LightHouse’s Accessible User Experience (AUX) team was recently contacted by a new assistive technology app Lumin, a voice-first AI-powered email and productivity app designed for blind and low vision users. The founder, Sriram Ganesh, is a visually impaired entrepreneur whose own life and professional experiences led him to creating a tool to improve efficiency for other blind and low vision individuals in the workplace.

Like LightHouse, Lumin shares the same overall mission to promote independence, community, and equity created by and with blind and low vision people. We were eager to learn more about Lumin, Sriram, and his vision to improve productivity dn effeminacy for BVI professionals.

Note: Lumin is available now for free on the Apple App Store

Can you explain your visual impairment and your journey through diagnosis?
I grew up playing video games and spent countless hours in front of a screen, so nobody was surprised when I started wearing glasses back in fifth grade. We just assumed I was nearsighted and that my gaming habit wasn’t helping.

And it was while playing a video game, just after I turned 30, that I noticed I suddenly couldn’t read the score. Over the next few months, I started noticing all the other things I could no longer see, from the whiteboard at work to everyday details I’d always taken for granted. I even pretended I could see things, just to get by.

It took about three months of visiting optometrists and retinal specialists, undergoing scans and genetic tests, before I was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a genetic condition that causes progressive vision loss and has no cure.

Today, I sometimes describe my vision as having a foggy window obscuring my central vision. I can still navigate the world without a cane, so most people wouldn’t even realize I have a visual impairment. But things that used to be effortless, like reading a restaurant menu or getting work done on a computer, have become everyday challenges.

What was your education and early career like? How has your vision impact you?
Although I had most of my vision throughout my education and early career, the lessons I learned during that time have become incredibly important to how I think about building accessible technology today.

I left India to study video game design at the University of Wales before eventually founding my first company, Whodat. We used augmented and virtual reality, along with the principles of video game design, to create products that solved real-world problems.

At the time, almost everything I did, both personally and professionally, depended on screens. But what really stuck with me was the potential to take emerging technologies, combine them with thoughtful design, and use them to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. That’s an approach I still bring to building Lumin today.

What inspired or led you to create Lumin?
As my vision deteriorated, I started to feel like a second-class citizen when it came to consumer technology. I’d spent my entire career building products that made people’s lives easier, but suddenly I found myself struggling to use the same kinds of tools I’d always relied on.

I just wasn’t willing to accept that people with visual impairments should have to settle for a worse experience.

At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence, particularly conversational AI, were creating entirely new ways for people to interact with technology. I realized there was an opportunity to rethink how we use everyday tools like email and calendars, rather than simply trying to make existing screen-based experiences more accessible.

That was the inspiration for Lumin. I wanted to build something that was designed from the ground up for blind and low-vision people, without compromising on what the technology could do.

How would you describe the creative and logistical process of starting Lumin?
When I first started thinking about Lumin, I wanted to understand whether others in the blind and low-vision community shared my experiences.

So I just started talking to people and very quickly partnered with LightHouse for the Blind to conduct more extensive research, including over 50 hours of interviews. Those conversations helped me understand not just how widespread these challenges were, but how deeply they affected people’s everyday lives.

At that point, I didn’t necessarily know exactly how I was going to solve these problems. But I knew, without a doubt, that they were real and worth solving. That gave me the confidence to start building Lumin.

And that commitment to listening to the community and building around their needs has remained central to how we develop the product today.

What is your goal or dream for the future of the company?
My dream is for Lumin to help create a world where blind and low-vision people don’t have to compromise on what they can accomplish simply because technology wasn’t designed with them in mind.

We’re starting with an AI voice assistant that helps you manage your email and calendar, but our ambitions go much further. I believe advances in AI give us an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how people interact with technology and demonstrate that accessibility doesn’t have to be an afterthought or a compromise. Ultimately, I want Lumin to help people accomplish more of what matters to them, independently and on their own terms. In fact, designing for accessibility from the beginning can create better experiences for everyone.

Do you have any words of wisdom to share with other visually impaired aspiring or early-stage entrepreneurs?
My biggest piece of advice is to embrace technology and use it to make yourself more capable. There are so many incredible tools available today, and they’re only getting better.

I also think it’s incredibly important to stay active and keep building things. Whether you’re starting a company, creating software, hosting a podcast, or pursuing something completely different, find something you’re passionate about and create something of value. It doesn’t matter what you’re building. What matters is that you keep learning, experimenting, and putting things out into the world.

Download the Lumin App
Lumin is available now on iPhone for Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Live, and MSN. Manage your email and calendar entirely by voice, set Audio Reminders, unsubscribe from unwanted mailing lists, and much more! Download Lumin and try it for free during Early Access! More information is available: follow this link!

Sriram and the Lumin team are available to answer any questions via email at hello@luminade.ai.