--- title: How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired... description: Juan Mathews Rebello Santos shares his journey becoming Brazil's first visually impaired cybersecurity graduate and the first totally blind researcher to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-became-brazil-s-first-visually-impaired-cybersecurity-graduate-and-changed-vulnerability-res-zqauynlkt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired Cybersecurity Graduate — and Changed Vulnerability Research | daily.dev og:description: Juan Mathews Rebello Santos shares his journey becoming Brazil's first visually impaired cybersecurity graduate and the first totally blind researcher to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-became-brazil-s-first-visually-impaired-cybersecurity-graduate-and-changed-vulnerability-res-zqauynlkt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zqAUynLKT.png og:image:alt: How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired Cybersecurity Graduate — and Changed Vulnerability Research og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How I Became Brazil's First Visually Impaired Cybersecurity Graduate — and Changed Vulnerability Research **[freeCodeCamp](https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp)** · 11 min read · 4 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Juan Mathews Rebello Santos shares his journey becoming Brazil's first visually impaired cybersecurity graduate and the first totally blind researcher to publish a CVE in the U.S. National Vulnerability Database. Born prematurely and fully blind by age nine, he navigated inaccessible university systems, discovered vulnerabilities in Google, Microsoft, Nubank, and Smiles using only a screen reader, and published CVE-2025-26326 in NVDA Remote add-ons. He also founded BNVD.org, a Portuguese-language alternative to the NVD, authored Brazil's first cybersecurity book by a visually impaired person, and holds 50+ certifications. The post candidly addresses the real accessibility barriers blind professionals face in tech — from inaccessible websites and mobile apps to 500+ job applications with zero callbacks — and advocates for inclusive design as a professional necessity, not a niche accommodation. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What vulnerability did a blind security researcher find in NVDA Remote and Tele NVDA Remote? A critical flaw allowed the remote-control add-ons for the NVDA screen reader to accept any password regardless of strength, with no additional authentication mechanism, meaning more than 1,000 systems were secured with passwords as weak as '1234'. It was registered as CVE-2025-26326, notable as the first CVE ever published by a totally blind researcher. _Security teams tracking screen-reader and accessibility-tool vulnerabilities can follow disclosures like this one on daily.dev._ ### What is BNVD and why was it created as an alternative to the NVD? BNVD (Banco Nacional de Vulnerabilidades) is a Brazilian national vulnerability database launched in 2025 that translates CVE descriptions into Portuguese and adds search, filtering, and notification features for Brazilian security professionals. It was created after the U.S. National Vulnerability Database faced a funding crisis threatening to take it offline, similar to alternative databases already run by Japan and China. _Developers relying on regional CVE sources can keep track of projects like BNVD through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Behind the firewall: The hidden struggles of cyber professionals with a disability](https://daily.dev/posts/behind-the-firewall-the-hidden-struggles-of-cyber-professionals-with-a-disability-aqaxguwlp) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [\#188 – Bud Kraus on Teaching and Using WordPress With Low Vision](https://daily.dev/posts/188-bud-kraus-on-teaching-and-using-wordpress-with-low-vision-los0nw2jw) · WP Tavern · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How I Hacked My College’s Website and Found a CVE Affecting 100\+ Institutions across India](https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-hacked-my-college-s-website-and-found-a-cve-affecting-100-institutions-across-india-kigpolq97) · InfoSec Write-ups · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#vulnerability](https://daily.dev/tags/vulnerability), [#accessibility](https://daily.dev/tags/accessibility) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-became-brazil-s-first-visually-impaired-cybersecurity-graduate-and-changed-vulnerability-res-zqauynlkt) ```json 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