The story
A new platform. More than two decades of experience.
For more than two decades, Vision-Aid has worked with persons with visual disabilities to enable independence, education and employment. Ability Bazaar is the next chapter: a new platform able to draw on Vision-Aid's deep experience, trusted relationships and vast network across the United States and India to scale quickly.
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 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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Yashvini Goddla
President, Binary Mayhem
Yashvini is a high-school student and president of Binary Mayhem, where she is committed to proving that anyone can understand and use artificial intelligence. She has taught Python and AI to blind students in Uganda, helping make emerging technology more accessible to learners who are often excluded, and hopes to keep expanding access to AI education through inclusive, hands-on learning.
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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 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.
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Arunkumar
Technical Lead, Vision-Aid Advanced Technology Center
Arunkumar is a Technical Lead at Vision-Aid with over eight years of experience building AI-based solutions to real-world problems, spanning full-stack development, DevOps and mentoring aspiring AI engineers. Arunkumar leads the Vision-Aid Advanced Technology Center team, which designs and builds AI solutions for internal process automation and for external clients - driving efficiency, innovation and measurable impact. Beyond that work sits a deep commitment to the empowerment of visually challenged individuals, and to aligning technical skill with initiatives that create meaningful, accessible impact for that community.
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. Available tools include Maya interview practice and Saarthi accessible meetings. Individual listings explain browser or Windows setup, availability and known limits. People with lived experience help shape useful tools and services.
New platform, proven foundation
Ability Bazaar came online in July 2026, but it did not start from zero. Vision-Aid brings more than twenty years of listening to, learning from and delivering programs with persons with visual disabilities. That experience—and a broad network of learners, graduates, accessibility professionals, volunteers, educators, institutions and partners—gives Ability Bazaar the reach and practical knowledge to grow responsibly and quickly.
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
The AI Development Center develops practical tools with input from visually impaired users. The catalogue distinguishes available apps, access-by-request programs, prototypes and concepts.
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.
What we are working on
Improving current apps through user feedback, simplifying setup and exploring new tools with the community. Proposed concepts are listed separately from available experiences; contact the team about participation.
Explore the current catalogueNonprofit ownership
A Vision-Aid program on its own domain
Ability Bazaar and abilitybazaar.com are owned and operated by Vision-Aid, Inc., a United States 501(c)(3) public charity. The separate domain gives this disability-led technology program a clear, accessible home; it is not a separate company or unrelated commercial business.
Ability Bazaar directly advances Vision-Aid's charitable mission. It combines training, accessible technology and livelihood creation so people with disabilities can participate as learners, creators, accessibility experts and paid professionals. Revenue from its mission-related services supports delivery, training and paid work within that program.
Legal operator and contact: Vision-Aid, Inc., 8 Vine Brook Road, Lexington, Massachusetts 02421, United States · info@visionaid.org · (781) 333-5252.
Visit Vision-Aid's nonprofit website, where Ability Bazaar is also announced as a Vision-Aid initiative.
Open for business
A real marketplace, today
Ability Bazaar is open for mission-related work as a program operated by Vision-Aid, a 501(c)(3) public charity with more than two decades of experience working with persons with visual disabilities. The platform can immediately leverage Vision-Aid's established network while every delivered order creates skilled work for experts with disabilities.
Backed by supporters, too
Mission-related earned revenue helps Vision-Aid sustain the platform and create training and livelihood opportunities. Beginning in January 2027, organisations can support one Ability Fellow through a $1,000 training sponsorship covering accessible learning, mentoring, practical work, paid internship experience, and employment support. It is an invoiced workforce-development engagement with defined deliverables, not a donation. Explore the Ability Fellowship sponsorship, or if the mission simply inspires you, make a gift of any size.
How services work
Choose a published package or request a scoped quote, review the requirements and price, then approve payment through the regular checkout. Read about AI assistance and human review.