innosearch.ai (accessible shopping and flights for blind)

Thanks for this. I've signed up.
Whoever did the accessibility for this really did their homework. One little focus bug when you type in the city for your flight. Focus bounces you out of the box and you have to navigate back, but not a showstopper.

The Torpeys did an episode about this company not long ago. I forget the show number off the top of my head, but you can go to http://www.eyesonsuccess.net and search for it. Regarding Innosearch itself, I had a brief look at the site and I think it's a great idea. I'm excited for their app as well. Now that I think about it, this probably would've come in handy when a life-skills coach and I purchased an album by The Weeknd. But at the time I didn't think to try out the website.

I'm not sure why, but in most cases, I prefer apps over web sites. I've played around with the web site a little bit on my computer, but as a general rule, for some reason, it seems easier to use apps on my phone as opposed to web sites. I'll be eagerly anticipating an official innosearch app. If/when that becomes available, it'll probably become my go-to shopping app.

Hi,
I've heard about this on various podcasts. I've checked out the website and it looks pretty good. I haven't bought anything with it yet because I mostly use Amazon and their site is pretty accessible. I was particularly interested in the ability to purchase flights through it. I looked for flights recently here in Europe, and I found what I wanted. I'm interested in using this when an inaccessible platform I'm trying to use doesn't work with a screen reader. I'm thinking of airline websites in particular. The airlines I use have useable enough apps and websites. I'm looking forward to their app too.

These days apps are more like websites, so in most cases it would be pointless.

Having said that, this site, for me at least, on iOS lags quite a lot.

So having an app instead probably would be better.

I guess it all depends on how they build the app.

I love this site, they get all of my time and money. I prioritize companies that prioritize us.

I purchased some soap on the site to test out the purchase experience. It's very simple and straight forward and I was able to purchase using Apple Pay. The website performs really well in Safari.
I also tested flight booking, even though I'm not going anywhere. I was able to set departure and arrival cities, passengers and dates in a very quick and efficient way using keyboard commands. I wrote a note to the team to tell them about my purchase experience and to give them a UI suggestion. I heard back and found out several of their team members have sight loss and are designing the site to solve the problems they (and by extension all of us) have with shopping sites.
I'll definitely be supporting them where i can.

I've heard about this on Double Tap a few times, and it's possible they answered this question and it fell out of my old man brain, but how are they making money? It sounds like they are showing results from Amazon, and then you effectively get prime delivery and there's no mark-up. So where are they making money? Is it through affiliation or something?

I did have a play with it but had this suspicion that it was all too good to be true and managed to scare myself out of actually buying something.

Here is a link to the audio and show notes for the episode of Eyes On Success that featured an interview with the developers: 2445 Shopping Made Simple with Innosearch AI (Nov. 6, 2024) Show Notes Discover how Innosearch AI is revolutionizing online shopping for the visually impaired. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Patrick Long and Bryan Vuong, co-founders of Innosearch AI, about their AI-powered platform designed to make shopping easier and more accessible with a simplified interface and the ability to ask questions of the AI. As for how they make money, they are essentially the front end distributors for places like Amazon, Best Buy, Wal Mart, etc. and Innosearch essentially gets a few percent back from those companies. Sort of like how credit cards make money! There web site is very accessible and easy to use with a screen reader, they offer free returns on all items, and they are adding features and improvements all the time. If you sign up through the link on the Eyes On Success web site (www.EyesOnSuccess.net) you'll get a discount on your first order. --Peteand

Ah OK - so must be like some sort of affiliate thing. I think with Amazon you can create an affiliate link and if anyone uses it then you get a small cut out of what they buy.

OK maybe I will give it a go next time.

Not that I have any say in the matter, but that would make for an awesome podcast. :-)

I also have been using this for the last few months. As to the last comment about a special podcast reach out through their website yourself and see if they will do that? They’re always looking for places to reach out to connect with the blind community. As to the question about how this has come to be one of the people who are doing the actual coding in creating the website is also blind. One of my favorite features for this website is the ability to use the AI itself to track down the absolute best deal of all the deals that pulls up.

