Accessibility Hackathon | EF x Raspberry Pi x Asteroid
Accessibility Hackathon w/ EF x Raspberry Pi x Asteroid
Join us for a one-day hackathon dedicated to solving real-world accessibility challenges using Raspberry Pis (w/ AI HATs) and provided smart glasses.
Build useful voice-AI tools that meaningfully improve independence and quality of life for unsighted people.
Choose a track and produce a working prototype by the end of the day.
About Chris Mairs
This event is inspired and co-organised by Chris Mairs. Chris is blind, serves on the board of Raspberry Pi, is the former CTO of Metaswitch Networks (Sequoia-backed, acquired by Microsoft), and is one of Europe’s most active angel investors. He is also EF’s longest-standing Venture Partner and author of “The Open Eyed Man”, which examines how the tech industry continues to leave millions behind.
Example Tracks / Use Cases
You can build anything within the broader scope above, but here are some prompts:
Identify banknotes for visually impaired users
Detect whether a laptop is powered on or off
Help elderly or visually impaired users manage multiple medications
Control home lighting/heating through voice + vision
Build an “accessible entry phone”: identify who’s at the door + keep them talking
Read microwave instructions and autonomously control a smart microwave
Who Should Attend
AI or ML engineers, embedded-systems builders, computer-vision developers, and hardware tinkerers. No accessibility background required.
What We Provide
Raspberry Pis + AI HATS
Free access to Asteroid.ai
Credits ($10,000 Microsoft Azure credits for 1st, 2nd + 3rd place) 👀
Workspace, mentorship, and technical support
Food & coffee
Bring your laptop and any extra hardware you want to experiment with. We'll provide the rest.
Schedule
09:00 – Doors open, setup
9:30 – Welcome + briefing from Chris
10:00 – Team formation + hacking begins
13:00 – Lunch arrives
18:00 – Demos
19:15 – Winner + prize announcements
Judges
Chris Mairs CBE
Christopher Patnoe: Lead for EMEA Accessibility and Disability Innovation at Google
Iacop Hafiane: Entrepreneurs First Founder
Yusufhan Kircova: Co-founder at Seamflow
Apply to Join
We have limited space and hardware.
This is not a free-for-all event; we care about curated rooms. We'll build a room full of high-agency, young technical builders that you'll want to keep building with after the event.
Looking forward to seeing what you build.
Why this matters
Accessibility features are often added late or treated as afterthoughts, leading to what Chris calls “inclusivity debt”.
This hackathon is an opportunity to reverse that pattern. As Chris puts it: “As web pages, browsers and Large Language Models co-evolve over the coming months and years, there is a genuine opportunity to improve accessibility with conversational voice agents allowing blind users to access online content just as well as sighted users.”
Read one of his pieces on the matter here.
About EF
Entrepreneurs First (EF) turns exceptional individuals into funded founders. We invest in people before they have a company, helping them find a cofounder, validate an idea, and build from scratch. EF's portfolio companies are now worth over $14B.