3D Printing for BVI Makers

3D Printing for BVI Makers

A tactile tour of the PrusaMK3s Printer

Technology specialist Chancey Fleet gives a tactile tour of the Prusa MK3S 3D printer with accessibility educator Danielle Montour. This hands-on walkthrough shows how blind and low-vision users can explore and understand a 3D printer using touch, spatial reasoning, and non-visual strategies.

While the tour focuses on the Prusa MK3S, the techniques—such as identifying the print bed, extruder, axes of movement, and filament path—are broadly applicable to most desktop 3D printers. Learn safe, independent ways to build a mental map of an unfamiliar machine, label key parts, and begin developing a non-visual workflow for setup and troubleshooting.

A great resource for anyone interested in accessible 3D printing, whether you’re a new user or supporting someone who is blind or low-vision.

3D Printer Evaluation & Decision Checklist

For Blind and Low-Vision Users

This checklist focuses on accessibility-related factors to consider when choosing a 3D printer. For general specs like build volume, materials, or speed, check out the All3DP Buying Guide, which is screen-reader friendly. This checklist helps blind and low-vision users evaluate 3D printers for accessibility and usability. Share it with your community or adapt it to fit your own workflow!

Construction Type

Some 3D printers feature open construction, meaning that the user-facing side of the 3D printer (and often the top and other sides) are unenclosed. An open construction design carries both advantages and drawbacks. For a blind user, the most significant benefit to open construction is that a 3D print in progress can be monitored by careful, judicious touch. For example, a user can follow the filament tube to the top of the printing head to monitor the head’s movements in realtime and use those movements to discern the shape, density, and progress speed of the layer being printed. Since blind users do not have the ability to examine an onscreen cross-section, careful monitoring by touch can be an excellent way to learn about the construction of a print: how long first and last layer prints are taking, for example, or how densely and rapidly infill structure is being created. In the unhappy but inevitable event that a print fails, we can use judicious touch to examine the completed portions of a print to ascertain where filament stopped flowing, began to ball up, failed to adhere or suffered some other failure. Since the hot end of the printing head is always within a milimeter of contact with the adhesion bed, it is perfectly safe to touch the object on the bed with one hand while monitoring the top of the printing head with the other, as long as we remain ready to withdraw if the printing head begins moving in a new direction. 

So, it might seem that open construction is ideal for blind and low-vision users who want to monitor 3D prints by touch when necessary. However, there are trade-offs. Although careful touch is a safe way to monitor prints, accidents can still happen when an individual is unaware of safety protocols. If you share your space with other people, a closed construction can help prevent damage to your equipment and injuries that might happen when an unprepared person touches the hot end of your printing head during heating or places their hand between the printer head and a boundary wall as the head is moving toward that wall. 

Additionally, closed construction can create a more stable, consistent environment for successful printing. Closed construction helps maintain a constant temperature and protects the print in progress from the unpredictable effects of airflow. If your workspace is prone to drafts, breezes or fluctuating temperatures, closed construction may be your best bet.

Within the subset of 3D printers that feature closed construction, some “smart” 3D printers will pause printing when the front door of the printer opens. Others, like the Lulzbot Taz 6, come with a removable structure (sometimes made of plexiglass) that serves as a barrier against airflow and safety concerns, without any “smart” features tied to the operation of the printer. Each user should consider their own preferences and priorities before deciding which type of construction they prefer. 

☐ Open Frame Printer

  • Allows monitoring prints through touch
  • Track filament and print head movement to assess progress
  • Tactile inspection of failed or paused prints
  • Risk of accidental contact with hot/moving parts
  • More affected by airflow and temperature changes

☐ Enclosed Frame Printer

  • Safer for shared or public spaces
  • Better environmental control for print consistency
  • Reduced tactile access during printing
  • Some models pause when doors open – check before purchase

☐ Semi-Enclosed (Removable Panels)

  • Provides optional protection from drafts and contact
  • Does not interfere with printer operation
  • Example: Lulzbot Taz 6

Interface & Control

An increasing proportion of printers, including the Ultimaker and Lulzbot series, can be controlled from a computer or smartphone using wired, wireless or bluetooth connections. If you have identified a fully accessible slicer program to prepare your 3D prints (such as Simplify3D), you may prefer to perform as much interaction with the printer as possible from that program, avoiding on-device menus that might not be nonvisually accessible. On the other hand, if your printer will be in a public space or will be used by lots of different people with diverse computer setups, you might find it important to be able to print from an SD card or flash drive directly. When evaluating a 3D printer for purchase, make sure you understand what connection methods are available and whether you can, when necessary, print directly from a card or drive inserted into the printer.

