This story is especially meaningful to me as someone who lives with visual impairment. Honda has introduced a new accessibility technology designed to make travel safer, more immersive, and more enjoyable for people who are blind or visually impaired. Called Honda Scenic Audio, the app was developed in partnership with the Howe Innovation Center of the Perkins School for the Blind.
Scenic Audio is not just another screen reader like Google TalkBack or Apple VoiceOver. It’s a next-generation assistive tool that combines artificial intelligence with computer vision, satellite imaging, geotargeting, weather data, and more. The result is an experience that paints a rich, real-time audio picture of your surroundings.
While traditional screen readers simply vocalize the contents of a device’s display, Scenic Audio acts more like a personal tour guide. It describes what’s happening beyond the screen—giving context to the outside world in ways that are expressive, dynamic, and deeply human.
Honda says the app was “built to create multifaceted narratives with a literary tone and expressive descriptions, with nuanced adjectives, recognizable sounds, comparisons of height and terrain, and even the temperature outside.” In short, it helps users feel their surroundings—not just hear about them.
The app is currently in beta testing with members of the blind and visually impaired community at Perkins’ Howe Innovation Center. Feedback from these early users is helping Honda refine the experience based on real-world use.
This is a promising step forward. In the disability community, there’s a growing focus on inclusivity through meaningful accessibility—especially as artificial intelligence opens new possibilities.
It’s encouraging to see a major carmaker like Honda take this seriously. Hopefully, once released to the public, Scenic Audio will work smoothly alongside existing assistive apps like TalkBack and VoiceOver. For many of us, these tools have become essential to daily life. Replacing them shouldn’t be a requirement just to try something new.
As someone who still has limited vision in one eye, I’m genuinely excited. Scenic Audio could make travel feel safer and less stressful. And maybe—just maybe—if Honda continues to build on this kind of technology, it could evolve into a tool that helps people like me one day take the wheel ourselves. That’s a dream worth chasing.
