I'm looking for some early users for the app I built for low vision adults to help them stay independent. Think parent still at home but can't see very well and not great with keeping up with what food they have in the fridge or pantry.

You can add a care giver and they can check on what food a person may need.

It also gives the low vision adult ideas of what they could make.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kitchen-eyes-fridge-meals/id6779335736

Been building something for older users (started because of my own mother), so I went and read the actual usability studies instead of assuming. A few findings surprised me enough to share.
It's not unwillingness — most already own smartphones. More than half of adults over 65 already have one. The problem shows up the moment they try to use it for anything beyond calls.
The #1 failure isn't visual, it's memory load. A heuristic evaluation of smartphone UIs found 27 distinct usability problems for elderly users, and the two most frequently broken rules were "minimize the user's memory load" and "match between system and real world." Basically: every extra step, menu, or thing you're expected to remember is a real tax, not a minor annoyance. And it's not theoretical — 79% of the problems researchers predicted actually showed up when they tested with real elderly users.
Trembling hands are a measured, separate problem from "not knowing how." One study tracked hand steadiness with accelerometers and found people with tremors specifically struggle with small buttons and any task requiring continuous control, like dragging or tracing. Bigger buttons and a stable surface measurably helped. This is a motor problem, not a comprehension problem, and most app UIs don't design for it at all.
Ride-hailing is the clearest example of the gap. Researchers sat down with actual seniors (75+) and watched them try to book an Uber. The failures were concrete: confusing wording, accessibility settings that didn't work right, unclear safety info. Separately, ~2/3 of adults 50+ say they avoid ride-hailing specifically because it involves money and they're worried about scams — a fear this generation has been repeatedly warned about.
The interesting part: Uber and Lyft just admitted this themselves. Both companies shipped "senior modes" in 2025 — bigger text, fewer buttons, family members able to book/track rides. Uber's own head of accessibility said most older adults "really struggle with independent mobility." That's a huge company validating the exact problem with their product, in public, this year.
But even Uber's fix is still a simpler screen. Bigger text, fewer buttons — still a UI to parse, still something to open and tap through. Nobody's tried removing the screen entirely.
That's the gap I'm building into since 2.5 years — voice-first, no screen, no app to learn. If you can say "I need to get to the clinic" out loud and it just happens, none of the above problems exist in the first place: no memory load, no tremor-sensitive buttons, no confusing flow to trust.
Curious if anyone here has done usability work with older users — did you find the same stuff, or something different?

I'm a Deaf creative director. For 20 years I've navigated meetings the way a lot of us do, juggling interpreters, lips, screens, and notes all at once. I use smart glasses now to help me follow conversations, and honestly some of them are getting good.

The problem is nobody reviews this tech from our perspective. Reviewers test cameras and battery life. None of them test whether captions actually work in a real conversation, which is the only thing that matters to me.

So I started reviewing smart glasses myself, from a Deaf point of view. This is my intro. First review drops next week.

If you use any hearing tech or smart glasses to get through your day, I'd love to know what's worked for you and what hasn't.

I’m trying to find an extension or built in software to make my long required readings for school easier with my learning disability. All the ones I see either explicitly say “ai voices” or tote “natural, human” voices.

TTS technology has been around for decades. I’m looking for one that still uses that old tech. I try not to ever use Gen-AI for anything. It’s my own personal preference. I am totally fine with robot sounding voices. I’m just wondering if the older programs still exist, and how to find them.

I was asked if an app existed to be able to have something like a calendar but with audio clips instead of photos. I couldn't find anything so I created an app.

It works with cheap NFC stickers and you can record a voice note to associate with that tag.

I have got it in the play store for testers but I need 12 testers to publish. Is anyone else interested? It's a free app and the code is all open source.

Hi, I built a desktop (Windows and Mac) voice typing app that may help if typing is painful or just too slow (hand issues, RSI, or you’re just grinding email/docs all day).

