r/AssistiveTechnology

On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we want to highlight recent and upcoming improvements in JetBrains IDEs: magnifier support on Windows, enhanced keyboard navigation to previously unreachable IDE parts, and Orca support since 2026.2.
From the linked blog post, you'll learn what's already available and what we're actively working on to make our products accessible.
Developers who rely on accessibility features in your daily work, we would appreciate your feedback!

So I have read&write on my macbook and everything i scan a large bit of text with screenshot tool to read it outlook to me, I doesn't process the text. Is this normal or do is there an issue with the software?

Hey everyone!

I've been trying to improve accessibility on my projects lately, and honestly... the free tool landscape feels lacking or very limited. Either something costs x$/month or it only does half of what I need.

I'm curious what others here are struggling with:

\*\*What accessibility check or tool do you wish you had for free?\*\*

Like, is there a specific test you need to run constantly but can't find a decent free option for? Or something that  exists but is too complicated to use?

For me personally, I haven't found a keyboard navigation checking tool. Does anyone know one?

also, what's missing for you? Thanks for sharing!

Hello, I am a biomedical engineering student and I have a keen interest and genuine passion in making things more accesible. I am able bodied and healthy but as my grandfather aged and got parkisons, I began noticing just how much of the world wasnt made for him and how theres a greater need for innovative design in public spaces, especially transport and other public amenities. I'm interested in making medical devices or other tools/ designs, but before I can do anything I want to be as well informed as I can be on the sort of obstacles faced by people with all sorts of disabilities. I understand as someone able-bodied, I can talk alot but I'll never understand the struggle and theres alot of obstacles that I wouldn't even think to consider as someone whos never had to navigate them. I would genuinely appreciate any input or suggestions. Thankyou

Hello everyone, A friend and I are building an accessibility tool that helps people control their computer using minimal input, like head tracking, voice, dwell selection, or text.

I’m not here to sell anything. I’m trying to speak with people who struggle with using a computer because of motor limitations, fatigue, tremors, speech challenges, or similar access barriers.

The goal is to build this with users, not just for users. I’m looking for 3–5 people who would be open to giving feedback on early demos, telling me what daily computer tasks are frustrating, and possibly testing a rough prototype later.

The product is still early, so I’m mainly looking to learn:What tools do you currently use?What tasks are still hard?What would actually make your computer easier to use?

We're mostly just looking for more insight and possible testers instead of blindly building a product.

No pressure to share anything private. I’d really appreciate honest feedback, especially criticism.

So far were only mac compatible but in the future were looking to expand to windows machines.

Hi everyone,

My daughter struggles significantly with dyscalculia. Managing pocket money, calculating change, and paying at the store used to cause her severe anxiety. We tried so many financial apps, but they all rely on abstract numbers, mental math, and budget graphs which just don't work for her brain.

So, I spent the last few months building a tool specifically for her. Instead of numbers, it uses pictures of actual, physical coins and bills (it supports USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, NZD, and SGD).

But the feature that actually changed everything for her is the voice guide: the app gives her step-by-step audio instructions on how to pay and what exact change to expect. It actually pauses and waits for her to physically complete the step before moving to the next one. It completely removed the math anxiety from the equation.

I am now trying to figure out if I should take the big, bureaucratic step of officially publishing it for other families.

I'm not posting any links here because I completely respect the community rules and don't want to trigger any spam bots! But I did set up a simple waitlist page to test the waters. If this sounds like a tool that could help your child gain independence, please let me know in the comments or send me a DM, and I’ll gladly share the page with you in private.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

So basically, I have limited mobility and energy and struggle to use my phone because bending my neck causes a lot of pain.

I just tried voice control to see what it’s like, and it seemed very seamless, but I found constantly talking, tiring.

I’m new at this and have limited ability to do research, but was wondering if anyone knows the answer to the following question :

Is there a way to have it set up like voice control where it has little numbers next to the icon but then use a switch or a little handheld number keypad to press the numbers instead of speaking them?

Hi all! I’m a Foothill College student working on an assistive technology project, and I’d love feedback from people who know this space better than I do.

My team is building an early prototype called NextStep, an audio-first navigation concept for blind and low-vision users. Right now our prototype focuses on one specific use case: guiding a user through a campus route to a nearby bus stop using spoken directions and real-time transit information.

I’d really like feedback from people who use, build, study, or think seriously about assistive technology.

Some of the main questions I’m trying to understand are:

• What important mobility/navigation gaps are current assistive tools still not solving well?
• What existing products or apps should we be studying closely?
• Does “audio-first wayfinding” sound genuinely helpful, or does it raise red flags?
• Would a glasses-based experience make sense, or should this stay phone-first for longer?
• How much should a tool like this try to do at once?
• What would make this feel practical, trustworthy, and not overwhelming?
• If you were evaluating an early prototype like this, what would you want to see before taking it seriously?

I’m especially interested in feedback about:

• real-world navigation,
• transit connection,
• accessibility design,
• and what would make a prototype feel authentic rather than gimmicky.

Even short comments would be really helpful. If anyone wants to DM me or chat briefly, I’d really appreciate that too!

I’m not trying to market anything here. I’m trying to learn from real people so we don’t build something misguided.