☐ Stand-Alone Printer (SD/USB)

  • Good for shared environments
  • Useful when avoiding inaccessible slicer software

☐ Remotely Controlled Printer

  • Works with computer or mobile device
  • Enables use of accessible slicers
  • Check support for USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth

On-Device Controls

Some 3D printers, such as the Lulzbot Taz 6 and Ultimaker 3, feature LCD screens equipped with a scroll knob or wheel which is used to advance through menus and make selections. Most contemporary wheels are of the “infinite scroll” variety: in other words, they don’t have a tactile hardware beginning and end. Instead, their beginning position is the top of a given menu or dialog, and clockwise movements advance a user forward through that menu or dialog. 

Most LCD screens will show several lines of content at once with the selected line receiving a highlight. This means that navigating the menus with OCR (such as you might have on your smartphone) can be a challenge. Contending weight these menus nonvisually will probably mean engaging a visual interpreter (such as the free service BeMyEyes) to read LCD contents and indicate what’s highlighted. Some users report being able to memorize frequently used menu sequences and perform them independently with practice. For example, I may know that if I turn on the Ultimaker 3, wait for the menu to load, turn the navigation wheel one click to the right, press select, and press select again, I’ll initiate printing for the model I most recently loaded on my USB flash drive.

Touchscreen displays (such as the one found on the Bambu Labs X1) replace the LCD and wheel with an interactive, touch-sensitive screen. These displays may be more efficient to navigate than LCD menus, but they may also feature very small touch targets and might be harder to memorize than their LCD counterparts. As with LCD screens, it’s likely that may blind users will need to navigate these displays using a visual interpreter.

In general, it’s a great idea to test your prospective printer’s menus hands-on before you buy, to ensure that you can engage with the menus when necessary. Even when you plan to do most of your interaction with the printer via a computer or mobile app, you may find that maintenance tasks, recalibration and firmware updates (as well as the dismissal of error messages) requires you to use the menus from time to time. 

☐ LCD + Scroll Wheel

  • Often inaccessible without visual assistance
  • May require memorizing menu sequences
  • “Infinite scroll” wheels have no tactile start/end

☐ Touchscreen Interface

  • May offer better navigation than LCD
  • Touch targets can be small and inconsistent
  • Likely requires interpreter or sighted help

Slicer Software

Whether you have designed your own 3D model using code or downloaded an existing STL file, you’ll need a program called a slicer to convert your STL file into the specific flavor of GCODE that your particular printer needs. GCode gives a 3D printer specific instructions about the mechanics of how to print an STL: how and when to move the printing head, heat and cool the adhesion bed, extrude and retract filament, etc. Your slicer is also the tool you will use to vary your printing settings. For example, you might decide that a model building you’re making requires less infill (the lattice-like structure inside the visible walls of a 3D print) so you’d like to reduce the infill percentage to save filament and printing time. Your slicer is the program that lets you make that adjustment.

Your slicer also allows you to scale your model up or down on the X, Y and Z axes; rotate it so that a different vertice touches the adhesion bed; create a raft that helps with adhesion of the first layer; and generate supports for parts that might not have enough structural support to print successfully on their own.

On top of all that important work, your slicer may have additional tools of particular interest to nonvisual users. For example, Simplify3D offers the ability to import an image file, such as a JPEG, and convert it to an STL file, with colors mapped to various layer heights. Although it’s not a perfect tool for creating 3D prints from images, it can furnish interesting results given the right image and a little forethought.

So, choosing your slicer program is among the most impactful decisions you’ll make as you start your 3D printing journey. Most 3D printers include the use of a particular slicer (for example, the Ultimaker 3 and Lulzbot Taz6 both work with variants of the Cura slicer which can be freely downloaded). The slicer recommended for your individual printer may or may not be responsibly coded to work well with screen readers. Unfortunately, a broad swath of slicers (like the most recent versions of the aforementioned Cura) are replete with unlabeled menus and dialogs, status lines that are invisible to screen readers, and controls that do not receive keyboard focus. Similar problems persist on smartphone and tablet-based slicers. 