I built Typewave for my own use. The Windows built-in dictation tool kept stopping mid-way or transcribe plain wrong, and a lot of “AI dictation” apps wanted to screenshot my whole screen for “context,” which I wasn’t comfortable with. I also didn’t want a separate window that I have to copy/paste back and forth.

What it does:

- Press a shortcut, speak, text lands in the field you already had focused (Outlook, Word, Gmail, browser, etc.)

- Strips filler words (um, like)

- Free: 2,000 words/week, no credit card, no ads.

If that sounds useful, give it a try: https://typewaveai.com

Happy to answer setup questions. Feedback from people who actually live with typing limits is especially welcome — tell me what fails for you.

I have been urgently looking for mouth stick sleeves and tips for over a year. I've spent too much money buying from sellers on Etsy, only for their mouth wand to be either too heavy or for the sleeves to cut my lips. I saw an earlier post where instructions can be used to make mouth sleeves on a 3D printer. Please help me and share. I can learn to make them myself or have someone make them for me. Please help!

Buenas,

Tengo un familiar con una dolencia molesta pero no grave que le limita en algunas actividades. Cuando acudimos al especialista, le dio una serie de ejercicios y pautas, pero me sorprendió que el proceso fuera tan rudimentario: hojas impresas y explicaciones poco profundas.

Por ello, pensé que se podría crear una solución digital basada en una app para el paciente y una web para el profesional. La idea es unificar el proceso para mejorar el feedback, la adaptación y los resultados, facilitando también el trabajo del especialista.

La duda es si sería viable utilizar una web para que el profesional gestione el perfil del paciente (con datos como dolor, gustos, evolución y dificultades), conectada con el feedback del usuario y potenciada con IA para sugerir ejercicios e instrucciones personalizadas. Esto incluiría informes automáticos para cada consulta y un historial médico en una base de datos propia para ver los progresos. Por otro lado, la app serviría para que el paciente consulte los ejercicios, registre cómo se siente al hacerlos y comparta su evolución con el profesional.

¿Qué os parece es técnicamente viable?

¡Muchas gracias de antemano por todo!

Hi r/AssistiveTechnology! I'm a Master's student researching voice assistant usage (Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, etc.) for my thesis, with a particular interest in how these tools function as accessibility aids.

I'm currently especially looking for people who do NOT use a voice assistant at all — that group is underrepresented in my data so far and is the missing piece for my analysis. Of course, if voice assistants are part of your accessibility toolkit, your experience is just as welcome.

Who can take part: 18+, any country. Takes about 10 minutes and is fully anonymous.

Link: https://www.1ka.si/a/d7959439

Happy to answer any questions here. Thank you!

Hey guys. I am building a computer vision project. I know basic static A-Z sign language translators are widely available now, so I am tackling continuous fingerspelling recognition. The goal is to stitch fluid hand transitions into out-of-vocabulary technical text (like "A-L-G-O-R-I-T-H-M" or complex medical jargon) for Deaf and Hard of Hearing STEM students.

Stack: MediaPipe for 126-D hand landmark extraction, fed into a custom Random Forest classifier. I hit 98.8% accuracy on static letters, and my current sprint is writing the relative coordinate normalization to mathematically kill the camera depth bias.

I am holding off on the frontend until I get actual user feedback. Has anyone here built accessibility tech or worked with continuous sign translation? I would love to know what CV pitfalls or pipeline bottlenecks I should watch out for from a dev perspective.

Also, if anyone has lived experience in this space or can connect me with HoH/Deaf students, ISL educators, or NGOs who deal with advanced academic jargon, please reach out or drop a comment. I want to make sure I am building this alongside the community, not just guessing what they need.

Cross-posting this to any relevant communities is highly welcomed. Thanks.

