How AI Is Changing Access to Information

Just a few years ago, many tools for blind users were limited to basic functions: text-to-speech, simple navigation, and the ability to dictate messages. Today, this is a completely new world of possibilities. Artificial intelligence has learned to “see,” “understand,” and “describe” reality, and as a result, people without vision are gaining access to information that once seemed impossible.

AI is becoming a full-fledged bridge between humans and a world built almost entirely around visual information.

The Role of AI in Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies compensate for limitations and help people interact with the world more comfortably. AI has become their key component because devices can now analyze context, draw conclusions, and provide responses in a natural form.

Here is what neural networks offer blind users today:

• Computer vision that replaces sight. A smartphone or smart glasses camera analyzes the environment, recognizing objects, faces, text, and movement.
• Natural speech replacing interfaces. There is no longer a need to press buttons or memorize commands users can speak in whatever way feels natural to them.
• Personalization. AI adapts to the user’s speech tempo, vocabulary, and habits.
• Context understanding. The assistant understands not just words, but meaning, which is especially important when requests are made quickly or ambiguously.

These technologies are already used in smartphones, smart speakers, AR glasses, navigation services, educational programs, and professional tools.

Navigation Applications and Voice Interfaces

Navigation Applications

Navigation is a critical task where AI significantly helps blind people. Traditional GPS applications were designed for sighted users and ignored many nuances: curbs, stairs, noisy intersections, and the lack of audio landmarks.

Modern AI-powered applications do much more:

• Describe the surroundings: “open space ahead,” “wall on the left,” “parking area on the right.”
• Warn about obstacles: poles, curbs, temporary barriers, puddles, steps.
• Identify text and signs: bus numbers, building signs, road signs.
• Predict object movement: a bicycle approaching, a dog running nearby, a car moving close.
• Provide indoor navigation: in shopping malls, offices, airports, and medical facilities.

Some solutions already use SLAM navigation, a technology originally developed for robotics. It allows real-time map building and highly precise user guidance.

Voice Interfaces

Voice is the most natural and accessible interface for blind users. It does not require hands, vision, special skills, or complex commands.

Using voice, users can:

• write messages or emails;
• search for information online;
• control phones and applications;
• turn home devices on and off;
• manage navigation;
• create documents;
• work with notes and calendars;
• translate text;
• communicate with AI that responds in real time using voice.

Voice technologies are becoming so accurate that they sometimes replace full visual interfaces entirely.

How Neural Networks Learn to Understand Context and Speech

For an assistant to understand speech as well as a human does, massive amounts of training are required:

1. Training on large audio datasets.
   Models listen to different voices, accents, intonations, slang, and emotional nuances.
2. Contextual interpretation.
   Neural networks analyze not individual words, but the overall meaning of a phrase.
   For example, they understand the difference between “open the door” and “open the file ‘Door.’”
3. Dialog logic.
   The assistant learns to hold conversations, clarify requests, correct mistakes, and suggest options.
4. Adaptation to a specific person.
   Over time, the voice assistant learns familiar expressions and an individual speaking style.

As a result, AI begins to function not like a robot, but like a conversational partner. This is critically important for blind users, who need intuitive ways to interact with devices.

Advantages and Limitations of Voice Interaction

Advantages

• Complete freedom. Devices can be controlled while walking down the street or standing in a dark room.
• High speed. Speaking is faster than typing.
• Inclusivity. Devices become accessible without specialized skills.
• Comfort. Voice replaces complex interfaces, menus, and buttons.
• Personalization. The system remembers user habits and improves results over time.

Limitations

• Noise and poor connectivity reduce recognition accuracy;
• Data privacy remains a relevant concern;
• Some commands are still unavailable or require very precise phrasing;
• AI may misinterpret ambiguous requests;
• Dependence on servers or internet access in most applications.

Each new model update significantly reduces these issues.

The Role of AI in Education, Work, and Everyday Tasks

Education

AI has completely transformed education for blind users:

• Reading textbooks and academic articles via OCR;
• Explaining complex topics in simple language;
• Allowing an unlimited number of questions;
• Voicing charts, diagrams, and tables;
• Assisting with projects and presentations;
• Learning languages through voice-based dialogue.

Learning has become individualized: AI adapts to the student’s pace and style, not the other way around.

Work

In professional environments, AI helps to:

• compose emails, reports, and documents;
• plan tasks;
• analyze textual data;
• prepare speeches and presentations;
• perform routine operations much faster;
• translate documents in real time.

Thanks to voice assistants, blind professionals can work in many fields — from marketing and customer support to programming and analytics.

Everyday Tasks

AI has become indispensable at home:

• helping choose clothing by identifying colors;
• reading instructions and café menus;
• recognizing packaging and products;
• assisting with orientation in unfamiliar areas;
• translating foreign-language signs;
• describing photos and videos.

These small details form the most important outcome: a sense of independence.

How Voice AI (ChatGPT Voice, Alexa, Siri) Helps Blind Users

Voice assistants have become a central element of digital accessibility:

• ChatGPT Voice responds in natural speech, understands complex context, describes images, and helps with learning and work.
• Alexa controls smart homes, provides reminders, delivers news, and manages household appliances.
• Siri instantly executes commands on the iPhone, helps search for information, manage applications, and use accessibility features.

These assistants work quickly, naturally, and without visual interfaces, making them especially comfortable for blind users.

Examples of Successful Solutions: Seeing AI, Be My Eyes, Envision AI

Seeing AI (Microsoft)

Seeing AI is a free application from Microsoft that turns a smartphone camera into a “smart eye.” It describes the surrounding scene, recognizes people, emotions, and age, reads text from documents, identifies products via barcodes, recognizes currency, and announces colors. It is especially useful in everyday situations from reading mail to understanding what is around you.

Be My Eyes (Virtual Volunteer)

Be My Eyes began as a service connecting blind users with volunteers via video calls. Today, it includes the Virtual Volunteer feature — an AI assistant that describes photos, helps with spatial orientation, answers questions about objects and interfaces, and most importantly, works without requiring a human connection. This makes the assistant available 24/7.

Envision AI

Envision AI is a powerful application for text reading and environmental recognition. It can scan documents, letters, and screens, describe scenes in real time, and recognize faces. The app integrates with Envision Glasses, allowing users to receive visual information hands-free, especially convenient in universities, shops, offices, and public transport.

You can find even more useful resources in our catalog.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence has become the primary tool of digital accessibility, and its impact continues to grow. Voice models are becoming more accurate, devices are gaining new sensors, navigation applications are becoming smarter, and computer vision is faster and more reliable.

The future of inclusion is a world where people with any level of vision can freely learn, work, travel, communicate, and control technology.

AI is changing the very concept of independence. It removes boundaries, makes environments more welcoming, and turns barriers into opportunities. And this process is already happening every day.