Software Development at 800 Words per Minute

Summary

Software Development at 800 Words Per MinuteJul 24, 2025, 12:19 AM (updated Jul 24, 2025, 1:54 PM )Imagine reading code not by looking at the screen, but by listening to interface elements, variables, language constructs and operators read at 800 words per minute (WPM) - over 5 times faster than normal speech. It sounds like gibberish to most, but to me, it’s as natural as you reading this sentence.If you’ve ever wondered how someone codes without seeing the screen, or if you’re curious about accessibility in the software development process, this post is for you.Table of ContentsWhat Is a Screen Reader?A screen reader is software that converts content on a screen into synthesized speech or braille output. Being visually impaired, using a screen reader is a necessity for me to be productive on a computer, as it reads out what you would normally see on a display.Screen readers are built into most operating systems: Narrator on Windows, VoiceOver on Apple platforms, and Talkback on Android.I use NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), a free and open-source screen reader on Windows. Here is a video demonstrating use of NVDA with Visual Studio to write a simple application. I don’t know the speech rate of the screen reader in that video, so I’ll estimate it at somewhere between 300 to 400 WPM.The above video demonstrates some of the things that screen readers verbalize:The current keyboard focus. For example, the current line of text when pressing the up / down arrow keys in a text file, or the current character when pressing left / right arrow. When moving about the interface of an application, the current control is announcedKey pressesEvents like on-screen notifications, new text being written to a terminal, autocomplete suggestions becoming available or alerts in an ARIA live regionI use the computer entirely via keyboard. Besides standard keyboard commands in the operating system or the current application, the screen reader also provides hundreds of additional keyboard ...