Upon the requests of some of our readers here in EdTech and mLearning we went ahead and curated for you this selection of some very good iPad apps to use with blind and visually impaired students. While some of the featured apps are free, others are are not. You may want to go through the collection (see links and apps description below the visual) and see what works for you. This work is based on Apple's Accessibility Apps Collection in iTunes App Store.
This visual is also available for free download in PDF format from this link.
1- TapTapSee - Blind & Visually Impaired Camera
2- Voice Dream Writer
‘Voice Dream Writer helps everyone write better: Text-to-speech proofreading reduces mistakes, phonetic and meaning search help you use the right words, and an active outline helps you organize and improve the structure of your writing.’
3- Be My Eyes – Helping blind see
‘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.’
4- knfbReader
‘Take a photo, the app reads the text in clear synthetic speech or with a connected Braille display. It’s as simple as that. The app also has synchronized text highlighting which reads along with the displayed text, a benefit for people with dyslexia and other reading disabilities.’
5- BlinSquare
‘BlindSquare is a new solution that combines the latest technology to help the blind with their daily lives. It has been developed in collaboration with blind people and carefully field tested. You need either an iPhone or an iPad to get started. It also supports some additional accessories to enhance the experience.’
6- MBraille
‘MBraille brings you a mobile braille keyboard. With the free features you can type, edit and send tweets and text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille.’
7- NantMobile Money Reader
‘NantMobile Money Reader instantly recognizes currency and speaks the denomination, enabling people experiencing visual impairments or blindness to quickly and easily identify and count bills. Point the camera of your iOS device at a bill and the application will tell you the denomination in real-time.’
8- Color Identifier
‘Color Identifier uses the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch to speak the names of colors in real-time. It's a new Augmented Reality app for discovering the names of the colors around you!’
9- Light Detector
‘Light Detector transforms any natural or artificial light source it encounters into sound. Light Detector is easy to use! Just run the application and point your iPhone camera in any direction. You will hear a higher or lower sound depending on the intensity of the light.’
10- Digit-Eyes Lite
‘Digit-Eyes Lite allows you to read Digit-Eyes QR (Quick-Response) text bar code labels. It can be upgraded to read UPC / EAN labels as well. You can make and read your own labels, too! Using the Digit-Eyes website, you'll be able to create a PDF file of Digit-Eyes QR bar codes that each contain up to 250 characters of text’
11- Seeing Assistant Home
‘Seeing Assistant Home allows the users to color recognition, detection of the light source and partially visually impaired people to use electronic loupe. Allows the users to scan and generate barcodes and QR codes. Seeing Assistant Home has been developed in close co-operation visually impaired people in order to address their needs as well as possible.’
12- BARD Mobile
‘The BARD Mobile app provides access to braille and talking books directly from the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD). BARD contains nearly 80,000 books, magazines, and music scores in audio and braille formats, with new selections added daily.’
