Plenty of people look at code and have no idea what they’re seeing. It all just looks like a bunch of random characters.

But as a software engineer at Amazon, Michael Forzano has “superpowers” that allow him to spot flaws in code, according to one of his colleagues at the tech giant. And Forzano has blind since birth.

The compelling story of the 26-year-old Forzano showed up on Amazon’s Day One blog. In a sea of tech workers in Seattle, Forzano’s ability to rise above personal challenges and make his way in the industry was just what we needed for a dose of inspiration on a rainy Friday.

“I do feel like I have to prove myself a lot in life,” said Forzano, who is on the company’s retail accessibility team. “But not at Amazon. People have been so open minded here. … Not letting my blindness hold me back is really empowering.”

A computer science graduate from Binghamton University, Forzano has been at Amazon since 2013. He uses a standard laptop with screen-reader software, which translates every aspect of using a computer into audio cues, according to Day One.

Check out the video above for more of his story, and the blog post for his answers to why he became interested in computers and what his interview process was like at Amazon.

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