But is it available? Like everywhere in the world? Asking because there're many e-commerce platforms have country-specific varients like amazon.ca or amazon.in for instance. So how do they manage this? Sorry if it sounds stupid, and sorry for asking without first using the website.

Considering that Jaws is the most versatile screen reader is not available everywhere in the world because it’s not available in China and other countries have to get it through various means so why would you ask such a question about a sight that specifically works with companies that are not everywhere in the world makes no sense to top it all off you criticize a company that specifically is working to make your life easier and dealing with websites that are so cluttered up with stuff that people can automatically see to get through that we have difficulty with because of screen readers. Please look at the website and hold your criticism.

Currently, the site only works for the US and Canada I think.

It is available in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. There is a dropdown list at the top with a list of regions in it.

Also I think the first answer to the question was unnecessarily harsh. I didn't read it as a criticism at all, just a question. And I think applevis should be a safe haven for asking questions without fear of reprimand.

I like the concept of Innosearch and appreciate the efforts of anyone who wants to improve access for people with disabilities, but... I have some questions.

Shipping time is a big one for me. I have an Amazon Prime membership for the shipping benefits, and obviously Innosearch doesn't tie into my Amazon account or Prime benefits. (I cannot imagine Amazon ever letting a company do this, so it just is what it is.) I also am a little hesitant about using a third-party company to place an order on a retailer's website, but I admit fully that this latter point may just be me. If Innosearch can partner with retailers to get customers the faster shipping options, I might be more inclined to use the services; but as it stands right now, I more see myself going directly to the retailer if I can make their website work.

please, please, please don't be so roodly critical of a service that is making cluttered spaces accessible for you :P
I mean, I don't know how people end up seeing criticism where it was not at all intended; I can understand them not having the time, attention span or whatever to read through and understand what was written; but why make remarks in that case? and anyway, even assuming that the nature of a comment was ccritical, who put a bann on such critical comments (albeit on a "useful" service) so long as that criticism is constructive?
And while we're on the subject, I do believe that this website should expand to other regions of the world. I mean, I come from a country which is home to the 40% of the world's blind population. so, even if I were to mention the fact that it should consider expanding to my country, how is it bad?

@Rixon Smith "JAWS is the most versatile screen reader"? Who says? On what authority?

I would love it if Innosearch was available in other parts of the world apart from just the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. So many useful services only end up being available in a few countries, most notably the US and the UK. It's a real shame because blind people around the world miss out on potentially beneficial services.

Check it out here:
https://youtu.be/FhyGGg6wHuU?si=ZP9ZzNR7E8n0NWZc

I've got to say - the web site is so much easier to navigate than Amazon. I was trying to find something to give me a couple more usb ports on the Mac and just got thoroughly lost and confused on Amazon - I had given up a couple of times. So thought I'd try innosearch and it was pretty good. I'll probably still end up with the wrong thing as I really have no idea but it was a good experience and it will be interesting to see how quickly it turns up. I looked at the email and it has a label saying "Estimated Delivery" but no actual date, and I can't find anything on the order about it. Still, not too fussed as long as it appears eventually. Delivery was free as well which was good.

I'll definitely give the app a go when it arrives.

Agree with him. This time.

My experience was quite good on a PC . Really enjoy the way that the website is organized and how simple it is to go through items by heading level. I have only ordered ones using the website the time I did I received the expected delivery notifications on the day of and did not receive an expected delivery time after I placed my order. So I would just say that the email notifications seem a little bit out of whack. I appreciate the prompt response from their help section and we'll use this site again for sure. Not sure I would pay for a subscription though because I order from Amazon and other stores infrequently enough to make the expense not worth it.

I did see the AI thing, but didn't try it. I only really thought of the question a little later.

You are right - the shipping date is displayed in the orders page, it just isn't labelled as anything and appears next to each item which is fine. But otherwise it's quite nice and clear to navigate - so now I know that it should be easy to find in future.

I haven't bought from them as yet. But I did do a search on there for a *very* expensive item I want (& can't afford), & they seemed to be able to sell it to me cheaper. So yeah--if I can ever scrape the money to get this thing, that's likely where I'll go. Plus it's just easy. I use Amazon all the time, but this is just so much less cluttered. I hope they're successful.

