Visually Impaired smart phone users

Visually Impaired smart phone users

• Seeing Ai
• Other similar apps
• Other similar navigation aps
• Other similar apps

A visually impaired or a blind person can use current smart phones with touch screens with help of a screen reader or a magnifier nearly as efficiently as a sighted person. However, this depends on how well the graphic elements are described and how accessible the apps are made.

A smart phone with its apps can today replace many devices with control panels and previous expensive devices which are designed or adapted for the visually impaired. These are for example

Talking wrist watch

Vibrating clock

Talking alarm clock/timer

Talking thermometer

Talking barometer

Note taker/recorder

Daisy / MP3 player

Talking heart rate meter

Talking compass

Audio water pass

Talking measurement tape

Talking colour recogniser

Talking scale

Talking light level meter

Talking bank note recognizer

Spotlight

Desibel meter

Motion sensor

Braille note taker

Talking calculator

Navigator

Obstacle recognizer / radar guide

Talking blood pressure meter

Talking blood sugar meter

Talking pedometer

Talking kitchen or personal scale

Talking micro oven or other domestic equipment

key holder with audio tracking

Talking marker

Magnifying glass

Electronic magnifier

CCTV

Monocular

Calendar /almanac in braille or large print

Tactile maps

Tactile chess

Playing cards in braille

Screen magnifier program

Screen reader program

Speech synthesizer

Text recognition program / scanner

The functions in Many of the above mentioned devices are built in the operating systems of smart phones such as the iPhone or other IOS devices. It is worthwhile to mention that nowadays the manufacturers of mobile devices are integrating the functions of third party developer apps into their operating systems. In this way the accessibility needs of the visually impaired are more widely taken into the consideration.

Mobile devices do not only replace the previous technical aids for the visually impaired but they also benefit from the artificial intelligence, which can help visually impaired person in describing images, objects, people, spaces and distances.

The most popular Apple apps designed for the visually impaired are for example the following

Seeing Ai

Recognizes and speaks text, products, colours, notes, faces, light level etc.

Other similar apps

TextGrabber

KNFB Reader

VoiceDream Scanner

TapTapSee

Aipoly Vision

InVision

SuperSense

BlindSquare

Talking navigator / map

Other similar navigation aps

LoadStone (especially for outdoors)

Ariadne

Sara (especially for sailing)

Clew

Indor navigation recording and tracking

Invisible Maps

PratsamReader

Daisy player for downloading and listening audio books from the library for visually impaired

Voice Dream Reader

Audible

IOS −luetus

App for downloading and reading newspapers and magazines

Other similar apps

Dolphin Easy Reader

MovieReader

Audio description software for films

Be My Eyes

Online video call app, sighted volunteers describe and guide remotely

MBraille

Touch Screen Braille keyboard

Audio Games

Papa Sangre

BlindHockey