Blindness and Low Vision

Blindness and low vision (BLV) collectively describes the spectrum of significant visual impairment ranging from complete absence of sight to partial sight loss that cannot be fully corrected with standard glasses or contact lenses. The World Health Organization defines low vision as visual acuity worse than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60 in the better eye, and blindness as visual acuity worse than 3/60. For digital accessibility, BLV users rely on assistive technologies including screen readers, braille displays, magnification software, and increasingly AI-powered tools such as image description apps and smart glasses for environmental navigation and object recognition. Accessible design for BLV users requires non-visual equivalents for all visual content, including text alternatives for images, logical reading order, and reliable audio output from AI systems.