r/accessibility

Hi Everyone!

I've posted here before, but I wanted to share a very special project of ours again.

My brother Ben is nonspeaking and quadriplegic. A decade ago, he lost the use of his hands and, with it, his favorite hobby. In reality, gaming was one of the few things Ben could independently do and genuinely enjoy (well, that and using the TV remote).

His most reliable physical movement is turning his head.

While accessible communication devices and switches exist, there is still a massive gap when it comes to a streamlined way for someone like Ben to navigate entertainment, communication, and gaming using just one or two switches.

Native switch controls on smart devices and legacy AAC systems often hit massive UI barriers for media streaming and gaming.

So, using AI-assisted development, we built our own solution and released it completely free and open-source so others can use it too.

Yes, it's built using AI. I know some people have mixed feelings about that, but it has been the only way to move fast enough to keep pace with Ben's changing needs as his condition progresses. It allows us to iterate, adjust debounce rates, build in hold-forgiveness, and future-proof the platform at a speed that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Because it was built using AI, everything we make is completely free and open-source. We would never want to lock this down or gatekeep a solution like this.

We know firsthand how big this gap is in the accessibility space. There hasn't been a unified space where someone can independently pick their media, communicate, and most importantly, play games using simple switch inputs.

I'll drop the links in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

I work in web accessibility testing. One problem I see all the time: a website shows a form error only as a red border, or puts the error message on the page without announcing it. A screen reader user presses submit and hears nothing. The same happens with things like "Added to cart" or "Saved".

I'd like to hear from people who deal with this:

1. How often does this happen to you, and on what kinds of sites?
2. What do you do when it happens? Do you go looking, start over, or give up?
3. If something running quietly in your browser told you "the form didn't go through: the email is missing an @", would you want that? What would make you not trust it?
4. Would it matter to you that it works entirely on your own computer and never sends page content anywhere?
5. Does anything like this already exist? If you use something, I'd love to know what.

I'm not selling anything and there's no link. I'm trying to understand the problem properly before building anything. Thanks.