30 October 2025
Artificial intelligence is changing the world, and nowhere is its impact more profound than in accessibility for people with sight loss. AI is going beyond simple screen readers to create new ways for the visually impaired community to interact with and understand the world around them. These innovations are helping people to navigate, read, and connect with more independence and confidence than ever before. This article explores some of the latest and most impactful AI accessibility features for visually impaired people.
Smart glasses are no longer just a gadget for tech enthusiasts; they have become a powerful tool for those with visual impairments. These devices use on-board cameras and AI to provide real-time audio descriptions of the user’s surroundings.
Envision glasses are a dedicated assistive technology designed specifically for people with sight loss. They offer a comprehensive suite of AI-powered features for hands-free use.
Find out more about the Envision Glasses.
Meta has integrated its powerful AI into its smart glasses, including the stylish Ray-Ban and performance-focused Oakley models. While not exclusively designed for accessibility, they offer valuable features for visually impaired people.
Those who prefer classic frames may still gravitate to Ray-Ban; having both ranges simply allows for matching the glasses to the individual rather than a one-size-fits-all choice.
We have lots more information on the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, some useful commands, and a 1 month review. Find out more below.
Beyond wearables, a number of mobile apps and software platforms are harnessing the power of AI to provide vital assistance.
This free app uses AI to provide a variety of functions, from reading short text to describing images and even identifying products by scanning their barcodes. The app can also recognise people and describe their facial expressions.
This new feature within the popular “Be My Eyes” app allows users to submit photos to an AI for a detailed visual description. This is particularly helpful for getting a quick description of something without having to wait for a volunteer.
Google is exploring new frontiers with “Project Astra,” an experimental AI that can act as a “visual interpreter.” The prototype can describe its surroundings in real-time as the camera moves, and even understands context to provide more helpful information. The goal is to integrate this technology into future devices, including smart glasses.
Google has now added its Gemini AI as an option in the native Android screen reader, TalkBack. This is a game-changer for people with sight loss. Now, in addition to the standard screen reading functions, users can open the TalkBack menu with a three-finger tap and use the “Ask Gemini” button to get detailed AI-generated image descriptions. Users can even ask follow-up questions about an image or the current screen by using their voice or keyboard. This allows for a deeper and more conversational understanding of visual content, from images in a social media feed to documents on the screen.
Google’s Gemini is also available on Apple devices through the Gemini mobile app. While it doesn’t integrate directly with native iOS accessibility features, like TalkBack does on Android, it still provides a wide range of powerful AI accessibility feature for visually impaired people. Users can use text, voice, or their camera to interact with the AI.
The “Gemini Live” feature is particularly useful, allowing for a real-time, two-way conversation with the AI. By enabling the use of your camera in the Gemini App, the user can point their phone at a scene and have a natural, conversational dialogue with the AI to get real-time descriptions of their surroundings.
Find out more about Gemini Live.
Apple’s iOS platform has long been a leader in accessibility, and it continues to add new AI-powered tools. The built-in accessibility reader, VoiceOver, provides spoken descriptions of what’s on the screen. In addition, the native magnifier app has features that use the phone’s camera to describe what it sees. “Detection Mode” can provide real-time descriptions of visual information, including the detection of people, doors, or text. Users can also use the iPhone as a magnifying glass to zoom in on objects.
We have already written an article on the new iOS 26 Accessibility Features. Click the image below to read what’s new with Apple, and their full list of latest AI accessibility features for visually impaired people.
Large language models (LLMs), such as Gemini, are a crucial part of the latest wave of AI accessibility. These models are trained on vast amounts of text and image data, allowing them to understand context, generate human-like language, and interpret complex visual information. You might have heard of some of these: Google’s “Gemini”, and Open AI’s “Chat GPT”.
A new feature of Gemini is its advanced image editing capabilities, which can be particularly useful for people with sight loss. You can type your commands, or with a hands-free approach, you can give voice commands to edit images. For instance, you can ask the AI to “remove the person from the background,” “change the colour of the jacket to red,” or “make the lighting brighter.” This allows for a creative and functional interaction with images that was previously difficult or impossible.
Another feature that comes with this is the improved AI-generated image descriptions. The image descriptions are now much more precise and to the point, picking out the main parts of the image, rather than describing every single detail. If you wish to have every detail described, you can just ask for a more detailed description.
Note: Edited and created images in the image editor do contain both visible and invisible watermarks.
Find out more about Gemini’s Image Editor.
The evolution of AI accessibility is a result of continuous innovation in technology. Dedicated smart glasses like Envision, integrated features in consumer devices like Meta’s smart glasses, and powerful mobile applications such as Seeing AI demonstrate a shift towards hands-free and real-time visual assistance. The integration of large language models like Gemini into native operating systems provides users with a more conversational and context-aware experience. These advancements facilitate greater access to information, enhance personal mobility, and provide new forms of assistance for daily tasks. The development of this technology is driven by a commitment to creating tools that are both functional and intuitive for the visually impaired community.
Source: My Vision
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