Open Expanse Institute
We open new opportunities for blind and low-vision explorers, makers, and researchers through tools, training, and resources.
Beyond the fundamentals
Wonderful organizations, led by brilliant people, provide a phenomenal foundation for blind and low-vision individuals to live, learn, work, and travel independently. The Open Expanse Institute builds on that strong foundation. Our mission is to contribute knowledge, tools, and training for the advanced, atypical experiences that go beyond the fundamentals. In collaboration with the blind and low-vision community, as well as researchers, developers, Orientation & Mobility Specialists, Teachers of the Visually Impaired, and Access Specialists at universities, we help extend that foundation further.
When possible, accessibility should be free of cost. But more than that, it should be free of friction, free from the barriers that turn what should be possible into something effortful. As blind and low-vision people, we work with what we have; when a tool doesn’t adapt to our needs, we don’t give up, we find another way.
Orientation & Mobility
Not just the familiar neighborhood, campus, or workplace — O&M extends to unfamiliar cities and the great outdoors. We’re working on wayfinding for unstructured terrain: trip planning resources, GPS and AI-assisted route tools evaluated for how they hold up off the sidewalk, and the confidence-building that comes from practicing with someone who’s done it before.
Research & Development
Many blind and low-vision people already know how to use a screen reader, screen magnification, or a refreshable braille display — far less exists on using them to make the research and development lifecycle itself accessible. We’re documenting what actually works, tool by tool, for reading dense literature, running statistical software, and collaborating in tools that weren’t built with a screen reader in mind.
Makers & Hackers
Inspired by our own love of tinkering and DIY, we want to be a jumping-off point for blind and low-vision hobbyists diving into self-hosting, programming, and making — accessible starting points for setting up a home lab, wiring up a Raspberry Pi or Arduino project, and picking a toolchain that plays well with a screen reader.
Charting the road ahead
Our Roots
Founded as a nonprofit by a blind PhD candidate working at the intersection of orientation & mobility, AI, and usable security and privacy, with a mission to give back to the blind and low-vision community.
Resources and tools, in the open
Curating tools, techniques, and know-how for O&M, R&D, and DIY, and building co-designed apps to match — all in collaboration with the blind and low-vision community, out in the open instead of locked away.
First workshops, in person and remote
Sessions that put tools, services, and techniques directly in people’s hands across O&M, R&D, and DIY — for hobbyists learning to tinker, and for practitioners bringing new methods back to their own clients.
A growing network of co-designers
More blind and low-vision makers, practitioners, and partner organizations shaping what gets built next — so the roadmap stays answerable to the people using it.
Board of Directors
Be part of what we do next
We’re a nonprofit, and everything we build starts with the people who’ll use it. Whichever path fits you below shapes our mission.
Practitioners
COMS, TVIs, CATIS, and VRTs bringing what you learn back to your own clients — and shaping which workshops and tools we build next.
Join the network →Partner organizations
Existing organizations in the blindness and low-vision space looking to collaborate on training, research, or shared tools rather than duplicate effort.
Start a conversation →Community
Blind and low-vision hobbyists, tinkerers, and anyone who wants to hear about new workshops, tools, and resources as they ship.
Get updates →Not sure which path fits? Tell us what you have in mind — we read every note ourselves.
Get in Touch