Visium - Imagens em palavras

Visium is an accessibility application developed to generate technical self-descriptions and clear image descriptions, contributing to the autonomy, inclusion, and participation of people with visual impairments.
With Visium, the user can capture a photo, select an image from the device, or share an image from other applications, such as WhatsApp, photo gallery, and other compatible apps. From this image, the application generates an accessible, objective, and understandable textual description.
The application was designed especially to support situations in which visual information needs to be transformed into words, such as academic and cultural events, presentations, educational activities, and everyday interactions. Its purpose addresses the need to expand communicational accessibility in contexts where blind or visually impaired people still encounter barriers to accessing visual information. This purpose is aligned with the research project that underpinned the development of the application, focused on technical self-description in academic and cultural events, based on ABNT NBR 16452/2016 and Brazilian legislation on communicational accessibility.
Among its main functions, Visium allows:
generating clear technical self-descriptions; Describe images of the environment; describe images shared by other applications; support speakers, participants, and event organizers; contribute to accessible communication for people with visual impairments; assist in educational, academic, and cultural contexts.

The development of Visium considers principles such as clarity, conciseness, objectivity, accessible language, and respect for user autonomy, aspects related to the technical guidelines of audio description. The project's base manuscript highlights that audio description seeks to translate images into words, allowing visual content to become understandable for audiences with visual impairments.

The application was also developed with attention to usability and mobile accessibility, considering compatibility with screen readers and the need for simple and intuitive navigation. The research project foresees the development of an application aligned with ABNT NBR 16452/2016, focusing on clarity, conciseness, objectivity, appropriate use of technical language, and compatibility with screen readers.

Visium is the result of institutionalized scientific research at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Acre - IFAC, Rio Branco campus, and has been reviewed by the Research Ethics Committee - CEP. It was developed, tested, and validated with the contribution of professionals from the Center for Pedagogical Support for People with Visual Impairment of Acre — CAP/AC, as well as by visually impaired users served by the institution. It was also used in a practical situation at an academic event at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Acre — IFAC, Rio Branco campus, with user satisfaction evaluation.

Privacy is also a central part of the application's proposal. Visium does not request registration, login, or any type of personal identification. The user does not need to provide their name, CPF (Brazilian tax identification number), email, phone number, address, location, or contact information to use the application. The only information processed is the image chosen, captured, or temporarily shared by the user, exclusively to generate the requested description.
The images used in Visium are processed temporarily. The application does not create an image database, does not maintain a permanent visual history, and does not use images for personal user identification.

Visium uses artificial intelligence to transform images into accessible descriptions, helping to make visual information more understandable and available in text format.