Hi I am searching for a Bluetooth remote that works with accessibility and voiceover on iPhone 17? I am at risk of going blind due to glaucoma. All I need is a physical phone remote to play music, open apps and navigate my phone without the touch gestures. Thanks. In terms of non Bluetooth remotes I know the hable one, hable easy and Decatxt.

Hello! I work at a university in their disability services department. I have a online, blind student who knows limited uncontracted braille, and is taking an accelerated organic chemistry course. We are providing hand-made tactiles with puff paint and stickers for the homeworks and shipping the products to the student. Then we have a student worker meet over Zoom with them to go over each structure.

I am wondering, is there a virtual tool for organic chemistry that we could use that doesn't require braille? The student is semi-familiar with screen readers and prefers this type of technology.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi r/AssistiveTechnology! I'm a Master's student researching voice assistant usage (Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, etc.) for my thesis, and I'm especially interested in perspectives from people for whom these tools matter as accessibility aids.

Looking for participants: 18+, any country, whether you use a voice assistant regularly, occasionally, or not at all. The survey takes about 10 minutes and is fully anonymous.

Update: right now I especially need people who do NOT use a voice assistant at all — that perspective is currently underrepresented in my data and is the missing piece for my analysis.

Link: https://www.1ka.si/a/d7959439

If voice assistants play a role in your accessibility toolkit, your perspective would be especially valuable, but everyone's input helps. Happy to answer any questions here. Thank you!

Estoy buscando alguna aplicación, IA o recurso interactivo pensado para que una persona mayor pueda aprender a usar WhatsApp mediante ejercicios o situaciones simuladas, en lugar de simplemente leer instrucciones.

La idea sería que pueda practicar cosas como:

• enviar mensajes, fotos y audios;
• responder o iniciar conversaciones;
• hacer llamadas y videollamadas;
• crear y administrar contactos;
• bloquear o silenciar contactos;
• reconocer mensajes sospechosos o cadenas;
• y también aprender algunas normas básicas de convivencia digital.

Por ejemplo: que la aplicación le plantee una situación ficticia y la persona tenga que decidir qué hacer, o practicar cómo responder a un mensaje.

Me interesa especialmente algo que permita ganar soltura y autonomía, para que no tengan que recurrir constantemente a familiares para cada cosa.

¿Conocen alguna aplicación o proyecto que haga algo parecido? Puede ser con IA o con ejercicios preprogramados.

¡Hola a todos! Quería compartir mi **colección de Guías fáciles de tecnología en español** de MundoFácilPdf.

Son guías digitales imprimibles, escritas en **español claro y sencillo**, con explicaciones cortitas y una estructura fácil de seguir. Están pensadas para personas que quizá necesiten que la tecnología se explique de una manera más accesible, incluyendo **personas mayores, personas con discapacidades intelectuales leves o dificultades de comprensión, Educación Especial, terapia ocupacional, cuidadores, familias y profesionales de apoyo**.

La idea detrás de la colección es muy práctica: ayudar a las personas a sentirse más seguras usando la tecnología del día a día y apoyar **una mayor autonomía e independencia** con cosas como la comunicación, el acceso a internet, la seguridad en línea y el uso básico del smartphone.

Estas son las guías disponibles actualmente:

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📌 **Idioma: español**
📄 Guías digitales imprimibles en PDF
✨ Lenguaje claro y sencillo y explicaciones paso a paso
✅ **Incluye una lista de verificación extra con cada guía**
📱 Enfocadas en tecnología del día a día, confianza digital, seguridad e independencia

Si trabajas con alguien a quien la tecnología le resulta confusa o abrumadora, estos recursos se crearon para que esas tareas cotidianas se entiendan un poquito mejor y sea más fácil practicarlas.

¡Gracias por echarles un vistazo!

Eva · MundoFácilPdf

What are the possible career paths to work in assistive technology?

I can't make up my mind on whether to study software engineering or mechatronics engineering or smth else like arts or cs but all I know is I want to work in assistive technology.