By: Oluwatobi Odeyinka.
CJID AI and Tech Reporting fellow
Whenever Oyindamola Adegoke unlocks her smartphone, a calm voice greets her, describing every action she performs. She cannot see the icons, but an accessibility feature guides her through the device.
The visually impaired student of Special Education at the University of Ibadan said she uses ‘TalkBack’ on her Android phone, while she operates her laptop through JAWS (Job Access With Speech).
TalkBack is Google’s built-in screen reader designed to make Android smartphones and tablets fully accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. It converts all on-screen text, icons, and actions into spoken feedback or vibration cues, allowing users to control their devices without needing to see the screen. Its equivalent on Apple devices is ‘VoiceOver’.
“TalkBack helps me navigate the phone, but it usually cannot access PDFs, so I also use apps like BeMyEye, Kibol, and InstantReader to read school materials,” Oyindamola noted.
JAWS, developed by U.S.-based Freedom Scientific, is a screen reader that allows blind and visually impaired people to use Windows through speech output. Blind and visually impaired users need to master some basic commands to activate the software. Afterwards, JAWS reads their actions and guides them as they operate Windows.
According to Sightsavers, an international non-profit organisation, more than four million Nigerians live with at least one form of visual impairment. For many, this means isolation and exclusion from education, work, and social life. But a growing number are breaking that isolation through assistive technologies, including screen readers, voice assistants, braille displays and talking canes.
Popoola Olalekan, a blind civil servant at the Ogun State Ministry of Information, has used JAWS for more than 10 years. “I’ve been working since 2003,” he noted.
For Vivian Udunze, a teacher at the Bethesda Home and School for the Blind, and a blind person herself, assistive tech is more than a communication tool; it’s a gateway to professional growth.
She uses NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), a free, open-source screen reader for Windows, and a Braille Display, which converts digital text into tactile Braille using raised pins.
“I’ve relied on these tools to teach and study,” she said. “I can code, and I’m improving my knowledge in programming. We even teach some of our students in the secondary level here to code.”
Her experience highlights how technology can extend opportunities for visually impaired Nigerians beyond basic communication.
Smart Canes, Picture Describer: AI Aids Mobility, Mental Vision
Blind and visually impaired persons who spoke with this reporter said in addition to screen readers, there is a wide range of digital and AI-powered accessibility tools that can enhance their productivity, mobility and independence.
Udunze uses AI-based apps like Seeing AI and Envision AI to identify people and objects.
“They help us identify images and objects. I use mostly Seeing AI. It describes everything into-to. It will describe whether the person is old, young. It will suggest the age of the person. It will say, ‘this person is between 28 to 40 years old’. It will tell me the person is chocolate or fair in complexion.”
These tools convert visual information into spoken descriptions, helping blind users interpret photographs, recognise currency, and read printed text.
She also noted that sensors and audio features are now being integrated into white canes with AI. The white cane is a walking stick used by visually impaired persons. Udunze explained that many blind people like herself don’t know how to use the cane because of the technique involved in using it.
“If you kick your left leg forward, the cane should go right, and if you kick your right leg forward, the cane should go left. So many of us just drive it on the ground, which is dangerous, because it can injure someone,” she explained.
However, an AI-powered smart cane integrates sensors and computer vision to detect obstacles and predict paths. “A company recently brought it to our school for testing. It is so easy to use and gives a blind person more independence to move around without fear. It tells you ‘stairs ahead’, ‘human right’, and so on,” she explained.
Limitations of the Assistive Tools
Meanwhile, despite their promises, these assistive tools have their limitations.
Adegoke said accessibility apps for visually impaired persons, like InstantReader and Kibol, cannot read scanned or picture-based PDFs.
“Sometimes, our class materials are in picture format. These tools can’t read them. They also don’t work well with diagrams or charts,” she said.
Both she and Olalekan also noted the foreign accent of the synthetic voices in the screen readers as a challenge. Adegoke has customised hers to spell Yoruba words rather than mispronounce them.
Olalekan said he has used it for so long that when it mispronounces a Yoruba word, he can imagine what it is trying to say.
The Cost Barrier
The financial cost of these assistive tools and devices is also a barrier to many visually impaired persons in low-income countries like Nigeria, where 80-90% of Persons with Disabilities live in poverty.
For instance, Udunze said she is yet to purchase the Smart Cane for herself because it costs over a thousand dollars. “How many of us can afford it, unless it is donated to us?”
According to the official website of Freedom Scientific, the developer of JAWS, purchasing a full licence of the software costs $1548, while an annual subscription is $623. The majority of visually impaired Nigerians cannot afford this.
Udunze and Olalekan said they use a cracked version of JAWS. This is an illegal copy that bypasses the original’s copy protection and licensing restrictions. “It’s free but works only for a few months, then I have to reinstall,” Udunze explained.
