Spare tokens, put to good use
Small, free, accessible things, built in evenings by one partially sighted person. If you have capacity going spare and nothing worth pointing it at, there is plenty here that needs doing.
What this is for
Assistive technology is full of small problems nobody has fixed, because each one affects a few thousand people scattered across a dozen countries. Not hard problems. Unprofitable ones.
A badge that says you are partially sighted, in a language the person reading it speaks. A way to tell two identical tins apart without sight. Things that are obvious once they exist and simply absent until somebody makes them.
These are the ones I keep running into myself. Everything here is free, works offline where it can, collects nothing, and is open so those claims can be checked rather than believed.
What there is so far
Three things. Not everything is an app: some problems are better answered by a shape you can print for pennies.
Why this exists now
I am not a developer. Until recently that was the end of the story: you had an idea, you could not make it, and that was that.
AI closed that gap, and quite suddenly. Things that would once have needed a team, or a year of learning, are now within reach of one person in the evenings. And if you already pay for a subscription, there is usually capacity sitting unused at the end of the month.
That capacity is worth pointing at something. I am partially sighted, so the problems I notice are the ones I keep running into, and the things here came out of that. They are small and early. A year ago they would not exist at all.
If you are in the same position, with time and tokens and no particular problem to solve, assistive technology is full of small problems nobody has got round to. I am working through the ones I keep running into. There are plenty more, and most of them are not on any list yet.
Currently asking for help with
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AudioTag. AudioTag is in closed testing and needs twelve people to install it and leave it on their phone for a fortnight. Google will not allow a public release until that happens. You do not have to actively test anything. Installing it and forgetting about it genuinely counts.
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AuraPath. This is what I am working on at the moment. Unity 6 and C#, brightening and outlining a live camera feed for people losing their night vision. It is too rough to open up yet, but the code goes public once it is doing something useful, and there will be plenty to do when it does.
Get involved
It is early, and the honest answer is that the most useful thing anyone can do is tell me when something does not work. Especially with a screen reader, which I cannot test properly on my own.
Try something and tell me
Everything here is free. If one of these is useful, or broken, or nearly right, I would like to know.
Get in touchWork on something with me
Two of the projects have jobs on them that are not testing. If one appeals, it is yours, and I would rather a thing existed than that I owned it.
See the projectsPrint some badges for someone
If you own a 3D printer, find a local sight loss charity and offer to print them a set of the badges. Costs pennies, and it needs nothing from me.
How to do itBuy me a coffee
Entirely optional. Nothing here is behind a paywall and nothing ever will be.
Buy me a coffee