The story
Two initiatives. One front door.
For two decades, Vision-Aid has enabled, educated and empowered people with vision loss. Ability Bazaar is the next chapter: the people we serve become the builders, testers and entrepreneurs the world buys from.
Meet the Ability Bazaar team
The people building Ability Bazaar - across Vision-Aid USA and India, research, and AI development.
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Vijay Francis
Advisor, Vision-Aid India
Vijay is a technology leader with over 25 years in IT and a strong focus on technology for social impact. As an Advisor at Vision-Aid India, he leads strategic initiatives in digital accessibility, AI and assistive technology - empowering persons with visual impairments through accessible digital skills, accessibility engineering and inclusive solutions.
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Vikram Goddla
AI Developer
Vikram is a rising junior at Harvard University with a strong focus on AI. He has conducted research in artificial intelligence in medicine at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, including published work on using large language models to improve cancer clinical-trial materials, and brings that AI expertise to the Ability Bazaar platform.
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Harish Hariharan
Executive Director, Vision-Aid India
Harish is the Executive Director and head of Vision-Aid India. He brings over three decades of leadership across Microsoft, AWS, IBM and other leading technology companies, as well as the nonprofit sector - spanning sales and business development, partnerships, programs and operations, digital skilling, and livelihood creation for persons with disabilities.
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Ram Raju
Founder & Executive Director, Vision-Aid USA
Ram is the Founder and volunteer Executive Director of Vision-Aid USA and one of its founding directors in 2004. He holds a Master's in Computer Science from Penn State and an ALM from Harvard Extension School, with over 30 years leading large, complex IT projects. In 2019 Harvard honored him with the Derek Bok Public Service Award.
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Santosh Vempala
Advisor · Professor, Georgia Tech
Santosh is a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, where he founded the Algorithms and Randomness Center in 2006 and started the Computing-for-Good (C4G) program in 2008. His research spans algorithms, high-dimensional geometry and the foundations of machine learning. He has volunteered with Vision-Aid since 2005.
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Jeffrey Zhou
AI Developer
Jeffrey is a rising junior at Harvard University studying Computer Science and Mathematics, and has previously interned at Amazon Web Services. His career interests center on building scalable AI applications with real impact in healthcare and clinical contexts - expertise he brings to the Ability Bazaar platform.
The proposition
Ability Bazaar is a global, accessibility-first marketplace where persons with disabilities and mixed creator teams use AI App Builder Agents to translate lived-experience problems into practical AI mini-apps. Each tool is delivered through a common accessible shell, validated by PwD users, and made available to individuals, institutions and employers. Vision-Aid's SEP AI Tutor serves as the anchor offering; the long-term scale engine is a trusted creator economy.
It rolls in DATTC
Our Digital Accessibility Testing and Training Center has sold accessibility testing for years - real customers, real revenue, real PwD professionals. Ability Bazaar becomes its storefront, and DATTC becomes the bazaar's proven services engine.
It rolls in the AI Development Center
Our newest initiative has already shipped the SEP AI Tutor and built Arohi and Nidra. Ability Bazaar becomes the front end to distribute and monetize these apps - and every app that follows.
Accountable, by design
A marketplace is judged on proof, not promises. Ability Bazaar captures evidence from day one - orders delivered, revenue earned, wages paid to experts with disabilities, and accessibility issues fixed.
Honest framing
We publish what we measure. Ability Bazaar is worth building in its own right: it aligns with what Vision-Aid already does, and extends it - turning lived experience into livelihood.
The roadmap
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Today:
Two engines already running
DATTC has delivered paid digital accessibility testing for years, with an established customer base and an AI testing tool co-built with Georgia Tech. The AI Development Center has shipped the SEP AI Tutor and the Arohi and Nidra apps.
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Phase 1:
One accessible storefront
Roll DATTC and the app portfolio into a single Ability Bazaar front end - this platform - so anyone can buy accessibility services or pilot an app from one place.
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Phase 2:
Marketplace MVP
Creator onboarding, the AI App Builder, PwD validation workflow, analytics, institutional access and evidence logs - plus 3-5 new mini-apps in the launch catalogue.
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Phase 3:
Scaling the commercial backbone
Ability Bazaar is open for business today, operated by Vision-Aid. As order volume grows, we are putting in place the operating structure to scale contracts, commerce and creator payouts across the US and India.
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Phase 4:
Open marketplace
Approved creators publish free or paid tools and earn revenue share - a durable marketplace with real users, real revenue and AI-native operations.
Open for business
A real marketplace, today
Ability Bazaar is open for business, operated by Vision-Aid - a 501(c)(3) public charity with a 4-star Charity Navigator rating and two decades of delivery. You can order services, commission apps and pay online today; every delivered order pays wages to experts with disabilities.
Backed by supporters, too
Ability Bazaar runs primarily on commercial revenue - that is the point. Organisations can grow the talent pool commercially too: a training sponsorship of $300 puts one student through deep 1×1 AI and accessibility training over 3-6 months, with cohort bundles up to a full 18-student cohort for $5,000 - taking each student from beginner to expert and into paid platform work. It is an invoiced workforce-development engagement, not a donation. Explore training sponsorships, or if the mission simply inspires you, make a gift of any size.
Follow one order through the bazaar
The full lifecycle of a provisioned transaction - and where the Google pieces plug in at every step.
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You place an order
Choose a package, tell us the site, pay online.
Runs on Google Cloud Run · payment via PayPal/Stripe
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Intake & scoping
The Intake and Scoping agents structure your request and confirm scope and price.
Gemini agents · every decision logged
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ABLE scans your site
Our ABLE engine crawls the pages in scope and runs automated WCAG 2.2 checks.
axe-core on Cloud Run · triaged by Gemini
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Report drafted
The Report Drafting agent turns raw findings into a clear, prioritised report.
Gemini agents · draft only, never final
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Expert verification
An accessibility expert with a disability verifies every finding with real assistive technology - the human gate.
Paid expert work · lived experience
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Delivery & follow-up
You get the verified report; invoicing and follow-up run automatically.
Gemini agents · evidence stored in Firestore
You meet our agents at the front door - the intake and scoping agents process every request you send, and you can try them live in the AI Studio. The rest work behind the scenes; every action they take is logged and auditable.
AI-native by design
Six AI agents are designed to run the platform in production - from need discovery to evidence capture.
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Intake Agent
Structures every customer request the moment it arrives - requirements in, actionable record out.
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Scoping & Quoting Agent
Sizes the work and prices it from the rate card - a real pricing decision, made in production and logged.
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WCAG Scanner Agent (ABLE)
Runs automated WCAG 2.2 scans with our ABLE engine, then triages and prioritizes every finding.
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Report Drafting Agent
Turns findings into clear audit reports and remediation guidance, ready for expert review.
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Expert Scheduling Agent
Routes each draft to the right expert with a disability for lived-experience verification - the one human gate, by design.
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Invoicing & Follow-up Agent
Assembles deliverables, invoices, tracks payment and handles customer follow-up.