Why Product Teams Fail Low-Vision Users | Rebecca Rosenberg

Most products do not fail because nobody needs them; they fail because teams misunderstand who they are building for.

In this episode of An Hour of Innovation podcast, Vit Lyoshin speaks with Rebecca Rosenberg, founder of ReBokeh, about building visual-first accessibility tools for people with low vision and what her work reveals about product adoption, overlooked markets, and user-centered innovation. Rebecca explains why low-vision users are often misunderstood, how ReBokeh helps people customize contrast, brightness, color, AI descriptions, and other visual adjustments in real time, and why accessibility can create measurable business value for museums, airports, sports venues, and digital products.

You’ll Learn:

* Why products struggle when teams build for the wrong user or market

* How Rebecca’s own low-vision experience from albinism led her to start ReBokeh in college

* Why most blind and low-vision people retain some usable sight and need more than audio-only tools

* How ReBokeh uses augmented reality, AI features, and real-time visual adjustments

* Why low vision is a much larger market than many investors and product teams assume

* How inaccessible websites, museums, airports, and stores quietly lose customers

* Why ReBokeh uses geofencing so partner locations can unlock the full app without extra hardware

* How direct user feedback shapes the roadmap without turning into feature bloat

* Why users with the same condition can need completely different visual settings

* What Rebecca intentionally refuses to build, including features that would make ReBokeh less useful for low-vision users

* Why AI-era product teams need clearer guardrails around what they will and will not ship

Rebecca Rosenberg is the founder of ReBokeh, a company building accessibility technology for people with low vision. She started the company from her college dorm room after experiencing the lack of appropriate assistive tools for people who are not totally blind but still cannot rely on glasses or standard design assumptions. ReBokeh has users in about 115 countries and works with organizations including museums, aquariums, airports, and professional sports venues to make visual experiences more accessible.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

01:04 Understanding Adoption Challenges in Technology

05:07 Rebecca’s Journey: Building ReBokeh

08:04 Innovative Accessibility Solutions for Low Vision

09:25 Market Size and Opportunities in Accessibility

12:26 The Importance of Education in Accessibility

19:51 User Feedback and Community Engagement

21:54 Personalization in Accessibility Solutions

24:56 The Importance of What Not to Build

28:06 Guardrails in Innovation

29:29 User Experience and Usability Challenges

31:23 Measuring Engagement and Success

33:50 Real-World Application of ReBokeh

37:01 Technological Foundations of ReBokeh

38:54 Future Visions for Low Vision Technology

40:57 Innovation Q&A

Connect with Rebecca

* Website: https://www.rebokeh.com/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccarosenberg020/

Connect with Vit

* Substack: https://anhourofinnovation.substack.com/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vit-lyoshin/

* X: https://x.com/vitlyoshin

* Website: https://vitlyoshin.com/

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