So why is today’s shopping experience still inaccessible?

Whoever goes into the store to purchase essential items like clothes, regardless of disability, has the same needs. But most retail stores still revolve around mainly providing for sighted groups. This is less so because the number of people who are blind or have low vision is small, but this disadvantage affects their motivation to visit frequently and surface these concerns. And with this negative cycle, changes don't occur.

Personal experiences shape how deeply we empathize or overlook the challenges faced by others. We ALL have blind spots and biases, often influenced by what we have not personally experienced. Through this project, I realized how much I rely on visual cues and how limited my perspective can be because of that. True empathy does not come from theory or training; it comes from direct connection and experience.

To avoid assuming anything on behalf of our users, we took the next best action: to work closely with the direct user group, hand in hand, throughout every step of our journey, which greatly expanded our mental models and values as user experience designers.