Visual Access Technology

Technologies that help blind and low vision people understand visual content in both digital and physical environments. Traditional visual access technologies include screen readers, magnification software, and human-powered description services (like Be My Eyes with volunteer sighted guides). Modern AI-powered visual access technologies use multimodal large language models to provide on-demand image descriptions through apps such as Be My AI, Seeing AI, Envision, and AccessAI. These tools enable BLV users to read text, identify objects, interpret charts, select outfits, and navigate environments. While AI-powered tools are more scalable and available than human assistance, they introduce reliability challenges that require trust calibration.