Front-end web developer — 4 out of 5 stars

• What it is: Building the parts of websites users interact with — pages, forms, navigation — using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Front-end work is code: text in, text out, testable with the same screen reader you already use.
• Certificate or training: No license. Employers look at portfolios; certificates from recognized platforms (freeCodeCamp, Meta or Google programs on Coursera) plus a body of working projects carry the application.
• Cost to get qualified: $500–$3,000 for courses and materials; much of the best curriculum is free
• Time to job-ready: 6–12 months of steady part-time study to job-ready
• Typical pay: $50,000–$85,000 a year full-time, higher with experience
• Why it works for a blind person: Code is text. Your editor, your browser's testing tools, and your screen reader are the whole workshop, and a blind developer builds accessible sites almost by instinct — a selling point employers increasingly understand.

Job 4 of 100 · Tech and IT support

Start here, step by step

1. Learn the words first: HTML structures a page, CSS styles it, JavaScript makes it respond. A portfolio is a small set of finished projects a stranger can open and try.
2. Work through a structured free curriculum (freeCodeCamp is the standard) with a code editor that suits your screen reader. Text-based editors are the most predictable by ear.
3. Build three real projects: a personal site, a small business page for someone you know, and one interactive tool. Finish them — half-done projects teach half the job.
4. Learn the professional basics: version control with Git, reading documentation, and writing accessible markup properly — headings, labels, focus order. Your accessibility habits are a differentiator; make them visible in your code.
5. Apply to agencies and product companies, and take one or two small freelance sites to have client work to point at. Junior roles are competitive; a portfolio with real users wins them.
6. Keep stacking: a framework (React is the common ask) and basic automated testing open the next pay band.

How AI can help

Use AI heavily for learning — explanations, error decoding, boilerplate — and for first drafts of routine code. AI cannot decide what to build, judge whether an interface makes sense to a screen-reader user, or own a deadline. Your judgment and your testing are the professional part.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The highest ceiling in this category and genuinely text-based work, with a free on-ramp. Not five stars because junior hiring is competitive, the study runway is the longest of the tech entries, and visual layout work needs honest workarounds — checking designs with tools and trusted eyes.

Pros and cons — the honest version

Pros

• Highest pay ceiling among the tech entries here
• The core material — code — is fully text-based
• Accessible-development skill is a real market edge

Cons

• Six to twelve months of study before you are employable
• Junior market is crowded; portfolio quality decides
• Pixel-level visual design checks need tooling or a sighted second look