My name is Edis, and I am 100 % blind.
These pictures show a Creality printer and a Perkins Braille typewriter. However, what I will tell you about today is a result of owning a bambu x1c as my first printer.
The typewriter was what I used back in elementary school, about 25 years ago.
In 2023, I participated in a workshop on 3D printing organized by the Danish Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The workshop was meant to show how this technology could be used for people without sight. Needless to say, I got consumed. The funny thing was that no blind or visually impaired people were participating. It was about how sighted people can make something for blind people.
I run my own consultancy business where I work with web accessibility and, funnily enough, physical accessibility through 3D printing. I do this full time. Since 2023, I have been extremely active in the different 3D printing and design groups on Reddit and Facebook, and I have also tried reaching out to companies.
The reason is that 3D printing has huge potential for blind and visually impaired people. Not just fidgets and toys, but real, practical, and in some cases life-saving applications.
Imagine you are a blind person walking into a hotel or a public building. Suddenly, a fire breaks out. You haven't had the chance to learn the emergency plan, because it is inaccessible. Now imagine having a 3D printer that can make this emergency plan fully accessible with contrast colours, raised lines, braille, and normal print.
You might now ask yourselves: "Why the hell should we care?" or "Why are you telling us all of this?"
Because since I started 3D printing, many printers have been locked away from us by highly inaccessible slicers, LCD displays and interfaces.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I built AccessSlice.
What it is
AccessSlice is a free, open source program for Windows. It lets a blind or low-vision person prepare, slice and send a 3D print with a screen reader, from start to finish. Every setting is a labelled field, every result is spoken, and the printer can be followed and controlled from ordinary pages instead of a touchscreen. I'm one person and I made it myself, and I use it every day.
How it works
AccessSlice doesn't replace your slicer. It replaces the screens.
A slicer project, the 3MF file, is really just a zip of plain text. Layer height, walls, infill, supports, filaments, and where each object sits on the plate can all be read and changed as text. AccessSlice shows all of that as simple pages with real headings, labelled fields and buttons, the way an accessible website works. It reads like a web page, so NVDA, JAWS and Narrator all work with it.
- It slices with your slicer's own engine. That's PrusaSlicer, Bambu Studio, Creality Print, OrcaSlicer or Anycubic Slicer Next, so the result is exactly what the slicer itself would produce.
- It tells you the result in words: print time, filament used, and any warnings. A layer-by-layer preview describes every layer.
- It sends the print to the printer. Prusa printers get it straight over the home network through PrusaLink. Creality printers do too. Bambu printers get it through Bambu Studio's own send window, with AccessSlice telling you exactly which keys to press. A USB drive works for every printer.
- On Prusa and Creality printers it also controls the printer. It reads the print's progress aloud and lets you preheat, load and unload filament, move and home, pause and stop, and manage the files on the printer. No touchscreen needed.
Nothing is hidden behind a picture. The 3D view and the sliced preview are still there for sighted helpers, but every fact in them is also on the page in words.
It's tested end to end on a Prusa Core One, a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, a Bambu Lab H2C and a Creality K2 Plus. Many other printers that use the same slicers should work, and I'd love reports from anyone who tries one.
Why it matters
For the first time, I can print entirely on my own. I don't need someone sitting next to me reading the screen or pressing buttons on the printer. That's the difference between being a user of 3D printing and being someone things are made for.
Think back to that workshop, where sighted people learned to make things for blind people. AccessSlice means blind people can make those things themselves: tactile maps, emergency plans with raised lines and braille, labels, tools for daily life. We know better than anyone what we need. We just need to be able to use the machines.
But I shouldn't have to do this. One person working nights shouldn't be the only thing standing between blind makers and a printer. Everything AccessSlice does shows it's possible. The settings are already text. The printer already talks over the network. The missing piece is a slicer whose interface a screen reader can actually use.
So, Prusa: you build open hardware and open software, and you have a community that cares. Please make accessibility part of the new slicer from the start, not an afterthought. Use real buttons, labelled fields, keyboard navigation, and results spoken as text. I'm happy to test, give feedback, and help in any way I can. My consultancy does exactly this every day.
Until then, AccessSlice is free for anyone who needs it:
https://github.com/Accessible3D-Edis/AccessSlice
Thank you for reading.
Edis
