Hi, thank you for sharing your experience so clearly. Accessibility barriers like the ones you described are serious and should not prevent eligible students from accessing the Student Developer Pack.
Here’s the most practical path forward right now:

1. Application form stuck on “Gathering available school information...”
   This can happen when the system detects repeated or incomplete attempts. Because you use assistive technology, the longer interaction time may have triggered a temporary rate limit or soft block.
   What to try:

Wait 24–48 hours without attempting the form again.
Then open a private/incognito window, clear site data for github.com, and try once more.
If it still hangs, do not keep retrying — that can make the temporary block last longer.

2. Live camera requirement & digital certificate
   You are correct that the current flow only accepts a live camera photo of a physical document and does not offer a file-upload option for official digital student certificates. This is a known accessibility gap for low-vision and blind users.
   Unfortunately the public support form currently states that manual reviews are limited, but accessibility-related exceptions are still handled when you contact the Education team directly and clearly describe the disability-related barrier.
   Recommended next step
   Please open a support ticket here:

https://support.github.com/contact/education
In the ticket, select the closest matching category (or “Something else”) and include:

Your GitHub username
That you are approximately 90 % visually impaired and rely on screen magnification + text-to-speech
Exact description of both barriers (form stuck + inaccessible live-camera requirement)
That you possess an official, barcode-verifiable digital student certificate from your government portal
A polite request for an accessible alternative verification method (e.g. secure upload of the official digital document or a manual review)

Also mention that your university email domain is already recognized by GitHub and that 2FA is enabled.
GitHub has an active accessibility team and Education support does review cases involving assistive technology barriers, even if the automated form no longer offers a general “manual review” option.
I hope the team can unlock the form and provide a workable verification path for you soon. Please update this thread if you receive a response so others in a similar situation can benefit.
Best of luck.