Smartphones have opened the door to a world of possibilities, further than we could have ever imagined. While they are commonly used to communicate with others, keep up with social media, and perform simple tasks, smartphones have innovations that allow accessibility and functionality to the blind and visually impaired. With the help of a smartphone, smartwatch, or tablet, the “blind” or visually impaired can virtually “see” and become more independent.
The essential built-in apps—meaning the apps that come pre-installed on your device—that make a smartphone a smartphone are the phone, contacts, calendar, and text messaging apps. There is also a web browser—Safari for iOS and Chrome for Android and an app you can use to access the store where you can buy and download more apps. The store is called “App Store,” on the iPhone and “Play Store” on Android devices. Because built-in apps are all quite accessible, using these apps is a great way to perfect your skills with your device’s built-in touch-screen reader, which is called VoiceOver for iPhones and TalkBack for Android.
Believe it or not, your smartphone can help you accomplish tasks you may think you can’t do without vision. Listed below are smartphone apps that essentially work like an extra pair of eyes.
LookTel: The Money Identifier Mobile App
LookTel Money Reader instantly recognizes currency and speaks the denomination, enabling people experiencing visual impairments or blindness to quickly and easily identify and count bills. [Learn More]
TapTapSee: Identify Objects Through Photos
TapTapSee is designed to help the blind and visually impaired identify objects they encounter in their daily lives. Simply double tap the screen and take a photo of anything, at any angle. You’ll hear the app speak the identification back to you (Note: Requires VoiceOver to be turned on). [Learn More]
KNFB Reader App: Reads Virtually Any Text Aloud
The KNFB Reader converts printed text into high-quality speech to provide accurate, fast, and efficient access to both single and multiple page documents with the tap of a button on the iPhone. [Learn More]
Color ID Free: Discovers the Names of the Colors Around You
Color ID Free uses the camera on your iPhone to speak the names of colors in real-time. [Learn More]
Blindsquare: Blind navigation – Changes lives
BlindSquare is the World’s Most Popular accessible GPS-app developed for the blind and visually impaired. It describes the environment, announces points of interest and street intersections as you travel. [Learn More]
Seeing AI: Talking camera for the blind
Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world and describe nearby people, text and objects. Optimized for use with VoiceOver, the app enables you to recognize: Short Text – Speaks text as soon as it appears in front of the camera. [Learn More]
Talking Calculator: Reads answers, entered numbers and formulas aloud.
Talking Calculator is designed for a wide range of users, this calculator has large colorful buttons, optional high contrast, full VoiceOver support, and unique to this calculator; the option to use speech for answers, button names and formulas! [Learn More]
Be My Eyes: The One Everyone’s Been Talking About- People Helping People in Real-Time
Be My Eyes – Be the eyes for a blind person in need of help remotely through a live video connection if you are sighted or be assisted by the network of sighted users if you are blind. [Learn More]
We’ve listed a few of what we consider the must-have essential apps for your smartphone although we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Your phone can include any number of screens filled with apps. Although, you will spend most of your time on your Home screen—the first screen to appear when you power on your smartphone. Pick and try your favorites from the apps we’ve discussed here, and you’ll be astonished by just how useful that smartphone can be.