Confident with AI: Four-part Masterclass Series - Technology Association of Visually Impaired People

This four-part series was designed to help blind and partially sighted people develop skills and build confidence using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot and Gemini in everyday life and work.

Further down you will find recordings of each session and a list of resources.

Delivered in an easy to follow and interactive style, the sessions focus on developing practical skills including:

Asking better questions
Getting more accessible and useful answers
Using AI to support tasks such as writing, understanding documents, navigating information, and making decisions.

The course also covers how to use AI safely and responsibly, including understanding its limits, protecting personal data, and checking outputs before relying on them. By the end of the series, you will feel more confident using AI as a helpful, everyday tool while making informed judgements about when and how to trust it.

The sessions are run by TAVIP member Charli-Jo Tyrer. Charli-Jo is an independent AI researcher, writer, and trainer with a particular focus on accessibility, real-world use, and practical AI literacy. They have extensive hands-on experience working with large language models across a wide range of everyday and professional tasks, and are known for translating complex ideas into clear, usable approaches.

Charli-Jo is also a blind AI practitioner and community organiser, working closely with blind and partially sighted users to explore how AI can support access to information, independence, and decision-making. Their work emphasises practical outcomes: helping people not just understand AI, but use it confidently, critically, and safely in their own lives.

Recordings

Session 1

In the first session we described the most commonly used AI assistants including ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, Gemini and Grok. We looked at setting up accounts, the differences between the free and paid-for versions, the differences between the PC apps, smartphone apps and browser versions, and we touched on the different models used by the AI Assistants. We then spent time discussing how confident we can be in the results from these AI tools and how we can validate the information they provide.

Audio download Confident with AI Part 1

Session 2

In the second session we looked at five practical ways in which you can customise common AI Assistants by creating an account, adding context about yourself, specifying the way in which you want information presented, and the personality of responses which you prefer. We then looked at five good habits to improve the responses you get based on the acronym ‘COACH’. C stands for giving it Context, O stands for telling it what Outcome you want, A is for Asking it again through conversation, C is for Checking responses and H is for keeping a Human in the loop for important decisions.

Audio download Confident with AI Part 2

Session 3

In the third session people shared how they have been using AI over the last week. We then discussed how AI can be used to create original images, videos, songs and conceptual story lines, and then to validate these using other AI tools. We also discussed philosophical issues around using AI to produce original content. CJ shared two songs that were produced using AI called Cosy Accessibility and Kindness Scales Too, which are played in full in this episode and well worth a listen.

Audio download Confident with AI Part 3

Session 4

In the fourth session Charli-Jo demonstrated the use of AI tools to interpret visual files including a challenging pdf file, an image file, an audio file, a short video, a song and a comic. CJ also used AI to create a logo file and a promotional Advert for the series, which is played at the beginning of the session.

Audio download Confident with AI Part 4

Resources

Charli-Jo Tyrer’s website pages for these sessions are linked here: https://charli.info/training/confident-with-ai/

Charli-Jo Tyrer’s facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiwiththeblind/