How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired Cybersecurity Graduate — and Changed Vulnerability Research

                     How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired Cybersecurity Graduate — and Changed Vulnerability Research
               



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                     How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired Cybersecurity Graduate — and Changed Vulnerability Research
               
Categoria: Tutoriais | FreeCodeCamp Premium
Idioma Principal: Português (Conteúdo de Tecnologia)

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I was born prematurely at six months. My mother's placenta detached before delivery, and she essentially "gave birth" before I came out.

Two days after my birth, doctors found a heart murmur that required emergency surgery. They also discovered that I was blind in my left eye — the visual pathway between my brain and my eye was completely closed. My right eye retained about 80-90% vision, but I developed cataracts and lost the remaining sight at age nine.

Basically, I am a miracle.

Today, at 21, I'm the first visually impaired person in Brazil to earn a degree in Cyber Defense and Information Security. I'm also the first blind person to publish a vulnerability in the U.S. government's National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

I'm the author of the first cybersecurity book in Brazil written by a visually impaired person. And I founded BNVD.org, a Brazilian National Vulnerability Database that makes CVE data accessible in Portuguese.

I've also discovered critical vulnerabilities in Google, Microsoft, Nubank, and Smiles — all while using only a screen reader and my determination.

This is my story.

What I'll Cover:

• From DOSVOX to Cyber Defense

• The First CVE Published by a Blind Researcher

• The Book: Digital Scams and How to Protect Yourself

• The BNVD Project: A Brazilian Alternative to NVD

• 50+ Certifications and Global Recognition

• The Reality of Being Blind in Tech

• What I Want You to Know

From DOSVOX to Cyber Defense

I started reading at age three. In school, I was placed in a resource room where I discovered DOSVOX, a Brazilian operating system for visually impaired people that speaks everything on the screen.

Even without sight, I was able to play video games by sound alone and won tournaments against sighted players. At 10 years old, I started using computers, building websites and writing programs. At 14, I dove deeper into programming. And at 17, I discovered cybersecurity and never looked back.

I used a screen reader called NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), a free and open-source tool for Windows that converts on-screen content into audio. I still use it today.

On my phone, I use Jieshuo, a screen reader based on Google TalkBack. These tools are essential to my work, but they're not perfect. Many corporate applications and websites aren't built with accessibility in mind.

In fact, some software developed in older programming languages is practically inaccessible. I've had to explain to my employer how a screen reader works and what they needed to do to make their systems usable for me.

I enrolled in the Cyber Defense program at UNIFAVIP/Wyden, becoming the first blind person in Brazil to graduate in this field. Throughout my studies, I had to fight for accessible materials, adapted exams, and screen reader-compatible platforms. The university didn't have a roadmap for a blind cybersecurity student — so I had to help create one.

The First CVE Published by a Blind Researcher

In 2025, I discovered a critical vulnerability in the NVDA Remote and Tele NVDA Remote add-ons, which allow screen reader users to control remote computers. The problem was simple: the add-ons accepted any password regardless of strength, and had no additional authentication mechanism. More than 1,000 systems were using passwords like "1234."

I reported the vulnerability, and it was registered as CVE-2025-26326 — the first CVE ever published by a totally blind researcher. The vu

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