You ought to try working with no screen at all, and having to only IMAGINE what should be on the screen. And having to type with no fingers. Or keyboard. Editing like that takes real skill; separates the men from the boys, let me tell you.

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Ah, so you've done that too. I'm not as weird as I thought.

Yes, I have serviced computers with only the beep of the speaker and screen flickering on to guide me (fixing driver issues in Windows 3.1 IIRC).

I also considered using a headless Apple IIc to take notes while in University.

I have also heard people advise authors to turn off their monitors while writing, in order to avoid distractions (ranging from using other software, to avoiding editing too early in the writing process).

Of course the blind have to deal with screen readers and braile devices, or screen resolutions that are effectively much lower than 640x480 (i.e. they use screen magnifiers).

Personally, I don't think that 640x480 is scary to use. Modern websites make it difficult to use that resolution, but that's a product of decisions that website designers make. For example, the edit window for this message uses about 1/8th of my screen at 1024x768. Think about that. The task that I'm performing involves about 15% of my screen. That's about 40% of a screen running at 640x480. Pure and unadulterated waste.