has been said
that technology has made the world smaller, but for the blind or those with
poor vision, iDevices are opening up a whole new world. This AppList highlights
some of the most innovative and entertaining apps available to the vision
impaired. Now, with the aid of an iPhone, the blind can virtually see color,
light, paper money and much more. Be on the lookout for our new AppList:
Entertainment Apps For The Visually Impaired. Did we miss any? Feel free to
send suggestions to Stella@AppAdvice.com
by Giovanni Ciaffoni
In a world that relies on visual clues to navigate,
exploring a city or taking a solo walk is no longer a challenge for the
visually impaired. Ariadne GPS is a new app that brilliantly meets the needs of
the blind in an easy to use interface. Talking maps allow you to explore the
world around you by moving your finger around the map. While exploring,
crossing a street is signaled by vibration. It has a favorites feature and can
be used to announce stops on the bus or train. Rotating maps keep you centered,
with territory behind the user on the bottom of the screen and what is ahead on
the top portion. Available in multiple languages, Ariadne GPS works anywhere
Google Maps are available. This is a must-have application for the visually
impaired.
by IPPLEX
The United States Treasury was careful to mint each coin
with a unique size and edge. This way the value of each coin can be determined
just by touch. Unfortunately, with paper money this is not the case. Before the
iPhone, the visually impaired would have to rely on a sighted person to tell
them the denomination of each paper bill, then they would employ a special fold
or other tactile technique to remember. This is no longer necessary thanks to
an amazing application called LookTel Money Reader. Using just the camera on
the iPhone, LookTel flawlessly announces the denomination of paper money. The
developer is also working on other cutting-edge applications that will expand
the technology to reading labels and more.
by GreenGar Studios
Are there clouds in the sky? Is the iPod done charging?
What color are the pants I just tried on? Does this tie match? Is the tomato
ripe yet? Is this lip liner or eye liner? Is the sour cream moldy? Color ID
Free is here to answer all these questions and more. Just point the iPhone
camera at any item and it will announce the color for you. Brilliantly simple
and easy to use, this application will open a new world to those who cannot
see. It is amazingly accurate and can even find very subtle differences in
color. It offers a setting for basic colors, such as "pale yellow
green" or more advanced colors such as "fresh apricot." For our
tests we found the basic setting to be far more useful.
by EveryWare Technologies
This is a very handy app that simply emits a sound which
intensifies as a light source is found and approached. Light Detector will help
find any lights left on or locate windows and exits. Basic but functional, this
application does what is says and does it well.
by RideCharge, Inc.
Did you ever wish you could order a taxi without having
to deal with calling a dispatcher? Would you love to know the current location
of the taxi as it approaches? With Taxi Magic you can book a taxi right on your
iPhone with ease for free. All it takes is a few taps of the screen and your
taxi will be dispatched. Taxi Magic can also track your taxi expenses for you.
Additionally, for a processing fee of $1.50, you can pay your taxi fare in
advance with a credit card! Taxi Magic works in over 4000 cities and is a
must-have for those who rely on taxi service.
by Dong Baik
Voice Brief is a great utility for anyone, but for the
vision impaired it is particularly useful. With the touch of a button Voice
Brief reads your email, Twitter feed, weather, stock prices, RSS and Facebook
feeds. This time saving app is fully configurable and works flawlessly. The
voices are natural and clear. Are you interested but hesitant to spend the
$3.99 on VoiceBrief? Then we have great news! There is a free lite version so
give it a try at no risk.
by Adam Uccello
Are you tired of your fellow employees startling you by
approaching quietly? Need a gentle warning that you are no longer alone? VM
Alert is a fantastic app that detects motion and warns you with either a mellow
tone or an alarm. It can also snap a photo when it detects motion. If you are
traveling and alone this app can give you peace of mind. We have an ancient yellow
labrador retriever who tends to sneak up to the window behind me as I work and
bellow out a heart-stopping bark. I found VM Alert to be 100% accurate at
warning me of his approach. I also used it to alert me when my teenager arrived
home in the evening.
by Voxilate
Remember walkie-talkies? HeyTell is the ultimate cross
between walkie-talkies and texting. It connects to people in your contacts list
and sends an email or text asking them if they want to communicate with you.
