SeeMe Web is a free Chrome extension designed for developers, designers, technology professionals, educators and anyone who wants to explore how sight loss can affect the experience of using the web. Once installed, it can be activated directly from the Chrome toolbar and used on almost any website, allowing you to experience familiar websites from a different perspective without needing a separate app or demonstration environment.
The extension includes a range of adjustable visual effects that can be used individually or combined to represent different experiences of sight loss. These include central vision loss, peripheral vision loss, patchy vision, edge vision loss, shaky vision and changes in lightness or darkness. Central vision loss can also follow the mouse pointer, helping demonstrate what it may be like when the area someone is actively trying to focus on becomes obscured or difficult to see.
SeeMe Web is designed to encourage developers and technology professionals to think beyond accessibility as simply a checklist. By changing how a website looks while continuing to navigate and interact with it, the extension can prompt conversations about text size, contrast, spacing, navigation, layout and the placement of important information. It can also be used as an educational and awareness tool for training, demonstrations and anyone wanting to better understand some of the barriers people with sight loss may encounter when using digital technology.
SeeMe Web is a simulation and should not be considered an accurate depiction of how an individual person sees, a clinical representation of a particular eye condition or a medical or diagnostic tool. Sight loss varies significantly between individuals, including people with the same diagnosed condition. The extension is intended to support education, awareness and discussion, and should complement rather than replace accessibility standards, assistive technology testing and the lived experiences of people with sight loss.