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How AI and other technologies are making the world more accessible to the blind (Rebroadcast)

(Photo by Randy Montoya/Sandia National Laboratories/Getty Images)
(Photo by Randy Montoya/Sandia National Laboratories/Getty Images)

Andrew Leland’s book, “The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight,” made it on many 2023 year-end best literary lists, including The New Yorker’s.

Leland documents how his diminishing vision changes his relationship with technology, making it both more challenging to access and increasingly important to his independence.

Innovations like AI-powered apps that allow people to learn what’s photographed through their cameras’ lenses are helping the blind. But how useful are they? What other tools are there for those who are blind or have low vision? And how accessible is other technology originally designed for seeing eyes?

We explore blindness, accessibility, and tech.

Copyright 2024 WAMU 88.5

Avery Jessa Chapnick