Once they accept, all that you need to do is press a button and speak. Once you
release the button your voice message is sent. The interface is clean and works
perfectly with VoiceOver. HeyTell is a great way to send a quick message and
communicate with one another on the run.
by Sixth Mode Solutions
This feature-rich application allows users to record and
organize lists using audio or text. List Recorder is designed to integrate with
VoiceOver as well as Braille displays. Replay, sort, delete or email recordings
with ease using custom gestures such as tilt and tap. The recording quality is
excellent and the app has options such as a level meter, optional stereo and
your choice of recording formats. The light version, which limits the user to
10 seconds per recording, is a great way to test List Recorder. If you like it,
you have the option of buying the full version for $7.99 as an in-app purchase.
by IQ Engines
oMoby searches the Internet using photos taken with your
iPhone camera and works well with VoiceOver. We tested it by using a photo of
our laptop mouse. It correctly identified it as a Logitech mouse. We were then
presented with options to shop or search for more information. oMoby allows use
of images from the iPhone photo library and supports some code scanning. We
found it to be slower than using Google Search verbally, however oMoby could be
very useful because of its unique image recognition. Lastly, oMoby is free, so
you have nothing to lose by trying it.
by ROCHCI
Wish you had someone handy to tell you what something was
or to clarify something any time of the day or night? VizWiz is an amazing
application that is extremely effective. Simply take a picture of any object
and record your question. Then select whom you wish to send it to. Your choices
are Web Worker, IQ Engine, email or Twitter. Web worker is a human volunteer
who will review and answer your question. In testing we took a photo of a
bottle of foundation makeup. We then asked "Is there any sunscreen in this
foundation?" In less than 30 seconds we received an accurate answer from a
Web Worker "Yes, the foundation has 15 SPF sunscreen. Another choice for
response is IQ Engine, a character reader. The response from the IQ Engine was
to recite the product UPC code. While the IQ Engine was not accurate, we do see
where it could be handy for getting serial numbers or other numerical data.
Email allows you to send your question to someone you know from your contacts
and Twitter will tweet your question to your followers. We were impressed by
VizWiz, and did we mention it is free?
by Evernote
Evernote has been around nearly since the beginning of
the AppStore. This powerhouse application stores voice notes, photographs and
text so that they can be accessed from multiple devices. Photographs are
scanned for text which can then be searched. Evernote has VoiceOver support.
by Avantar LLC
Yellow Pages is a free app that allows you to search via
voice for a business or person nearby. Once located, the number and information
can either be added to your contacts or called directly. It works in the United
States. It also has a ratings feature for businesses and offers movie times for
theaters.
by Urbanspoon
Use the GPS on your iPhone to find a great restaurant
nearby. Urbanspoon allows searching by type of food, ratings or distance, or
you can simply shake your iDevice to find a random eatery. Add reviews for
others to see when you go out. Urbanspoon takes the guesswork out of choosing a
restaurant and has full VoiceOver support.
by Nuance Communications
If you are not fortunate enough to own an iPhone 4S with
Siri, Dragon Dictation is vital. Do not have time to use your iPhone keyboard
with VoiceOver? Simply speak, adding punctuation as needed verbally, and Dragon
Dictation will type it up in an instant and copy it to your clipboard. This app
has a small learning curve and is truly essential. Best of all it is offered
for free!
by Essency
For the visually impaired using headphones, Awareness!
The Headphone App, is essential. It allows you to listen to your headphones
while also hearing the sounds around you. It uses the microphone to feed in
noises as you listen to music or use another app. Hear a car approaching or a
doorbell ringing! Using Awareness, you will not miss those vital audio clues
that keep your day on track.
by Yoctoville
It is important to be organized when visually impaired.
Unfortunately, many of the organizational apps are not VoiceOver friendly. On
the suggestion of a reader we tested out Alarmed ~ Reminders, Timers, Alarm
Clock. To our delight we found that it is a very user friendly app and is fully
accessible with VoiceOver. What makes it truly awesome to us it that it is
really several important apps in one. It has a robust notes area with reminders
and a "nag me" mode that is brilliant at repeating an alarm until you
shut it off. It has a multi-feature timer, alarm clock with snooze option and a
sleep alarm. All give a choice of a lot of sounds- many of which are fun and
off-beat. It also has a flashlight, if you triple tap on the open clock control
panel VoiceOver will say, "the flashlight is on." The app is offered
for free because the developer feels that people should be able to try out an
app before you buy it. Through an in-app purchase you can unlock advanced
features. For $1.99 you will get more alarm sounds as well as the ability to
set interval timers for doing repetitive chores, switching laundry or to just
get up and exercise. This app has a very well deserved 5 star rating.
by WhatsApp Inc.
