Chancey Fleet is the Assistive Technology Coordinator for the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Books Library branch of the NYPL, and Marco Salsiccia is an accessibility specialist, blind designer, and developer. They’ve both been using AI to collaborate on a variety of projects and bring ideas to fruition. Starting with web apps and games, AI-assisted coding has allowed them to push past many of the accessibility and technical barriers of traditional app development and create multiple apps now live in the App Store and Google Play, all with a blind-first and accessibility-first mentality. AI-driven workflows can also be used to model physical objects for 3D printing, opening the physical design world to blind non-coders who have historically been shut out of beginner-friendly CAD systems like Tinkercad. Chancey and Marco will discuss their creation process, issues to watch out for when working with AI, best practices for prompting and iteration, and how these tools can bridge technical, accessibility, and knowledge gaps between an idea and a working digital or physical product.

Presenter Contact Info

Chancey Fleet: chanceyfleet@nypl.org

Marco Salsiccia: marco@marconius.com

Web and mobile apps website: www.marconius.com