My parcel arrived yesterday - as I ordered it on Saturday this is about the same as with Prime, as we no longer get Sunday deliveries. And, as I said, delivery was free.

So the basic experience was exactly as using Amazon, only without the accessibility issues and without the need to have subscribed to Prime. (Which I still do anyway). So I will be using them again for sure.

For some reason I tried searching innosearch.ai for "orbit reader" and was surprised when it came back with a load of results from computer room services here in the UK. So it looks like accessible tech can be found here too. It was over-priced, but likely because it included VAT. Anyway, thought it was interesting that it seems not just to be for the mainstream.

I was messing around a little more and I'm finding results from RNIB and Humanware too. This has really surprised me - I can't buy this sort of thing from Amazon. I tried searching for the brailliant, ambutech canes etc and all came back.

As I said before, the only problem is that I don't pay VAT on blind products and I suspect these prices all have VAT included (the orbit certainly did). I'm not sure if there is a way to avoid paying it.

But if we can use this as a price comparison site for blind products, that is pretty unexpected and awesome.

Hi mr grieves,
If you want VAT exemption, your best bet is to buy from the distributors directly. I haven't bought from the RNIB in ages, but I never even looked at whether the price was VAT exempt or not; I was only buying cheap stuff anyway.

When you buy from the RNIB there is a tickbox to declare that you are either blind or buying on behalf of someone blind. I believe if you tick this, then you don't pay VAT.

I emailed innosearch about this and got a really friendly reply back saying that they would love to be able to do this. I'll do a bit of digging about to see how it works from a supplier point of view - whether it's just ok for us to tick a box or if we need to fill in paperwork. But it would be pretty nice to be able to buy replacement canes or tips or other bits and bobs from the same place I buy everything else - and in the rare situations I want something expensive it might give me the best price.

At the very least it is a good way to do price comparison as it stands, even if it means bailing at the last minute and going to the supplier.

We can only get VAT off if it is blind orientated stuff. So canes etc. You can't get VAT relief for say a new bed. Yes on RNIB site you tick a box. Annoyingly you have to do this everytime as well. Shame there isn't a 1 stop way of doing this.

Hi,
I must have ticked that box on the RNIB site then. I very rarely buy from the RNIB so wouldn't remember doing this. I know that whenever I upgrade my JAWS through Sight And Sound, I have to fill in a VAT exemption form. But getting back to Innosearch, I want to buy a film for somebody, and on most of the results I'm getting, it tells me it doesn't know whether the DVD or Blu-ray contains audio description or not. How have others found buying DVDs through Innosearch? I found one instance when it said the Blu-ray had AD, but it couldn't tell me what language the AD was in, so I went to the original distributor's website just to check, and I couldn't find any info there related to AD. Edited to ask, does anybody know what the AI uses to get info about the products? Is it product descriptions from the distributor, pictures, or both? I can't remember what they said in the interviews I listened to now.

I bought my Habel One from Sight and Sound a while ago and didn't have to fill in a form, but I did order over the phone so I wonder if they maybe filled it in on my behalf. Maybe that's what RNIB do too.

I know what you mean about audio description. It seems maddeningly difficult to find this sort of thing. A little while ago I was trying to find out how to buy shows from HBO Max, either streaming or on blu-ray. But as far as I know, it is impossible. It would have been really helpful to be able to just ask the question, or add that to my search.

Hi everyone,

I was just searching for the Mantis Q40 out of curiosity, and something struck me as a bit odd with the search results (at least for me, in Australia).

When I searched specifically for "Mantis Q40," the only place that showed up was Vision Australia. I am in Australia, so that's not surprising in itself. But when searching for "braille display" more generally, other braille displays *did* show up, including HumanWare products.

It seems strange that HumanWare didn't appear in the search results for "Mantis Q40" in Australia, yet Vision Australia did. HumanWare *is* the main distributor for that product, isn't it?

Just curious if anyone else has noticed this or has any thoughts on why this might be happening.

As someone else said on here, email them and see where it goes, it's free so you have nothing to lose.

Hi,
I wouldn't mind trying that. Is it available in other countries apart from the US?