Designing for blind and low-vision people has produced tools the whole world now uses. Here are a few of my favorites!
The typewriter — 1808-ish
One of the earliest working typewriters was built by Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri so his blind friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, could write legible letters privately. To ink the machine he also invented carbon paper. Two inventions the sighted world leaned on for a century, both born to help one blind woman write.
Braille — 1824
A fifteen-year-old blind student named Louis Braille adapted a military “night writing” code into a simple six-dot cell. Two centuries later it remains the gold standard for reading and writing by touch — and Braille literacy is still strongly linked to independence and employment. In honour of Mr. Braille, the Blind community often capitalizes the word "Braille" (which I like to do as well).
Talking books & the phonograph — 1877 onward
When Thomas Edison patented the phonograph in 1877, one of the very first uses he imagined was “phonograph books, which will speak to blind people.” It took decades to become practical, but in the 1930s the American Foundation for the Blind and the Library of Congress launched the Talking Books program. The audiobook you played on your last road trip is its great-grandchild.
The Optacon — 1971
Stanford engineer John Linvill wanted his blind daughter to read ordinary print, so with Jim Bliss, he built the Optacon (OPtical-to-TActile CONverter). This is a tiny camera turned printed letters into a buzzing raised image under the fingertips letting blind readers feel any printed page. Over 12,000 were sold.
The Kurzweil Reading Machine — 1976
In partnership with the National Federation of the Blind, Ray Kurzweil combined three new technologies into one device that could read printed text aloud: the first omni-font optical character recognition (OCR), the first CCD flatbed scanner, and text-to-speech synthesis. Sound familiar? Those same three pieces now live in your office scanner, your phone's camera, and every voice assistant on the planet. (See AFB's history of blindness assistive technology.)
Today & tomorrow
Screen readers like NVDA, refreshable braille displays, built-in smartphone accessibility, and AI that describes photos out loud or connects blind users with sighted volunteers. Each new tool tends to disperse outward and help everyone.