Emotional Agency

The ability of an individual to independently manage their emotional responses and experiences, particularly when encountering sensitive or personal information. In the context of accessibility and generative AI, emotional agency refers to the capacity of blind and low vision users to process emotionally sensitive content—such as medical test results, personal appearance feedback, or intimate documents—without having to expose their emotional vulnerability to another person. Generative AI tools can support emotional agency by allowing users to receive private, non-judgmental interpretations of sensitive visual information, preserving both informational privacy and emotional autonomy in situations that would otherwise require disclosing vulnerability to human assistants.