OGDEN — After 28 years as a software developer, and later a consultant, J.R. Westmoreland had a difficult time adjusting to the life of a student at Weber State University.

"To go from a six-figure income to a third of that, and have to go back to school, has been a tough thing to do," he said.

But in addition to seeking a degree in computer science, he's filled his time by learning woodworking, becoming an amateur broadcaster and an app developer.

Westmoreland is also blind.

As part of a recent class he took at WSU, Westmoreland and associate professor Rob Hilton developed a way to allow a blind person to create an iPhone app. By the end of the semester, Westmoreland had created a prototype as a "proof of concept."

Using a combination of tools, including a braile display and voice-over-screen reader, Westmoreland was able to create an app from scratch. In this case, he's working on an app that will help catalogue and organize movie collections.

"If you're like me, you've got zillions of different formats of movies of this and that and the other thing," he said. "And every new format that comes along, you wind up having movies in every format you could possibly imagine."

This app would keep track of what movies you have and what format they are in, as well as have the capability to scan bar codes for easy reading, and checking to see if you already have a movie. It would even be able to keep track of who you've lent a movie to and when they intend to bring it back.

"This is a break-through concept," Westmoreland said. "Now that I can do this, I can create any app, just like a sighted person, and hand that code off to somebody else who will do the artwork, such as color, spacing and aesthetics."

As for the app he's working on, he wants to take it all the way. "Ultimately I want it to go to the app store," he said.

Westmoreland laments that so many apps are inaccessable to the visually impaired. That is part of what inspired him to make his app. He has been unable to play many games, like Words With Friends, and use other programs due to limited support for access.

Accessibility is something that he's struggled with his entire life. Early on, he used an optacon to translate what is seen on a page into pins that he can feel with his hands.

"To me, looking at a problem laid out on a page as you would look at it is as meaningful to me as it is to you," he said. "In fact, I often tell my daughters, go get me your math book and let me see it. Don't describe it to me — let me look at it."

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West Jordan teen making an impact in the app world

Millions of people have downloaded apps for their iPhones or iPads. Some may have downloaded apps created by Clayton Ward, a 10th-grader from West Jordan.

His app will surmount that access problem and be fully usable by a blind or visually impaired person, but it is not only for the blind: It's for the general public.

Coding is nothing new for Westmoreland, who has been working with computers since 1975. In high school, he and his friends developed a sort of matchmaker application that paired people up for dates. They used a time-share computer at Ogden High School.

"You would have a line stacked up 20 or 30 or 40 people deep, waiting to get up so they could see who was suggested for them to go out and date," he said.

His interest in computers led him to take a job with Utah Light and Power, later bought by PacifiCorp, as a developer. He never graduated college.

Westmoreland helped write the software that was used in reading meters, including the mobile meter readers. Much later, he took a retirement deal and became a consultant, but was let go from that position due to the economic crisis in 2008.

Since then, he's gone back to school to get his degree in computer science. He hopes to soon be either developing apps, or even better, be back in an office, working.

"I'm the one of those people who is willing to to give lots of things a try and see how well it's gonna work," he said.

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