Would you love to have an accessible, easy texting app
that automatically adds your contacts from your address book? What if it had no
data limits and used your regular phone number so you would not have to
remember passwords or logins? Meet WhatsApp Messenger, a free and easy way to
chat with your friends as much as you want. It even allows group chats and
saves any messages you get while not on your phone or off the application so
you never miss a text.
by WeatherBug
Need to know the local weather forecast? How about a
warning for severe weather so you will not be caught unprepared? WeatherBug
offers up-to-date weather reports and a forecast for the next 24 hours or the
next week. If you are a weather buff, it will even tell you the barometric
pressure, dew point and humidity.
by No Tie, LLC
Wouldn't it be helpful to really personalize ring tones
for each of your contacts and have the ring announce the caller? AutoRingtone
Pro Text To Speech CallerID Ringtones allows you to do just that! It is fully
accessible via VoiceOver and the navigation and instructions are clear. You can
even choose from different voices and control the speed that the voice speaks.
by C.B. Liu
Feeddler RSS Reader Pro is the ultimate RSS reader. It
caches articles for off line reading and allows you to star, unstar, mark all
as read and much more. You can add notes and lets you post to Facebook too.
Pretty much any feature you could hope for in your RSS reader, Feeddler has. It
even works with Evernote. This app came strongly recommended by our low vision
readers, and we could not agree more.
by Adam Croser
Talking Scientific Calculator is just that, a talking
scientific calculator. It is easy to operate and very useful. It has different
voices to chose from or even allows you to record your own voice. There is a
free version to play with if you want to test it first. It works with VoiceOver
for the fully blind, or has a high contrast options for those with low vision.
by Stitcher, Inc.
Stitcher Radio allows you to create your own playable
station of all your favorite content. News like CNN, BBC, music and podcasts
are organized to listen to seamlessly like Pandora Radio. Stitcher also helps
you find new and interesting content by showing the other programs users are
listening to.
by Charmtech Labs, LLC.
** Please note that Capti is working on an upgrade to fix
bugs that effect voiceover. The update should be available soon. Please watch
the Capti AppStore Page for information.** Capti Web Player is a web reader
that allow you to create a "playlist" to read later. It works great
with Instapaper.com and eBooks such as those found on Gutenberg.org. It has a
built in browser and it is fully accessible with VoiceOver. Capti extracts main
content from web pages and automatically loads articles that are split into
multiple web pages. You can add a web page to the playlist by press-and-holding
a link to that web page (double-tap and hold with Voice Over).
by Evil Genius Technologies
Having low vision can be frustrating, especially when
friends and family cannot relate. For those suffering from macular
degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma or cataracts, there is now an app
that will show sighted people the world through your eyes. VisionSim, developed
by the Braille Institute, turns on the camera of the iPhone with filters the
lens with distortion that mimics the selected eye condition. On the screen for
each filter there is a "learn more" button with information. This app
is well though out and is offered for free.
by Blacktree
Do you miss the days of clocks and watches that chimed
the current time? It is easy to lose track of time, so when an AppAdvice reader
suggested Chime for this AppList I eagerly downloaded and set it. It has the
option to chime on the quarter, half or hour and there are different alerts to
chose from. Three are variations on a chirp and two are simulated human voices,
one female and one male. Chime is now always running on my iPhone and works
great.
by MotionX™
Navigon GPS used to hold this spot on our AppList until
the latest update rendered it inaccessible with VoiceOver. MotionX GPS is not
perfect but it will read turn by turn directions. It performed well while
walking. For $.99 you can test out the app for 30 days. After the trial period
there is an annual fee of $9.99. Additionally, several upgraded voices are
available, each as an in-app purchase.
by New & Popular
If you hear sirens approaching and are curious as to what
the emergency is, you now have an inside tool. Just turn on your iPhone and you
can use 5-0 Radio Pro Police Scanner to listen in on your local emergency
bands. Informative and interesting, 5-0 features live scanner feeds from over
35,000 fire, emergency, air traffic, railroad, police and more. If you want to
test it out there is a free version. This is a must-have app if you live in an
area that has the potential for natural disaster.
Taken from,
