Bridging the Accessibility Gap in Online Shopping with AI - Driven Solutions

Despite advancements in assistive technologies, blind and low vision (BLV) individuals continue to face significant challenges in online shopping, particularly with interpreting visual content and comparing products. Existing tools often lack seamless integration and intuitive interaction, hindering an equitable shopping experience. This paper introduces Shop Sight, a Chrome browser extension designed to enhance online shopping accessibility for BLV users. Shop Sight leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and voice-activated capabilities to generate context-rich product image descriptions and to facilitate simplified product comparisons through voice commands. The development and evaluation of Shop Sight demonstrate its potential to bridge the gap between current AI capabilities and the real-world needs of BLV users in e-commerce. By providing AI-generated image descriptions and voice-activated product comparisons, Shop Sight empowers BLV individuals with greater independence and a more personalized, efficient online shopping experience. Future work will focus on refining the tool's features, incorporating user feedback, and addressing identified limitations to further enhance its usability and effectiveness.