Assistive Services

On-demand services that pair people with disabilities with remote human helpers, often via crowdsourcing or a dedicated responder network, to answer accessibility questions or perform small assistive tasks. Examples include visual-question-answering tools for people who are blind (e.g. VizWiz, Be My Eyes, Aira), remote sign language interpretation services, and community-based accessibility remediation platforms. Assistive services complement traditional assistive technology by handling the cases where automation is insufficient or the user specifically benefits from human judgement. Sustainability of the helper community — through paid, volunteer, or hybrid models — is a central design challenge.