As someone who is blind and has always loved Japanese media, I've often wished there were a way to experience manga. Since manga is such a visual medium, it has traditionally been difficult for blind readers to access. This project is my attempt to make that experience more accessible.
This application is an accessible manga reader that uses AI vision models, including Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT to analyze and describe manga pages. The AI describes visuals and reads text following comic reading rules to help convey the story in a more complete way.
For transparency, I don't have a programming background. This project was developed with the assistance of Claude by Anthropic, which I used throughout the development process to build the application.
This is the first public beta release, so you may encounter bugs or unexpected behavior. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome, and I'll do my best to improve the application over time.
It's also worth noting that AI isn't perfect. Manga can be visually complex, and descriptions won't always be completely accurate. However, from my experience, the results are generally good enough to make following and enjoying manga series possible.
You can download the beta release here:
https://github.com/Shaima-Almarzooqi/Accessible-Manga-Reader/releases
I hope this project helps make manga more accessible and gives other blind readers another way to enjoy the stories they love.
By Shaima, 17 July, 2026
Forum
Windows
Comments
good work!
Thank you for the great idea of creating an accessible manga reader for blind and visually impaired people! I’ve always wanted to be able to read manga in an accessible way. How do I use the program?
Thank you
To use the program, download the .exe file from the link below:
https://github.com/Shaima-Almarzooqi/Accessible-Manga-Reader/releases/download/v0.11.1/AccessibleMangaReader-x64.exe
(That's the version for most Windows PCs. If you're on a Windows ARM machine, such as a Snapdragon laptop, download the arm64 file from the releases page instead.)
Open the file from your Downloads folder. It needs no installation and runs immediately. On first launch, Windows may show a SmartScreen warning that the app is unrecognised, since it isn't code-signed; choose "More info," then "Run anyway."
To read manga, the app needs an API key from one of the supported AI services. For most people that will be Google Gemini, which offers a free key. Other services work too if you have a key for them.
If you're not sure how to get a key, there's a full user manual built into the app: press F1 to open it, and it walks you through the process step by step. It also covers all the features and keyboard shortcuts.
If you need any help or have questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] and I'll be glad to assist.
A question
Where can we find manga that work with this application?
Where to Find Manga
I'm not sure if it's okay to direct users to manga websites here, but if you're not familiar with it, you can search for "MangaKatana" on Google. You can download manga from there in ZIP format which works in the app.
Other comics
Hi,
Firstly, congrats and thanks for such a great app. I'm primarily a Mac user but I'll try this app on my windows computer. My question is, is the app only supports manga or can we read other comics too?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for this
I’ve been looking for a way to read manga for years! I’ve been using Seeing AI and be my AI to read comic books for the past year also, and that’s been working really well so I’m hoping this is similar.
Same Here!
That's actually what inspired me to build it. I had been using AI vision tools like ChatGPT to read manga, but constantly uploading a page or two at a time and writing prompts became tedious. I wanted something that could process an entire chapter or even a whole volume in one go, while also giving more control over how the content is read. Users still have the flexibility to give AI additional instructions before processing the chapter/volume to tailor to their preference.
The app works on the same general idea of using AI vision, but it's designed specifically for comics and manga. It also supports Western comics and webtoons—you can select the comic type in Settings → General, and the app will use the appropriate reading order. I haven't personally tested the experience with Western comics or webtoons yet, though, since my main focus has been manga, so if anyone tries it out and has any suggestion feel free to reach out.
About Gemini models
I use a free Gemini API key, and many manga or story chapters are very large, so I think the free API limit isn’t enough. The Gemini 3 model is the one that comes preconfigured in the app.
My question is this: if I switch to the Gemini 2.5 model, will the description quality drop significantly? If I use that model, I’d be able to describe more pages than with Gemini 3, but I’m worried about losing too much quality in the descriptions.