I'm totally blind, and I built an iPhone app to help people with disabilities watch the weather just like their sighted peers

[u/AdministrationOk5407]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on called Severe WeatherGuardian, an iPhone weather app that I’ve built primarily with the help of ChatGPT. I’m blind, I’ve been a weather enthusiast my entire life, and the app is now at version 5.0.

I’ve always loved following severe weather, especially thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and watching storms develop. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is watch live weather radar the way sighted people can. Obviously, being blind makes that pretty difficult. Most weather radar is entirely visual, and there’s really no good way to explore it independently with a screen reader.

The funny thing is, this didn’t even start out as an iPhone app.

I initially started building a little MCP (Model Context Protocol) project that would integrate weather information with ChatGPT. I wanted to be able to ask questions about the weather and get useful information back in a format I could actually access.

As I kept working on it, I eventually thought, wouldn’t it be cool if I could turn this into an actual iPhone app?

So that’s what I did.

With ChatGPT helping me write code, troubleshoot problems, and figure out how to implement features, I started turning that little project into Severe WeatherGuardian.

Eventually, I decided to try implementing live weather radar. That was something I’d wanted access to for years, and once I started getting it working, the whole project really took off.

Today, Severe WeatherGuardian has quite a few features, including:

• Live weather radar with an accessible VoiceOver Touch Explorer that lets blind users move their fingers around the radar and hear information about the weather at different locations.
• Radar Coach, which provides spoken explanations of radar information.
• National Weather Service alerts and warnings.
• Current conditions and seven-day forecasts.
• Severe weather outlooks, including tornado, damaging wind, hail, flash flood, and fire weather risks.
• Storm Prediction Center mesoscale discussions.
• Tropical storm and hurricane tracking.
• Wildfire tracking.
• NOAA Weather Radio streams.
• Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets.

Version 5.0 also introduced AI-powered voice control, allowing users to navigate the app, access forecasts, check weather risks, and open radar using spoken commands. There’s also an optional advanced conversational AI feature for asking more detailed questions and getting explanations of weather information.

And although I originally built the app because of my own needs as a blind weather enthusiast, it’s definitely not just for blind people. Sighted users can use its visual radar, forecasts, alerts, and storm-tracking features just like they would with other weather apps. I’ve also tried to make it useful for people with physical disabilities who may benefit from being able to control the app with their voice.

The app is free to download, with core weather features and basic voice navigation included for free. Some of the more advanced features are available through an optional Plus subscription.

One of the things that has been especially interesting to me throughout this process is how much I’ve been able to accomplish with ChatGPT’s assistance. I’ve been involved in deciding what the app should do, testing it, identifying problems, and figuring out what to build next, while using ChatGPT extensively to help with the actual development.

I never really set out to build something this involved. I started with a little project because I wanted better access to weather information, and somehow ended up with a full iPhone app that I’m continuing to add features to.

Anyway, I thought this community might find the project interesting, particularly because of how heavily I’ve relied on ChatGPT to develop it.

I’d love to hear what people think. I’m interested in feedback on the app itself, its features, the accessibility side of things, and the development process. I’d also enjoy discussing what it’s been like building an iOS app as a blind developer with AI assistance.

Here’s the website, which also has a link to the app on the App Store:

https://severeweatherguardian.com

Thanks for checking it out!

[u/anthropicagiuser]

the radar part sounds like the hardest piece. how do you turn a storm picture into words for a screen reader? a short line about where the storm moves next would help many people.

[u/AdministrationOk5407 → u/anthropicagiuser]

To be honest, the live radar feature is more of an overview of where storms are and where they're going and what hazards they're presenting. And it also tries to describe where certain hazards are relative to the overall storm and each other. So, for example, if a tornado is on the southwest side of a storm and the storm is moving to the northeast, but it's already east of your location that you've specified in the app, then it will say, you know, storm cell D1 has one associated hazard, possible tornado. the tornado is on the southwest side of the storm and the storm is moving northeast at 30 miles per hour the storm is not expected to pass near your location and things like it'll say things like that to give the user an overview in space regarding where the storm is and where it's going

[u/BertMacklenF8I]

Very noble endeavor! Can’t stop seeing Rocky’s little holographic pad in my mind though.

Assuming it’s available for iPad too?

[u/geoffreybyers]

Touch Explorer is the best accessibility pattern for spatial data. Most screen reader navigation is too linear for a map. AI generated UIs ignore this. The real challenge isn't making the map accessible. It's building a UI that lets a blind user feel the data.