Existing assistive technologies (AT) often adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, overlooking the diverse needs of people with visual impairments (PVI). Do-it-yourself AT (DIY-AT) toolkits offer one path toward customization, but most remain limited—targeting co-design with engineers or requiring programming expertise. Non-professionals with disabilities, including PVI, also face barriers such as inaccessible tools, lack of confidence, and insufficient technical knowledge. These gaps highlight the need for prototyping technologies that enable PVI to directly make their own AT. Building on emerging evidence that large language models (LLMs) can serve not only as visual aids but also as co-design partners, we present an exploratory study of how LLM-based AI can support PVI in the tangible DIY-AT co-making process. Our findings surface key challenges and design opportunities: the need for greater spatial and visual support, strategies for mitigating novel AI errors, and implications for designing more accessible AI-assisted prototypes.

Generative AI (AI) has become ubiquitous in both daily and professional life, with emerging research demonstrating its potential as a tool for accessibility. Neurodivergent people, often left out by existing accessibility technologies, develop their own ways of navigating normative expectations. GAI offers new opportunities for access, but it is important to understand how neurodivergent "power users"-successful early adopters-engage with it and the challenges they face. Further, we must understand how marginalization and intersectional identities influence their interactions with GAI. Our autoethnography, enhanced by privacy-preserving GAI-based diaries and interviews, reveals the intricacies of using GAI to navigate normative environments and expectations. Our findings demonstrate how GAI can both support and complicate tasks like code-switching, emotional regulation, and accessing information. We show that GAI can help neurodivergent users to reclaim their agency in systems that diminish their autonomy and self-determination. However, challenges such as balancing authentic self-expression with societal conformity, alongside other risks, create barriers to realizing GAI's full potential for accessibility.