Are there any internet groups for disabled developers?

that is my first put up on reddit so i’m hoping the getting to know community can be capable of help in this one. i have been looking around for a few kind of network/discussion board on line for software developers that have disabilities. in the time that i have been coaching myself how to code i’ve yet to find something more than a couple of articles about builders with disabilities. https://solitaire.onl/

does everyone recognize an amazing aid for this that i may be overlooking? additionally, are disabilities in the tech world common at either small or big agencies? i have extreme rheumatoid arthritis that has deformed my arms through the years and i’m dreading the day i have my first developer interview and go to shake their hand. it’s a useless giveaway and i don’t want them associating it with my ability to kind (i’ve my own modified way of typing to make amends for it). i’d like to see if there had been others accessible like myself that face these varieties of mental demanding situations. https://9apps.ooo/

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There are allot of people in the techworld with disabilities. I heard several story’s from people with Asperges that could write over 10k lines of lines of codes perfectly in one week without any bug’s. They had this magical gift of being very precies. Now I know you might not have that disability but, if you work hard and get skill’s that are very hard to master. A good bussines man would hire you and else it’s a bad one and, you did’t miss a thing out.

I do not know of any such groups. I hope that there are some good ones and that you get connected with that community.

I don’t know if disabled people are more or less represented in the developer community than similar industries. I can tell you anecdotally that I have worked with a few developers that have visible disabilities, but no one I’ve known well enough to talk with about their experiences in tech.

Various forms of physical accommodations are extremely common for developers, beyond what is required by the ADA. RSIs are common enough that getting special keyboards, mice, monitors, etc is usually trivial. Additionally, anyone who interviews you should know enough about programming that they’ll be aware that typing is not the core part of the job. We spend a lot more time staring at our computer screens and swearing than trying to type quickly, accurately, or for long periods of time. I doubt that you’ll have to worry much about conscious biases related to your RA - anyone with that level of ignorance and dickishness is not a coworker anyone wants. What is harder to pin down is unconscious bias. Ableism goes beyond misconceptions about ability. Able bodied people often have completely irrational and unacknowledged discomfort around visible disability. I imagine that advice and support around this is something that a disabled developers network could offer that most of us can’t.

TL;DR
I have no ideas what communities exist.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the specific concerns around typing.
Ableism exists, and is probably as present in the tech industry as anywhere.

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Hey @RichardThiago, I came here looking for the same thing. Did you ever find one? I’m a freelancer with one eye and missing fingers in my right hand and would love to connect with other disabled developers