In 2021 I developed serious cataracts in both eyes. The left eye was the first to be affected in March; in less than two months vision through it was effectively lost. The right eye began deteriorating after the total loss of left eye vision. Diagnosis and treatment were complicated by the concurrent COVID-19 crisis which affected health care provisioning.¹

Fortunately the right eye declined less precipitously than its sibling, and so I was not immediately crippled in mid-2021. From late-June 2021 to early October², my activities were gradually impaired and curtailed as the disease progressed. I was already a heavy computer user, and the cataracts increased my dependence on computers when most physical print media and hand writing became illegible.

The following suggestions and thoughts are based on the experience of being reduced to one compromised eye. In the main it is about reducing the discomfort of using computers as cataracts develop and symptoms worsen. They also reflect my particular circumstances, namely:

• Not being colour blind
• Being near-sighted, and requiring strong eye wear for intermediate and distance vision³
• Use cases involved desktop and laptop computers, and not smaller mobile devices
• Use cases involved predominantly desktop environments instead of terminals

With that in mind, I hope some relief may be had for fellow sufferers stumbling upon this.

A cataract causes the eye lens to change from being reasonably transparent to being merely translucent. Vision fogs up as the disease progresses, until its like looking through obscure/frosted glass - like the sort used for bathroom windows and shower stalls. By that point, the affected eye is of little use.

The quality of vision with cataracts is, therefore, much like what one might experience when peering into fog. In particular, your vision may experience the following:

• Fogginess that increases with the intensity of ambient light (brightness)
• Glare from bright surfaces and objects
• Smaller details becoming invisible
• Reduced colour contrast

The symptoms become more serious as the cataract develops, ultimately resulting in complete blindness.

Do not expect to be able to perform any task independently⁴; many tasks become outright hazardous with advanced cataracts. Arrange for third-parties to provide general assistance.

Electronic document formats that are accessible to cataract sufferers have display properties which may be finely and easily customized. These properties include:

• Font
• Font size
• Background colour
• Text colour

Accessible formats also use fluid layout, like line wrapping for text. Fluid layout reduces or eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling which might otherwise occur due to increasing font size.

These qualities need not be built into the format itself if the accessing program provides similar functionality. Therefore, accessibility depends heavily on the features of the program used to access the document. With that caveat in mind, the following list formats by accessibility.

Design impacts accessibility. The following are ways to make documents and software more accessible to cataract sufferers.

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  Things could have been worse. By the time my situation became serious - if not urgent - in mid-2021, vaccination program against the early variants of COVID-19 was well underway and I did not need to seek medical assistance entirely unprotected.

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  The left eye underwent corrective surgery in early October, with the right following later that month. The cataract in the right eye did not manage to progress as far as the one in the left eye; perhaps it just needed another month or so.

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  Hence the "cyborg" part of the title. The typical definition of "cyborg" involves some sort of enhancing implant, and glasses - and contacts - are certainly not implants. However, I venture to suggest that the immediate impact that glasses have had on my quality of life - since childhood, I might add - has been so great that they may as well have been components of my physical body. Rarely was I without glasses during my waking moments, for to be without them was crippling.

  I wonder, then, if my computer might be regarded in the same respect as my glasses. It too is an ostensibly "external" device through which I interpret and interact with the wider world, and to be deprived of it would leave me crippled and adrift in various ways.

  Perhaps all software developers are cyborgs in this fashion.

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  I exaggerate only slightly. While you may not need help sleeping, you may need help navigating to your bed. Clear the floor of obstacles; you won't be able to see them.