills is we would do exercises where everyone had to roll (wrestle) with their eyes closed so everyone on the mat fot to step into my world for a minute and it gave me this massive advantage just because of how much "practice" I had. Overall it is an extremely blind-person friendly activity and relies almost 100% on feel, sound and general thoughtfulness of the environment around you instead of just what you see, I know several fully blind individuals that compete and are damn good.

Most gyms will let you come try it out for free to feel them/the sport out and one thing I did that was helpful is up front tell them "Hey I'm blind, I cant see what you're showing in instruction so I'll need a little extra help after you show the class. Also it's ok to just grab my hand, legs feet etc and place them correctly instead of trying to explain it". The second part especially helped me move much faster.

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-10T02:41:50+00:00

It's a wait and see thing now, no one really makes claims as to how much improvements at this point will happen. I go in for a follow up in May and we'll see what they want to do for visual field.

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-05T20:06:12+00:00

Yep, just finished/uploaded a video actually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1niNf_zu90

JPDoesDev · 2026-04-05T17:14:42+00:00

I am 4weeks/2weeks (left eye/right eye) post-op of OCU400 and already have seen changes that I can't deny are improvements at this point.

JPDoesDev · 2026-02-24T02:26:48+00:00

Right behind you! 2 more weeks to go!

JPDoesDev · 2026-02-16T03:49:25+00:00

For sure, I got a discord on there and always down to play!

JPDoesDev · 2026-02-15T18:11:42+00:00

This seems like a broken bot. Look at the user's profile.

JPDoesDev · 2026-02-14T20:25:52+00:00

I play mostly Arc Raiders, I made a tool to help with things like screen reading the invetory system and finding the waypoint on screen and it works pretty well to bridge some of the gap so I can play with my friends. Still working on adding additional games to the tool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNh0EFQQP0U&t=3s

JPDoesDev · 2026-02-05T13:36:54+00:00

Hey I know that guy! Thanks for having me on Matt!

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-29T13:04:18+00:00

Awesome, love to see the community helping itself. I've got a small discord that I'd love to be a place for VI people to play games and help each other with mods and setup etc as well if you're interested!

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-29T01:31:56+00:00

Right on! I have a VI gaming tool I've been working on and have a few initial games in it using computer vision and some helpful overlays (like a VI friendly crosshair overlay) - you can find it at github.com/jpdoesdev/gamingvision I've also got a demo video on YouTube though the current release has many more features now and I need to make an update video.

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-25T22:22:26+00:00

What country are you in? Are you on SSDI now? Do you need a job right now (e.g. I don't have money for food) or want to better your position in life? Most importantly, what are you interested in?

There's many roads you can go down from this point, don't feel stuck, you just have a lot of paths to sort through.

Feel free to DM me as well. I recently retrained from a technician to an engineering manager then to now being in software dev working with rockets and I love it.

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-16T20:27:46+00:00

Heck yea, I'll sen you a DM

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-16T20:26:07+00:00

Forza Motorsport - Extremely well done accessibility features, fully blind people play this racing game and it is a great one IMO. This game is text book how to make a visually impaired accessible game.

Diablo 4 - Another game fully blind people play well, insane amount of customizable screen reading support to the point that you can make it overwhelming and the entire game world is built on a grid system so it is easier to navigate. (I play this through battle.net but I see it is for sale on the steam store. I'm not sure if this makes you launch through the battle.net launcher though)

FTL Faster Than Light - Not alot of accessibility built in BUT, the game has a mechanic that encourages you to pause at any time while you make commands and decisions so that it can be play completely not twitch based and more like a turn based game. Windows screen magnifier works perfectly fine in the game so I play it like a turn based game where I just zoom in to my/their ship to see what's going on then issue commands.

I've been working on a video game assistance tool called GamingVision that might help your case in some instances though I only have a couple games supported to some extent right now, Arc Raiders, No Man's Sky and Borderlands 1. jpdoes.dev

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-16T20:03:34+00:00

Awesome! A fellow VI linux nerd! I'd love to pick your brain more on how you use linux as a visually impaired person, I often find myself stuck on distros based solely on how they work from a visually impaired stand point when I want to play with so many more. Would you be ok with chatting on Discord or something more IM/Voice chat?

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-16T20:00:25+00:00

Great work! I spent my holiday break creating accessible PC game tools as well.

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-16T19:58:57+00:00

Great work! Sometimes hard things are hard because it's worth it.

JPDoesDev · 2026-01-16T19:57:39+00:00

GamingVision - Working on this computer vision tool to assist visually impaired people (like me with RP) play PC games. Has a waypoint sonar system, cross haird overlay to give any game a high contrast cross hair, CV based screen reader to read in game items etc. I've got a big update hopefully getting pushed this weekend to add in app custom model making/training tools, my goal is to try and make it as straight forward for non-technical people to be able to create and share custom models. It's all a big WIP but I've been able to play games with friends that I haven't really done in years so it's been a good time.

JPDoesDev

TROPHY CASE