Blind civil engineer?

Hello, i want to be a civil engineer but I am legally blind. I have trouble differentiating between red/orange and blue/green. I look at things very closely and cannot drive. Would I be able to have a career in civil engineering?

I’m not sure. It’s worth investigating. (i know a programmer that is legally blind.) Certainly it would have some challenges.

Yes, being an engineer will be challenging but so are many other things in life when you are “sight disadvantaged”. If being a civil engineer is your passion, then I’d go for it. Having the passion is a large part of being successful.

Your question kind of makes me think about what visual skills one really needs. It sounds, from your post, that you have some sight. That would help a lot as many times engineers will sketch out ideas on paper. But those are typically pencil on paper and could you make them out?

There are facets of the profession where you would be at great disadvantage but engineers are, by nature, problem solvers. Effective visual communication will be an issue but one that I believe could be solved enough for you to be an a productive engineer.

Good luck to you and let us know what you decide and how you make out.

Others have pointed out the possible disadvantages of being sight impaired, but there are also advantages that you could possibly explore. If civil engineering is the discipline that deals with humans interfacing with their environment, then someone who has a different experience can help round out the discipline.

Sight-impaired people need to interact with the environment and yet the environment tends to be created and designed by people who have experience only with normative-levels of vision.

This isn’t the best example, but in a building at my place of work, there is a sign on the door explaining how to use the handicapped release for the door. This is meant for people in wheel chairs. The sign is not at wheelchair level. It’s at walking height. There is a bulge in the door between it and wheelchair level, meaning wheelchair users not only can’t read the sign, they can’t even see the sign.

It’s a sign placed there by someone who walks.

There are probably numerous problems like this that normative-sighted people don’t even realize exist.

On youtube there are a bunch of videos with people trying Enchroma glasses, which are supposed to help those who are color blind distinguish colors. I remember one guy saying that he was a civil engineer, so at least being color blind didn’t keep him from pursuing that as a career.

I’ve also known several “almost blind” programmers, so if there are civil engineering jobs that mostly involve sitting in front of a computer, I’d think you should be able to do it.