Athiban Vijay

Accessibility tester and builder

Athiban Vijay

Building technology that works for everyone.

Accessibility tester. I build accessible tools and apps for blind and low-vision users.

Get in touch See my projects

About

I believe technology should be accessible, usable and meaningful to everyone. I am an accessibility tester based in Chennai, India, and a screen reader user myself, so I know first-hand what works and what blocks people who rely on a screen reader. I test websites and apps for accessibility. Outside work I build tools for blind and low-vision people: NVDA add-ons, userscripts, Android apps and games. I am also offering accessibility and building services to others.

Projects

Tools and apps I have built for blind and low-vision users. Each project has its own page with features and download links.

  • VisionMate

    NVDA add-on for Windows

    Describes images with AI, locally on your computer. Describe the current element, the whole screen or a clipboard image. Press once for a quick spoken description, twice for a detailed one in a window you can copy from. Automatic descriptions of unlabeled images are optional and off by default.

    After a one-time model download of about 1.5 GB it works offline, with no account, no API key and no cloud upload. Requires Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and NVDA 2024.1 or later. The source is publicly available under GPL v2 or later.

    What it does for you: spoken descriptions of images, with images never leaving your computer.

    About VisionMate VisionMate on GitHub

  • Beyond Pixels

    Android photo gallery

    A photo gallery for blind and low-vision users. Browse photos and albums, get optional AI-generated descriptions, listen with read-aloud support, give photos custom names and set accessibility preferences. Available on Google Play.

    What it does for you: a photo gallery you can browse with optional AI descriptions and read-aloud.

    About Beyond Pixels Beyond Pixels on Google Play

  • Edge TTS for NVDA

    NVDA add-on and Android text-to-speech engine

    Brings Microsoft Edge's online neural voices (300+) to the NVDA screen reader on Windows, or to Android as a system text-to-speech engine. An independent project, not affiliated with Microsoft.

    What it does for you: 300+ more voices for NVDA and Android.

    About Edge TTS for NVDA Edge TTS for NVDA on GitHub

  • Web Accessibility Heuristic Enhancer (a11y-engine)

    Userscript for websites

    Improves accessibility on websites as you browse: adds ARIA roles and labels to unlabeled buttons, links and form fields, adds keyboard support, handles focus in modal dialogs and announces infinite-scroll updates. Changes can be rolled back.

    What it does for you: tries to label unlabeled controls and add keyboard support as you browse.

    About a11y-engine a11y-engine on GitHub

In testing

  • Sonic Carrom

    Accessible carrom game for Android and Windows

    A carrom game that brings blind and sighted players together through sound. One board. One game. Everyone plays. Now in closed testing.

    About Sonic Carrom Join the testing

Services I offer

I'm offering these services. Get in touch to talk about what you need.

  • Digital accessibility

    Testing websites and apps with a screen reader and reporting what blocks users.

    You get: screen reader testing and reproducible bug reports for your website or app.

  • PDF accessibility

    Checking PDF documents so they can be read with a screen reader.

    You get: a clear list of the accessibility problems found in your PDF.

  • Document accessibility

    Checking documents so they work for people who use assistive technology.

    You get: a clear list of the accessibility problems found in your documents.

  • Multimedia accessibility

    Checking audio and video content for accessibility.

    You get: a clear list of the accessibility problems found in your audio and video content.

  • Building websites and apps

    Designing and building websites and apps that are accessible from the start.

    You get: a website or app built with accessibility in mind.

Contact

I'm offering these services to anyone who needs them. To talk about your project or ask a question, start here.

Discuss an accessibility project

Or email me directly: athiban0612@gmail.com

Other ways to reach me