The 2025 Agenda

Over the past several years at Sight Tech Global, our keynote speakers have examined AI's transformative impact on digital accessibility—how it has the potential to close long-standing gaps while, at times, introducing new ones. This year, Mike Shebanek and Saqib Shaikh reunite to explore how AI is reshaping daily life for blind and low-vision people, with Saqib sharing personal stories of empowerment using AI-driven agents and assistants. Together, they illuminate a rapidly evolving landscape where AI systems adapt to each user, proving that universal design is a pathway to technology that changes lives.

Achieving accessibility at enterprise scale is no small undertaking—especially for a platform that supports millions of users around the world. In this session, accessibility leaders share how Salesforce embeds inclusive design into every release cycle, ensuring accessibility drives product evolution from the start. Their commitment extends beyond customer experience to internal accessibility, ensuring every staff member has seamless access to the tools and accommodations they need. Discover how an inclusion philosophy unlocks accessibility at scale—across products, platforms, and people.

Join us for an intimate conversation with Dr. Josh Miele, moderated by Ned Desmond, exploring how a determined, scientifically curious blind child became one of the world's leading accessibility innovators. From roller skating by echolocation on Brooklyn sidewalks to inventing TMAP (tactile mapping technology) and YouDescribe (crowdsourced audio description), Josh's journey reveals how early experiences shaped groundbreaking inventions that enhance independence for blind and visually impaired people worldwide. Hear about the Center for Accessibility and Open Source (CAOS) and his vision for the next decade of assistive technology.

Aira's collaboration with Google DeepMind brings Astra, an advanced multimodal AI, into the hands of blind and low-vision users through the Aira Explorer app, pairing AI's instant scene analysis with trained human interpreters to deliver trustworthy, real-time visual assistance. Aira employees and Google DeepMind/Project Astra team members share the story behind the partnership and how this technology advances AI-driven visual interpretation, environmental awareness, and context understanding—all tailored with input from Aira users and interpreters for safety and accuracy.

Join us for an illuminating fireside chat with Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company on a mission to become the world's most trusted driver. Engineers take us under the hood to explore how the Waymo Driver sees, understands, and navigates the world in real time, creating a mobility future that's not just autonomous—but deeply human-centered through AI-powered perception and inclusive design. Whether you're curious about autonomous vehicles or passionate about accessibility in transportation, this conversation offers fresh insight into the technology shaping the road ahead for everyone.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world faster than any technology in decades, but without intentional design, it risks deepening the access divide for blind and low-vision users. AIMAC (AI & Machine Learning Accessibility Community) has launched an evaluation framework creating shared standards, best practices, and accountability tools that ensure AI systems work for everyone. This session explores how AIMAC enables developers to evaluate how effectively large language models generate accessible code through an open-source benchmark, with the Accessibility Leader Board at aimac.ai publicly displaying comparative scores of different LLMs based on how accessible their generated HTML outputs are.

What happens when start-ups bake accessibility into their initial designs from day one? In this session, two forward-thinking founders demonstrate that universal design is not just the right thing to do—it's a powerful innovation strategy that sets companies apart. Hear from Vista PitchAbility contestants ViddyScribe and CleverFi as they share their experiences launching companies with accessibility as a core principle, showing how designing products intentionally for people who are blind or have low vision from the start creates solutions that scale naturally to broader audiences. Discover how today's startups are turning inclusion into a competitive advantage, proving that when inclusion drives innovation from day one, everyone wins.

Join Agustya Mehta, Director of Concept Engineering at Meta’s Reality Labs, to reflect upon his lived-experience with technology and how it has enhanced everyday life for the blind and low vision community, and discuss how AI-powered wearable technology can address some of the many challenges that have yet to be tackled. We’ll cover emerging trends in this space, Meta’s exciting portfolio of AI-powered Wearables, and how developers can create groundbreaking experiences around independence and inclusivity for Ray-Ban Meta glasses and beyond.

People who rely on nonprofit services deserve the same high-quality technology that commercial customers expect and receive, yet many nonprofits "make do" with outdated tools because traditional funding models leave little room for meaningful technology investment. Join Jim Fruchterman, author of Technology for Good, in conversation with Larry Goldberg for an essential discussion on building sustainable, scalable tech solutions for underserved communities, revealing what works—and what doesn't—based on decades of experience. Hear practical strategies for creating technology that truly serves the communities who need it most.

AI has the power to transform lives, but only if it's built for everyone. This panel digs into the challenges of AI and the principles used to create accessible solutions for all, with speakers sharing Microsoft's commitment to responsibly design, build, and release accessible AI technologies. A demo of the Ask Microsoft Accessibility bot, "AskMa," showcases how users can find information about the accessibility of Microsoft products and services. The panel's call to action: Be a community of change makers, take the first step in using AI, build your skillset, and share feedback.

Explore how Google is using AI to transform accessibility for people with disabilities. This session showcases innovative vision-focused tools including TalkBack with Gemini for detailed image descriptions, Lookout's Image Q&A feature, Pixel Magnifier with voice search, Guided Frame for photo composition, and the StreetReaderAI prototype. Learn how machine learning is leveling the playing field and making the visual world more accessible. Features a live Gemini demo and insights into Google's accessibility mission.

Multiline braille technology is rapidly transforming tactile literacy, access to information, and digital inclusion for blind people around the world. Join this insightful session to hear from the architects of this revolution: American Printing House, HumanWare and Dot Inc who are collaborating across continents to deliver the next generation multiline braille and tactile graphics displays.

Generative AI offers the promise of large-scale web accessibility, yet its automated image descriptions often fall short in accuracy, context, and equity. This session explores AI's dual role as a powerful but imperfect alt text author, examining its strengths and weaknesses. We will present solutions for building resilient workflows through Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) strategies, moving beyond simple error correction to cultivate a virtuous alt text cycle where expert human input informs adaptive, context-aware AI. Join us to critically evaluate the AI-generated description process, champion quality-focused alt text solutions, and understand how integrating AI into your workflow—rather than replacing it—is essential for truly effective alt text outcomes.

How do we ensure that the next generation of AI systems truly works for blind and low-vision people? The answer is in the design, and for that, you need the right data. The vast majority of AI models are trained on datasets that underrepresent or incorrectly categorize disability, creating a "disability data desert" that limits accuracy by up to 30% for disability-related objects. Without blindness-relevant data, AI models may confidently describe obstacles that are not there, unreadable signage, or mislabeled medication. Discover how Be My Eyes' transparent, privacy-first data collection is revolutionizing AI's ability to understand the lived experience of blind and low-vision users.