blindness

12 Articles

Life Without Limits: A Blind Maker’s Take On 3D Printing

January 10, 2025 by 5 Comments

In the world of creation, few stories inspire as much as [Mrblindguardian], a 33-year-old who has been blind since the age of two, but refuses to let that hold him back. Using OpenSCAD and a 3D printer, [Mrblindguardian] designs and prints models independently, relying on speech software and touch to bring his ideas to life. His story, published on his website Accessible3D.io, is a call to action for makers to embrace accessibility in their designs and tools.

[Mrblindguardian]’s approach to 3D printing with OpenSCAD is fascinating. Without visual cues, he can still code every detail of his designs, like a tactile emergency plan for his workplace. The challenges are there: navigating software as a blind user, mastering 3D printers, and building from scratch. His tip: start small. Taking on a very simple project allows you to get accustomed to the software while avoiding pressure and frustation.

His successes highlight how persistence, community support, and creativity can break barriers. His journey mirrors efforts by others, like 3D printed braille maps or accessible prosthetics, each turning daily limitations into ingenious innovations. [Mrblindguardian] seems to be out to empower others, so bookmark his page for that what’s yet to come.

Accessible tech isn’t just about empowering. Share your thoughts in the comments if you have similar experiences – or good solutions to limitations like these! As [Mrblindguardian] says on his blog: “take the leap. Let’s turn the impossible into the tangible—one layer at a time”.

Continue reading “Life Without Limits: A Blind Maker’s Take On 3D Printing” →

‘Radar’ Glasses Grant Vision-free Distance Sensing

January 19, 2024 by 7 Comments

[tpsully]’s Radar Glasses are designed as a way of sensing the world without the benefits of normal vision. They consist of a distance sensor on the front and a vibration motor mounted to the bridge for haptic feedback. The little motor vibrates in proportion to the sensor’s readings, providing hands-free and intuitive feedback to the wearer. Inspired in part by his own experiences with temporary blindness, [tpsully] prototyped the glasses from an accessibility perspective.

The sensor is a VL53L1X time-of-flight sensor, a LiDAR sensor that measures distances with the help of pulsed laser light. The glasses do not actually use RADAR (which is radio-based), but the operation is in a sense quite similar.

The VL53L1X has a maximum range of up to 4 meters (roughly 13 feet) in a relatively narrow field of view. A user therefore scans their surroundings by sweeping their head across a desired area, feeling the vibration intensity change in response, and allowing them to build up a sort of mental depth map of the immediate area. This physical scanning resembles RADAR antenna sweeps, and serves essentially the same purpose.

There are some other projects with similar ideas, such as the wrist-mounted digital white cane and the hip-mounted Walk-Bot which integrates multiple angles of sensing, but something about the glasses form factor seems attractively intuitive.

Thanks to [Daniel] for the tip, and remember that if you have something you’d like to let us know about, the tips line is where you can do that.

Urgon solders close up to see the work

Vision Impaired Electronics Engineer Shows The Way To Get Things Done

November 26, 2021 by 18 Comments

A funny thing happens as the average electronics hobbyist gets older: Their eyes- well they just don’t work the same as they used to. But what if your life started out with compromised vision? In this epic forum post (Google translated from Polish to English), we meet nearly blind hacker [Urgon]. He goes into great detail about his condition and how it affects not just his daily life, but also his abilities as an electronics engineer. Or conversely, how it doesn’t.

[Urgon]’s origin story is familiar. At eight years old, he disassembled his first television. His self-education continued by using his remaining vision to soak up every bit of literature about electronics that he could get his hands on. A well-intentioned but protective mother kept him away from soldering irons, fearing that the close proximity to his good eye might not bode well for his remaining vision.