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How this visually impaired engineer uses Claude Code to make his life more accessible | Joe McCormick

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How this visually impaired engineer uses Claude Code to make his life more accessible | Joe McCormick

How I AI

Feb 16
How I AI

How I AI

Feb 16
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Joe McCormick is a principal software engineer at Babylist who lost most of his central vision due to a rare genetic disorder right before starting college. He pivoted from mechanical engineering to computer science and now leads AI enablement at Babylist....

Highlights

This episode features Joe McCormick, a principal software engineer at Babylist who navigated a significant vision loss before college and now leads AI enablement—building custom, accessible tools that empower his daily work and life.
00:00
Joe uses Gemini and ChatGPT to handle images and answer follow-up questions
02:34
With the rise of AI, the gap between sighted and visually-impaired software engineers is closing
04:50
AI allows people to build customized accessibility solutions for themselves
06:10
Image description tool in Slack enables independent visual understanding without relying on others or sight
10:45
Joe built an AI spell checker that works in any web input field, sending text to OpenAI to correct typos
13:12
Keyboard shortcuts enable efficient micro app triggering in AI tools
17:15
Engineers can use AI to write good PRDs without custom prompts, relying on foundational models
20:28
Claude Code now supports editing prompts in a text editor for better screen reader accessibility
25:30
Ctrl G shortcut enables fast plan editing in the editor
27:50
Claude Code standardizes inputs, reducing cognitive friction for users
31:42
Building personal software to automate recurring tasks shrinks the payback period to virtually zero
34:56
Chrome developer mode allows installing extensions from a local computer for easy testing
39:09
Moving JSON out of the prompt ensures the response object is valid JSON for reliable Chrome extension parsing
40:44
The extension parses shared Slack links to extract key takeaways using AI-generated code with minor human tweaks.
44:56
Gemini's live-share feature allows a visually impaired parent to read any physical book with his kids

Chapters

Introduction to Joe and his background
00:00
Joe’s journey into computer science after vision loss
02:34
The concept of personal software for accessibility
04:50
Demo of image description Chrome extension for Slack
06:09
Demo of AI-powered spell checker extension
10:40
The efficiency of keyboard shortcuts for accessibility
13:12
Live building a link summarization extension
14:37
Using Claude Skills to extract common patterns
20:28
Reviewing and modifying the development plan
25:30
Removing cognitive friction for users through repeating patterns
27:45
How to get fluent with AI tools
31:40
Loading the extension into Chrome in developer mode
34:55
Testing and debugging the extension
36:19
Quick recap
40:44
Lightning round and final thoughts
42:12

Transcript

Joe McCormick: Right before I started college, I ended up losing most of my central vision due to a rare genetic disorder called Lieber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. I was talking with someone who was losing their sight recently from the same disease, and...