Assistive Technology: Estée Lauder’s Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant (iOS App)
A Step Towards Making Beauty More Inclusive?
Estée Lauder’s Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant (VMA) app is a tool designed to make beauty more accessible to the visually impaired population. The app utilizes AI to provide voice guidance so that users can get real-time feedback on their makeup application. This blog post examines its accessibility features through disability models, highlighting its strengths, limitations, and potential for a more inclusive beauty industry.
Features and Limitations
1. Real-Time Voice Feedback
VMA’s most prominent feature is its AI-powered voice guidance that takes place in real time, providing users with feedback regarding their makeup application, whether its foundation, lipstick, or blush. This feature aligns with the functional solutions model of disability – where the focus is on innovations in technology that reduce the impact of impairments. The app aims to make users more independent in getting ready by compensating for vision loss with voice guidance and instructions.
Even though the app helps users apply makeup more independently in terms of area, it does not account for selecting the right colors or making sure the products are blended. Those aspects of makeup artistry are equally, if not more, important as the actual application. VMA could, perhaps in a future iteration, integrate systems for color contrast detection or even a simple color matching technology through photographs.
2. AI-Powered Visual Recognition
VMA uses a smartphone camera to analyze makeup application and provides suggestions for better placement. This feature supports the social model of disability – which suggests that disability is created through social barriers rather than individual impairments. People with visual impairments often have to rely on external help for makeup application but Estée Lauder’s app is trying to empower these people by providing them greater autonomy.
However, the app does require access to the internet and a smartphone with a high-quality camera, which can prove to be an accessibility limitation. Users with no internet access, older phones, or lower-resolution cameras may not experience the same level of accuracy, highlighting an economic accessibility barrier within the market model of disability.
3. Free and Inclusive Availability
VMA is a free app to download and this a remarkable step toward affordability and widespread accessibility. Many assistive technologies in the beauty industry are often too costly or require additional expensive devices. By providing VMA at no cost, Estée Lauder acknowledges the market model of disability and recognizes disabled individuals as active consumers rather than passive ones in need of assistance.
Although, currently the app is only available in English, which limits access for non-English-speaking users with visual impairments, highlighting a gap in recognizing and addressing intersectionality. Expanding language options could enhance global usability and inclusivity.
Conclusion
Estée Lauder’s Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant is a significant step toward accessibility in the beauty industry, leveraging AI-powered visual and voice technology to empower users with visual impairments. VMA reveals both its strengths and limitations when analyzed through the functional, social, and market models of disability. By assisting with color selection and more product guidance, expanding language options, and further considering economic barriers, Estée Lauder could enhance its commitment to truly inclusive beauty.