A Blind Project Manager?

How does a blind project manager...manage?

First, we have to talk about this term “blind”. The dictionary defines the word as being “without sight”. There are other terms that float around: The term “visually impaired” is so broad that anyone with less than 20/20 vision could qualify. There is also the term “legally blind”. Legally blind just refers to the legal definition of blindness. A blind person gets certain benefits from government and private organizations and so there must be criteria that defines what is blind.

The fact is that only a very, very small percent of the population are totally without sight. Most people who are blind have some level of light perception. It may only be awareness of some light when looking in the direction of the sun. Or it could be much more than that.

The legal definition of blindness for most purposes is “visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with best correction possible. or a visual field of less than 20 degrees (reference: Wikipedia). Some estimates put the number of people in the US who fit this criteria at about 3 million.

So when I say I am blind, it is per the above definition. I still have substantial vision and in some circumstances you would not realize that I was blind. To give you some idea of my acuity, take out a $20 bill. The only thing I can read on that bill is the nice, large 20 on the back. In an eye test I can no longer read the big “E” on the top of the chart.

I use a white cane to help me get around. Without it I run into things and people and I generally look like I am probably drunk. With it I am able to avoid obstacles and ensure I don’t step off the edge of a train platform. It also serves as a signal to others (though I am sometimes surprised to find that people don’t know what the cane is, like the teenager who asked me what I was doing with the stick).

When I work on a computer, I use a screen magnifier that enlarges everything about 8 times. With this aid I can use almost any computer program. The only ones that give me trouble are those with lots of graphics, like a drawing program. But even those I can use, though I might be a bit slower than a sighted person.

I augment the magnifier with speech synthesis, which is often a much faster way to read a document or something else on the screen. With the reader I can rip through an e-mail at 300 words per minute – faster than most visual readers.

My tools as a project manager are the usual: word processor, spreadsheet, MS Project, e-mail, web browser. With my accessibility programs I can manage those things just fine.

If I have a printed document I need to read, my first choice is to scan it and convert it to text using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. For printed diagrams I use a video magnifier that does the same thing for a paper document that my computer magnifier does on the screen

Things that give me trouble include weird fonts, use of color for highlighting (documents with the comment “see the text in blue” does me no good at all since I can’t tell the difference).

Meetings with handouts are sometimes a problem. I always try to get electronic versions ahead of time and bring along my laptop to read them. I do have a small portable video magnifier, which is great for restaurant menus but quite difficult for following along in a document that someone is reviewing.

The eye condition I have is called retinitis pigmentosa. This is a hereditary condition that is progressive – meaning that it gets slowly worse over time. I have worried all my life how I was going to manage when my eyesight got worse. But every step of the way I have found ways to cope. I imagine I will continue to do so, even if I have no vision at all. Many blind people do so in fields from engineering to law.

So how does a blind project manager manage? Much the same way as any project manager does – using the tools of his trade, his knowledge and experience.

Here are some useful links about low vision:
The Foundation Fighting Blindness http://www.blindness.org
The American Foundation for the Blind http://www.afb.org
The National Federation of the Blind http://www.nfb.org