I’m looking for recommendations for a device that would allow me to control my iphone when I cannot reach the touchscreen (it would be in a stand).

I mostly bedbound, and the two positions that allow me to use my phone (lying on my back, holding up my phone, and looking forward at it; and lying on my side) give me really bad headaches from neck and shoulder tension.

Ideally, I think it would make sense to have my phone in one of those stands that I can adjust and sort of position over my head so that I’m looking up and not bending my neck. I can’t lift my arms much in that position so I would be looking for like a trackpad or a mouse or something that I could hold to control my phone.

I’m pretty sick/low capacity/ struggle with brain fog/cognitive symptoms, so I really appreciate anyone who is willing to help research for me find a simple easy to learn solution.

Thanks so much in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/d3pd24iath1h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7255015b2c48ddeea387abc48c7db7e772e4404

I don’t think I’m the only one who dislikes battery-powered products. Power wheelchairs, smartphones, wireless earbuds, and most of all, Bluetooth adaptive switch interfaces! Whenever I have a nightmare, it almost always involves a battery problem. Is it just me? Wireless devices that rely on batteries promise freedom, but it’s really only temporary freedom.

The Bluetooth adaptive interface I’ve been using for years has recently started to make me a bit anxious about its battery. As you know, these things are pretty expensive. The cheapest ones are around $300, right? I debated whether I should buy a new one, then thought, why not just make a wired device myself? I have a strong interest in gaming devices, so I knew about very cheap products with similar capabilities, and I outsourced the programming to AI.

For this attempt, I bought an EPS32 C3 board and two 3.5mm mono sockets (one as a backup). My parents helped with the wiring. Programming? That’s hardly even a challenge these days! I’m writing this with that very setup right now.

A friend of mine had a horrible work accident last week and is now in a medically induced coma for the foreseeable furure. I talked to his brother and he wants to set up some sort of audio or video device that would play a recording of all his family and friends sending him best wishes. I think it’s a great idea but don’t know how to go about setting it up. Can anyone recommend a device that would be good for something like this?

I was hoping to gauge others experience with Read&Write this year. And if you'll be using them next year. ..

My school district is large and we used Co:writer/snap&read for individuals on IEPs. We loved it and had many students in gen edu and full SDC classrooms using regularly.

This year, we have experienced nothing but issues with the new Read&Write. We have not been able to get Read&Write to work consistently on any computers. Main issues include: tool bar not popping when clicked (might randomly pop up minutes later), microphone not working for dictate but microphone working in other environments. The desktop app was not much better. Overall responsiveness is so slow to start and students aren't able to wait through. So now, we don't have any students using Read&Write this year because of all the issues (on top of it not even being ready at the beginning of the school year).

Our IT department and Everway have meet several times throughout the year. It feels like we all just gave up about February. We meet with Kami's team this week and the free trial is working on staff and student devices.

Has this been your experience this year? What have you done to get it to work? Or are you exploring other options too?

Hey everyone! I'm a college student that is making an assignment about people with disbility in the tecnology world, the principal object of this is create or change some application that can make the life of disability people easier. But the first part of this work is define a problem and search if this problem really affect this people. So I come here with this post searching for reports of people with motor disability, telling some dificultty while using the computer, cellphone or some apps or web pages.

Life alert has been the default name in personal emergency response systems for decades but that reputation feels built more on advertising than on service quality at this point. The life alert cost conversation barely happens because people just assume its what you get and move on

There are newer companies now and some of them offer more for less, no contracts, lower monthly fees, fall detection at the base price instead of as an add on. For anyone who seriously looked at life alert alternatives did any of them actually hold up?

Hard to tell whats real when every company website reads exactly the same way

The Lively phone as a combined solution makes intuitive sense until you look at what the emergency coverage actually requires to work. Calling for help requires the phone to be present, charged, and consciously activated by someone who may not be able to do any of those things. Passive fall detection is not part of the equation at all.

The all in one appeal is real for simplicity.

But the emergency performance is a pretty different category from a dedicated worn device.

Life Alert has enormous brand recognition because of decades of marketing spend and that recognition gets confused with quality in a category where most families don't have prior experience to draw on. The multi-year contract is the thing that matters most on the terms side and it's also the thing most families don't think to ask about until they're trying to cancel. The actual feature comparison between Life Alert and alternatives is almost never as wide as the price gap suggests. Most families who do the research find that what they're paying for is the name, not meaningfully better coverage or faster response. The contract is the real differentiator and it's buried deep enough that people sign without fully understanding what they're committing to. Three years is a long time when a parent's situation can change completely in six months and the cancellation terms are not forgiving when that happens.

Early stage of partnership growth for my web-app Luna AI. Basically an AI Tutor that teaches the user about any topic, any time, anywhere. I see the biggest impact coming from blind and low-vision students so talking with the Braille Institute and Vision-Aid to see how we can improve learning outcomes for students around the globe ASAP. All feedback is appreciated.

Part of my job is filling out paperwork forms using the software Welligent. Is there a dictation program that is easy to use for form filling? This will literally make the difference between me having a job or not having one. In the past, assistants were helping complete those clerical tasks but now the assistant position is being eliminated at my workplace. I asked if they could hire someone just to help me and let me reimburse them and they declined. I can’t hire someone on my own because of confidentiality.