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How I AIHow I AI

How a visually impaired engineer builds personal software with Claude Code + Wispr Flow

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. *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 *Brought to you by:* Tines—Start building intelligent workflows today: https://tines.com/howiai *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 *Detailed workflow walkthroughs from this episode:* • How I AI: Building Custom AI Accessibility Tools for Slack with Joe McCormick & Claude Code: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/custom-ai-accessibility-tools-for-slack-claude-code • Build a Slack Link Summarizer from Scratch using Claude Code: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/slack-link-summarizer-using-claude-code • Create a Fast, Accessible AI Spell Checker for Any Website: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/accessible-ai-spell-checker-for-any-website • Build a Custom AI Tool to Describe Images in Slack: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/ai-tool-to-describe-images-in-slack *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 jordan@penname.co._

Joe McCormickguestClaire Vohost
Feb 16, 202649mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Vision loss inspires AI-powered micro-apps that supercharge accessible coding

  1. Joe McCormick, a principal software engineer at Babylist who lost most of his central vision from Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, shows how multimodal AI has made work and daily life dramatically easier.
  2. He demos micro Chrome extensions that add instant image descriptions and one-keystroke spellchecking inside Slack (in the browser), emphasizing speed, keyboard shortcuts, and screen-reader accessibility.
  3. Joe then live-builds a new Slack-focused extension with Claude Code: a shortcut that extracts links from a message, summarizes the linked article via OpenAI, and displays 3–5 takeaways in an accessible modal.
  4. The conversation highlights “personal software” ROI (minutes saved daily for ~30 minutes of build time), practical agent tooling tweaks for accessibility, and the emotional impact of AI enabling him to read books with his kids via Gemini Live sharing.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

AI shrinks the accessibility gap in software engineering.

Joe describes how generative AI tools help visually impaired engineers close day-to-day productivity differences with sighted peers, both in coding and in parsing information-heavy workflows.

Micro-tools beat “Swiss Army knife” browsers when latency matters.

AI-native browsers can be powerful but slower; Joe prefers targeted Chrome extensions triggered by shortcuts for specific, repeatable tasks where seconds of friction add up.

Running Slack in Chrome unlocks rapid, customizable automation.

Instead of fighting the desktop app, Joe uses Slack Web so browser extensions can intercept focused messages and inputs, enabling seamless in-context assistance.

Keyboard-first UX is an accessibility and efficiency multiplier.

His tools revolve around consistent shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+D/S/1) and screen-reader announcements (“Processing… complete”), minimizing navigation overhead and cognitive load.

Personal software ROI has collapsed—build time now justifies tiny wins.

He contrasts old tradeoffs (3 days to save 3 minutes/day) with current ones (30 minutes to save 3 minutes/day), making it rational to automate “small” annoyances.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

The world is a whole lot easier.

— Joe McCormick

It was probably 25 minutes of a Claude Code session.

— Joe McCormick

The payback period has just become insane for a lot of this tooling.

— Joe McCormick

Latency is the killer feature.

— Claire Vo

‘Sorry, I can’t,’ becomes, ‘Sorry, I can,’ with the assistance of so many different tools now.

— Joe McCormick

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy and adapting engineering pathPersonal software for accessibility vs market incentivesSlack-in-Chrome as an extensibility layerMicro-extensions: image description and spellcheckClaude Code workflow: PRD → plan → scaffold → iterateAccessibility implementation: ARIA roles, focus management, screen-reader behaviorMultimodal AI for parenting (Gemini reading books) and MCP/format translation

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