A blind man with a white cane walks down the sidewalk. He is holding a mobile device in his hand and appears to be using it to gain information on his surroundings.

In 2009, Apple made the first smart device, the iPhone, accessible to the blind and Deafblind, and things have never been the same since. Since then, Android, Google and Windows have gotten on board with accessible mobile devices. People with disabilities ran with this newly accessible mainstream technology and are still coming up with new ways to utilize it to give them better access to the visual world.

As late at 2012, some service providers and disabled people were still unaware of how mobile devices could change lives. When Nik worked in a blindness training center, clients were getting issued $200+ digital voice recorders that could only record small bits of the user’s voice to keep notes on. Nik worked to get iPod Touches issued to the clients. For less money, these devices would not only let them voice record notes, plus do about 1000 other things. But people were skeptical. Its much easier to justify a “special device for the blind” than to justify a mainstream device that people listen to music on. iPods for blind clients? Nooooo. Thankfully, the powers that be were finally convinced and the revolution spread. Still today, almost a decade later, I see blind people and others who think we can’t use touch screens, or we can only make phone calls and text, or that mobile devices are just a convenient or frivolous device and not a necessity for the blind.

Of course a blind person can get along fine without a mobile device, Like everyone else, they did for thousands of years. But at some point, Nik and I once exclaimed to each other, “With a mobile device and a guide dog, being blind is almost inconsequential!” That might be a little exaggerated, but it definitely is closer to the truth than its ever been before. Here is a list of all the ways I can think of that a mobile device makes the world more accessible for the Blind and Deafblind. This list far from being a complete list (*see disclaimers at the end of article!). How do you use your device to make the world accessible? Please feel free to add to this list.

Travel:

• Navigation apps, such as Blindsquare, provide point by point walking directions and also give real-time information about street names, businesses, landmarks and other environmental information. Walk down the street and it will tell you what intersection you are at, what stores are on the corner, and which direction your destination is along with how many feet away it is. You can also make your own markers (say to find your way back to a meeting point or ride pick up point)
• Google Maps and more local transit apps provide real time bus stop information and arrival times, as well as trip planners and directions to the nearest transit stop.
• Many cities have local apps that allow tickets and passes to be purchased and managed within the app.
• Rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft (and cab apps like Curb) allow users to preplan trips and get quick and affordable rides. The apps allow you to communicate directly with the driver and tell them where to look for you. GPS gives information to the driver so the blind person doesn’t have to try to explain where to go when they can’t see. Fares are taken care of through the app so the passenger doesn’t have to deal with cash or inaccessible card kiosks.
• For guide dog users, apps like “Where to go” give information on where to break your dog when traveling at an airport or train station. The NAGDU (National Association of Guide Dog Users) app provides all applicable guide dog laws at your fingertips and a hotline to call in the case of access denials.
• Amtrak, Greyhound, and many airline and hotel apps (i.e. Expedia) can help look at schedules and plan trips, keep confirmation numbers and tickets accessible, etc.
• Google maps does a very nice job of finding intercity public transit options so you don’t have to figure out multiple city transit websites and schedules. Although the map portion. itself is visual, the transit directions are very thorough and accessible.
• Apps like Find Friends (and just plain texting) help blind people (and others!) find each other for meet-ups.

Dealing with Print:

• KNFB reader guides you to scan documents, mail, and any printed matter and then processes them using optical character recognition and reads them to you or allows you to read them in Braille
• Many book reading apps help to read all kinds of print material. Voice Dream, iBooks, Kindle, and others are accessible apps for reading books, magazines and other documents. BARD is the  app provided by the Library of Congress Talking Book Library to check out and read library books via recorded human voice, braille, or digital voice. Many local libraries have apps such as Libby that allow digital books to be checked out and read via screen reader as well.
• NFB Newsline allows you to subscribe to (for free!) and read newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.
• When visiting restaurants, menus can be read with your device in a variety of ways. Google has many menus, and most individual restaurants have menus on their websites.
• Cloud document organizers like Dropbox, Evernote and others allow scanned and saved documents to be carried with you and read on any device. Labeling and tagging your mail and other important documents and organizing them into proper files within these apps mean you have complete control over your printed mail and documents and never have to wonder what papers your dealing with again.