Fortunately, most 3D printers allow the user to work with them using alternate slicers. (For example, both the Lulzbot and Ultimaker series are supported by the highly accessible Simplify3D). As you consider which 3D printer to buy, find out which slicer is recommended to work with the printer you’re considering and take that software for a test-drive. If you find that the software doesn’t perform satisfactorily with a screen reader, check whether more accessible alternatives, like Simplify3D, support the printer. 

While navigating the menu interface on a printer itself with a visual interpreter can be fairly trivial, many users may find that working with an interpreter to fine-tune print settings in their slicer software feels like an unreasonable amount of friction. For this reason, we recommend investing the time to find a printing solution that works well with the fully accessible slicer of your choice. 

Video Tutorial for Simplify 3D

Featuring: Chaney Fleet, New York Public Library
Simplify3D – Accessible Slicer Software

Explore accessible 3D printing with Chaney Fleet of the New York Public Library in this session from the Non-Visual 3D Printing series. Using Simplify3D slicer software and a screen reader, this tutorial covers everything from the basics—like what slicer software is (3:07) and how layer height, scale, and infill work (5:19)—to a full walkthrough of Simplify3D (8:26). Learn how to configure a 3D printer (11:14), adjust process settings (13:44), and fine-tune print quality, infill, temperature, cooling, and speed settings (25:33–54:02). The video also walks you through importing your model, preparing it for print, and reviewing print statistics (55:54). Designed for accessibility, this detailed guide supports both beginners and experienced makers using screen readers.

Interview Navigation Guide

Slicer Software Basics

Simplify3D Tutorial Overview

Configuration Assistant (with Screen Reader)

Extruder Settings

General Settings

Material Settings

Print Quality Concepts

Advanced Settings

  • Layer Height Details – 34:10
    • Perimeter
    • Adaptive Layer Height
    • Minimum Layer Height
    • Largest Layer Height
  • Additions Tab – 39:39
    • Skirting
    • Prime Pillar & Tool Change
    • Ooze Shield

Infill Tab

  • Infill Tab Overview – 44:40
  • Geometry
  • Rotation
  • Density of Infill
  • Relative Width
  • Multiple Layers
  • Short Infill
  • Solid vs Sparse

Importing & Preparing Your Model

  • Importing – 56:47
    • Downloads Folder
    • Preview of Model
    • Save to Flash Drive
    • Center and Arrange / Multiple Models
  • Prepare to Print – 59:32
    • Transforms / Scaling
    • Detailed Statistics
      • Process Count
      • Model Count
      • Layer Count
      • Build Size
      • Build Time
    • Remove the Model

☐ Is the default slicer accessible?

  • Check for screen reader compatibility
  • Test menus, dialogs, and keyboard navigation

☐ Does an accessible slicer support the printer?

  • Recommended: Simplify3D
  • Confirm printer compatibility
  • Test slicer before committing to printer

☐ Bonus Features for Accessibility

  • Image-to-STL conversion (e.g., turning JPEGs into 3D prints)
  • Infill, raft, support, and orientation adjustments

Documentation & Support

The nonvisual utility of your 3D printer’s documentation may vary (from manufacturer to manufacturer and from year to year). The text of the documentation included with your printer will probably be accessible, but the documentation may include images, diagrams and videos that don’t contain adequate nonvisual description. For this reason, we recommend considering 3D printer companies that offer dedicated live support online or by phone. (For example, Lulzbot offers dedicated phone support). When imperfectly accessible documentation comes between you and a project goal, live support can significantly help to bridge the gap. 

☐ Is the documentation accessible?

  • Text is usually readable
  • Images and diagrams may lack descriptions

☐ Is live support available?

  • Vital for resolving documentation gaps
  • Example: Lulzbot offers phone-based tech support

Final Tip

Even if you plan to manage the printer remotely, ensure you can use basic on-device controls for maintenance, error handling, and updates.

Related Links & Downloads