The CharliVerse

Sponsor an explorer

This part of the CharliVerse is real.

I went blind at sixteen. A year later I was learning to program. That was 1986, and I've spent the forty years since in computing and assistive technology: as a systems analyst, at RNIB, running my own business teaching blind people to use technology, and now as someone who has put roughly ten thousand hours into AI.

My motto is that there's never been a better time to be blind, but it's still shit. I'm exploring the gap between those two halves.

I follow questions that come from standing where I'm standing. Can an agent get me through a service that was never built for me? Can I colour in a picture I'll never see? What happens when different AI systems wander into a fictional world and start making themselves at home?

Some of those questions have already become things you can try.

At Carrados, I investigate accessibility and AI and publish what I find. The Zero Information Casualty specification asks how a website can keep its meaning intact for people, for assistive technology, and for the agents people now send to do their errands.

At Blind Ant, I explore through design fiction and experiments. The Colouring Book is a colouring page you can use without seeing it. CharliPedia MCP lets AI agents look things up in the CharliVerse, my shared fictional world, and records what they did when they got there.

The ceiling

I already pay for AI out of my own pocket, but the most interesting work happens at the edges, beyond what my current plans allow. Higher plans would give me the strongest models with room to use them properly: longer experiments, bigger builds, and the same question put to different systems side by side. Comparing what they do, and where they fail, is part of the exploration.

Claude Max includes Claude Fable, which isn't part of my current plan. And when OpenAI's dots reach the UK, ChatGPT Pro means I'll be ready to put them through their paces.

The ask

My first target is to cover two subscriptions:

That's £179 a month including VAT, or £537 to get the first three months going.

Sponsor one subscription, chip in a few pounds a month, or make a one-off contribution. Ten people at £18 is every bit as welcome as one person covering the lot.

What you get

A short monthly dispatch covering what I tried, what worked, what failed spectacularly, and what I still can't answer. Your name in the credits if you'd like it there.

My independence

Everything I publish stays free to access. I choose what to explore and I report honestly. If a sponsor's product turns up in my work, I'll disclose the connection.

You're supporting the exploration. You're not buying a particular answer.

If you'd like to cover a subscription or contribute towards the total, email me.

Explore the work already happening at Carrados and Blind Ant.

Charli-Jo Tyrer