Visual Assistance:

• Need a pair of eyes on occasion? There are several apps to help you “see” so you don’t have to constantly bother your sighted loved ones. Seeing AI will read documents, bar codes on grocery items, tell you when lights are on or off, tell you what colors things are, and tell you what a picture has in it. This is artificial intelligence (hence the AI) and so it is not always completely accurate (especially on pictures) but its improving all the time.
• Be My Eyes uses volunteers to “see” for you for a few minutes at a time for specific tasks. You put out the request for help, and a volunteer gets access to your camera and can tell you what they see. We’ve used this for things like figuring out what is going on on the computer screen when it is malfunctioning (and not reading to us), helping us out of a construction jam, and even helping us unlock a combination lock that accidentally got set to lock.
• For more intensive, longer-duration tasks requiring visual information, try Aira. Aira is a service you pay for. Several subscription levels give you so many minutes a month of personal assistance via a live agent who accesses your phone camera or special glasses provided by Aira. The operator will help you match your clothes, find your way around a complex travel situation, read your mail, help you shop, almost anything you want. Now, Aira is working with public places like Airports to provide free Aira service to any customer in those locations, even if you don’t have a subscription. We have used it to find our gate at the airport and it worked quite well.

Shopping and Money Handling:

• Online grocery delivery shopping sites abound, depending on your location. These services and apps make shopping a breeze. Instacart, Amazon Now, and Shipt are just a few. Safeway, Jet, Amazon and many other stores make it possible to shop online and get items delivered. The descriptions of items and ability to ask questions help blind folks better understand what they are buying.
• For wardrobe help, there are many personal stylists apps out there that allow you to work with a stylist to find coordinated outfits for you. Front Door Fashions, Trunk Club, and Stitch Fix are a few that have offered accessible apps with responsive stylists that are willing to work with you to describe and match clothes in your wardrobe.
• Handling money is much easier now with a variety of apps. Seeing AI and other apps can identify paper money. Apple Pay and other services can make getting through the checkout line easy without having to wrestle with inaccessible card machines, and most banks now allow banking to be done entirely within their apps.  This has allowed blind people to bank privately like never before.
• Also, apps like Square can help you both check out at a point of sale or, if you are on the other side of shopping as a clerk or business owner, it will help you accessibly check people out. Along with accessible invoicing, receipts, bill of sale, even appointment scheduling. (There are so many things mobile devices can help with in a wide range of employment, its too much to go into here. Maybe another post?)

Health and Fitness:

• In the past, medical information such as test results and doctors notes were not often available privately to the blind. Now with many physicians using “MyChart” type services, blind people can see their test results, email their doctors and manage billing an appointments online and with apps.
• Although there has long been talking medical devices like scales, blood pressure monitors and blood glucose monitors, it was not very private and often these items were expensive and bulky. Now, many devices such as these can be controlled via apps. Mainstream devices like scales, pulse oximeters, heart rate monitors, blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors, thermometers, etc. can bluetooth to mobile devices and relay data as well as keep track of long term data trends. Not all devices are created equally accessible, so its best to ask around and see what other blind people have found workable or make sure you can return a product that doesn’t work.
• Apple’s Healthkit (and there are other versions of this available) make it easy to keep all of your pertinent medical information available. Insurance numbers, allergies, medical alerts, medical records, emergency numbers, doctors numbers, etc. can all be kept for your own reference or that of others if you are incapacitated in an emergency.
• Fitness bands like Fitbit or an Apple Watch are accessible for the blind (Fitbit watches are not directly accessible, but are via the app. Apple Watch includes VoiceOver.) Food tracking (most will scan barcodes!), fitness tracking, sleep, heart rate, weight, and other information can be tracked to help meet your health goals. The cardio machines at the gym might not tell you this information if you can’t see their screens, but now your watch can.
• Fitness apps like Blind Alive and Eyes Free Fitness run you through accessible fitness routines. Mainstream apps like Fitbit Coach and Daily Burn also have audio workouts that aren’t specifically made for the blind, but some people have some success with them. There are several Couch25K programs that work well either on treadmill, a running track or out in the wild to motivate you to run.
• There are many accessible meditation apps, like Calm, that are audio stress relievers.

