The field of assistive technologies is rapidly advancing, with a focus on developing innovative solutions to enhance mobility and accessibility for individuals with visual impairments and other disabilities. Recent developments have centered around the integration of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and sensor technologies to create intelligent systems that can provide real-time assistance and feedback. Researchers are exploring various modalities, including wearable devices, cameras, and sensors, to enable individuals to navigate complex environments and interact with their surroundings more effectively. Noteworthy papers in this area include:

• A Large Vision-Language Model based Environment Perception System, which introduces a novel system to help visually impaired individuals perceive their surroundings through a wearable device.
• Beyond Physical Reach, which compares the effectiveness of head- and cane-mounted cameras for last-mile navigation by blind users, highlighting the complementary strengths of different sensor placements.
• Real-Time Wayfinding Assistant, which presents a novel map-less navigation system that employs monocular depth estimation and Vision Language Models to provide accurate and efficient navigation assistance for blind and low-vision users. These advancements have the potential to significantly improve the autonomy, safety, and quality of life for individuals with disabilities, and future research directions are expected to focus on further refining and integrating these technologies to create more seamless and intuitive assistive systems.