Most 3D design software requires visual dragging and rotating—posing a challenge for blind and low-vision users. As a result, a range of hardware design, robotics, coding, and engineering work is inaccessible to interested programmers. A visually-impaired programmer might write great code. But because of the lack of accessible modeling software, the coder can’t model, design, and verify physical and virtual components of their system.
However, new 3D modeling tools are beginning to change this equation. A new prototype program called A11yShape aims to close the gap. There are already code-based tools that let users describe 3D models in text, such as the popular OpenSCAD software. Other recent large-language-model tools generate 3D code from natural-language prompts. But even with these, blind and low-vision programmers still depend on sighted feedback to bridge the gap between their code and its visual output.
Blind and low-vision programmers previously had to rely on a sighted person to visually check every update of a model to describe what changed. But with A11yShape, blind and low-vision programmers can independently create, inspect, and refine 3D models without relying on sighted peers.
A11yShape does this by generating accessible model descriptions, organizing the model into a semantic hierarchy, and ensuring every step works with screen readers.
The project began when Liang He, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Dallas, spoke with his low-vision classmate who was studying 3D modeling. He saw an opportunity to turn his classmate’s coding strategies, learned in a 3D modeling for blind programmers course at the University of Washington, into a streamlined tool.
“I want to design something useful and practical for the group,” he says. “Not just something I created from my imagination and applied to the group.”
Re-imagining Assistive 3D Design With OpenSCAD
A11yShape assumes the user is running OpenSCAD, the script-based 3D modeling editor. The program adds OpenSCAD features to connect each component of modeling across three application UI panels.
OpenSCAD allows users to create models entirely through typing, eliminating the need for clicking and dragging. Other common graphics-based user interfaces are difficult for blind programmers to navigate.
A11yshape introduces an AI Assistance Panel, where users can submit real-time queries to ChatGPT-4o to validate design decisions and debug existing OpenSCAD scripts.
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