Around the house:

• Recipe apps have made it easier to cook and shop with searchable databases, accessible step-by-step directions, and automated shopping lists. One we especially like is eMeals, which offer weekly menus, a shopping list, and will import your shopping list to Instacart automatically. Although a little pricier, apps such as Home Chef or Blue Apron provide recipes AND ship you the premeasured ingredients and make for a convenient, fun way to cook healthful meals.
• As mentioned before, Seeing AI is a workhorse that helps in many situation. It will read the directions on the back of a box of cake mix, read your cans for you, and even let you know if your kitchen lights are on or if the oven has been turned off.
• Task Rabbit is an app that might be available in your area. Its a way to hire local people to help you out with almost any task. We have used them to pick up used items and take them to donation drop offs, take things to the dump, help with odd jobs around the house, and help move items that were too big for us to carry on the bus.
• Angie’s List is another app that can point you to pre-vetted contractors and repair tradespeople.

Social and Entertainment:

• Actiview is an app that provides both video description and close captioning at movie theaters. Not all movies are available, but their are more and more movies becoming available as time goes on.
• Netflix is accessible and provides video description for many of its movies and shows. (The newer, the more likely its available, but the library is growing.) I don’t use them, but I’m sure many others like Hulu and Amazon video have a share of video described options as well. If you are watching a Netflix movie at someone else’s house, try pressing play on your device at the same time they press play on their TV. You can have personal descriptions and captioning if others don’t want to hear it.
• Xfinity Streaming is an app that might help those with Xfinity cable television navigate their TV directory.
• Many music apps are accessible…and bone conduction headphones such as Aftershokz are worn outside the ear canal and are a popular way for blind people to use their devices with headphones and still be able to hear the ambient noise and keep themselves more aware.
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other social media apps are accessible or largely accessible for blind and deafblind folks and create opportunities for socializing, mobilizing and working and playing together.

For the Deafblind:

• Much of the above that is available for the blind is also available for the deaf blind via a refreshable braille display bluetoothed to the device. Anything that can be read with voiceover can usually be read with a braille display. A note of warning, though: Some apps use their own internal voice function, such as BlindSquare and Voice Dream. This often is not workable or extremely clumsy to use with a braille display. Although Voice Dream’s issues can be circumvented by using iBooks or Kindle (and ePub digital books), Blindsquare is a bit of a problem. (We are trying to work with the developers on this, because I REALLY want to use Blindsquare with a braille display!) Instead, I stick to Google maps or even Apple Maps.
• An Apple iPhone has a built in TTY function that can be used with Braille display. Sprint Relay also has apps that allow for text-based TTY calls. Of course, texting can be used for this purpose too, when available. For Deafblind people who prefer Video Relay or Video calls, IP Relay and Skype (for direct non-relay calls) are available as well as FaceTime and others.
• A braille display with iPhone can be used as a communication device for the Deafblind. Using an app such as messaging or notes, a person can type to the Deafblind person and she or she can read it with the braille display and then either respond via messaging or voice.
• An Apple Watch has a lot of haptic (tactile) function for a Deafblind person. Text and call indicators can be felt, so you don’t have to have your phone touching you 24 hours a day. A watch can be used to “feel” point by point directions with vibrating indicators for right and left. The watch can also be used as an alarm clock, cooking timer, and a signaling system for doorbells and fire alarms (additional products from the “home” line of products that work with doorbells and alarms need to be purchased.)

*This list is obviously incomplete and the number of handy apps that make the world more accessible for the blind or deaf blind is endless. I also want to mention that any products mentioned here are just those that I have found useful. I am not an official spokesperson for these products and this is not a sponsored post. I encourage you to comment or add to my list and share what has worked (or not worked) for you. This list is just a start of what is available and what is to come. I’m sure this list will be outdated in three months!