What's in your assistive toolkit? Share your setup

Richard · Senior infrastructure engineer · 4 June 2026 illustrative example

Let's build the master list. Text-to-speech, dictation, note systems, browser extensions, fonts, scripts, hardware - whatever genuinely earns its place in your workflow.

One rule: real experience over recommendations. 'I use X every day for Y' beats 'I heard X is good'.

I'll fold the best answers into the Resources section (with credit) so they don't get buried.

✓ helpful to 4 people

7 replies

Priya · Platform engineer · 5 June 2026 illustrative example
Daily drivers, in order of 'would riot if removed':
1. Dictation for every first draft (ticket updates, emails, design docs). Win+H is genuinely good now. 2. TTS to proof-listen everything I wrote. My eyes skip words; my ears don't. 3. A one-page personal wiki per system - what it is, who owns it, the command I always forget. 4. Dark mode + Lexend as browser default font via Stylus.
The combination matters more than any single tool. Speak, listen, fix, send.
✓ helpful to 5 people
- Maya · Network engineer · 5 June 2026 illustrative example
  Seconding proof-listening so hard. I catch missing words my eyes have skipped for forty years.
- Dan · Junior network tech · 6 June 2026 illustrative example
  How do you handle dictating hostnames and IPs? That's where mine falls apart.
Kez · NOC shift lead · 6 June 2026 illustrative example
Less tooling, more structure: a personal escalation matrix. One laminated page: symptom class → first check → who to wake. Reduces 3am decision fatigue to a lookup table.
Also: meeting notes in a fixed template (Decisions / Actions / Questions). If it's not in one of those boxes it doesn't exist.
✓ helpful to 3 people
Ellie · Datacentre technician · 7 June 2026 illustrative example
Hardware corner:
- Label maker (obviously) - Noise-cancelling ear defenders that look like normal DC PPE, so nobody asks questions - A phone camera as external memory: I photograph every rack before and after. Saved me in three separate 'who changed this' conversations.
✓ helpful to 2 people
- Tom · Sysadmin, healthcare · 7 June 2026 illustrative example
  'PPE that's secretly an accommodation' is genius and I'm stealing it.
Sam · Infrastructure consultant · 8 June 2026 illustrative example
One for the consultants: I ask every client for a 'reading pack' 48h before workshops - architecture diagrams, key docs, attendee list. Framed as professionalism, works as an accommodation. Nobody has ever said no.
✓ helpful to 2 people