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

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. Joe demonstrates how he uses AI to build micro Chrome extensions that make his everyday work and life more accessible, showing how personal software can address accessibility needs that mainstream products often overlook.

Listen or watch on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts

What you’ll learn:

1. How to build custom Chrome extensions in under 25 minutes using Claude Code

2. A practical workflow for creating AI-powered accessibility tools

3. How to use Claude Skills to accelerate repetitive development tasks

4. Techniques for making Claude Code more screen reader accessible

5. Why personal software is becoming increasingly viable with AI assistance

6. How multimodal AI is transforming accessibility for visually impaired users

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Joe and his background

(02:34) Joe’s journey into computer science after vision loss

(04:50) The concept of personal software for accessibility

(06:09) Demo of image description Chrome extension for Slack

(10:40) Demo of AI-powered spell checker extension

(13:12) The efficiency of keyboard shortcuts for accessibility

(14:37) Live building a link summarization extension

(20:28) Using Claude Skills to extract common patterns

(25:30) Reviewing and modifying the development plan

(27:45) Removing cognitive friction for users through repeating patterns

(31:40) How to get fluent with AI tools

(34:55) Loading the extension into Chrome in developer mode

(36:19) Testing and debugging the extension

(40:44) Quick recap

(42:12) Lightning round and final thoughts

Tools referenced:

• Claude Code: https://claude.ai/code

• VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/

• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/

• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/

• Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses: https://www.meta.com/smart-glasses/

Other references:

• Chrome Extensions Documentation: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/

• ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA

• Windows Subsystem for Linux: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/

• Screen Readers: https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/assistive-technology-products/screen-readers

• Claude Skills explained: How to create reusable AI workflows:https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/claude-skills-explained

Where to find Joe McCormick:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemccormickjr/

Company: https://www.babylist.com/

Where to find Claire Vo:

ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/

Website: https://clairevo.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/

X: https://x.com/clairevo

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].