LookTel Money Reader, KNFB Reader & Be My Eyes: Apps that help the blind
Without asking a sighted person, how does a blind individual differentiate between a $1 bill and a $100? How does a visually impaired person read their prescription labels?No, this is not one of those Singaporean logic problems that recently took the world by storm. They’re common questions I and other visually impaired people get whenever we meet sighted people who are curious about how we go about our mundane everyday tasks.I say, thank God for technology.Technology is a big part of our lives, and perhaps those of us without sight depend on it even more. I use my Macbook to write, email, create recipes, and curate menus. I use JAWS to post blog entries and conduct web research, among other work. I use my iPhone to post on social media, communicate (obviously), and read the news. I also utilize a few specialized apps designed with the blind in mind. Life ain’t easy when you’re blind, but it’s made just a tad easier with the help of certain technologies.I have an iPhone and love it for its VoiceOver screen reader function. I have the following apps on my iPhone to help me with those simple tasks that so many sighted people take for granted.
LookTel Money Reader
I use this simple yet amazing app to figure out my cash. I’ve blogged about Money Reader before, and it’s still something I use several years later.What it is: An app that identifies currency.How it works: LookTel Money Reader uses your iPhone camera to read and identify different bills. The denomination appears on the screen in extra-large text, and a voice speaks it aloud.Why I like it: It’s very easy to use, and it’s quick. You don’t have to hold the bill right-side up, which would be a challenge for anyone who’s blind. The app is pretty good at capturing and identifying the bill with a quick hover—it delivers the information in realtime. It’s practically plug-and-play so no annoying ads or complicated menus to deal with. Money Reader can even identify foreign currency: I pleasantly discovered this when I went to Toronto and tried it out on a Canadian dollar.How it can be better: The only improvement I can think of for now is if it could also print cash on demand whenever I’m at the mall. Oh, and if it could support more foreign currency, like the Vietnam dong since I go there a lot. Oh, and just be cautious when using it in public as everyone around you will know how rich/poor you are.Cost: $9.99 in the Apple app storeGet LookTel Money Reader for your iPhone.
KNFB Reader
This is the most recent addition to my Accessibility folder on my iPhone, and I find myself using it on a regular basis, sometimes with ease, sometimes with frustration.What it is: An app that audioscribes printed text.How it works: It uses the iPhone camera and OCR (optical character recognition) technology to scan text and transcribe it into audio.Why I like it: I bother the hubs less often during his workday with texted photos and Facetime asking, “What the hell does this say?” It offers more independence--I don’t have to rely on another human. While the feedback is not in realtime (it has to scan and process before reading back the transcription), it’s still fairly quick to use.How it can be better: A caveat first: I haven’t completely figured out how to use this app to its fullest capability since it’s the newest one on my phone, so perhaps my ideas for improvement are arbitrary. I haven’t had the time to go through the tutorial nor read the instructions (I guess I could complain that it’s not plug-and-play), but I’ve been using it nonetheless to read food labels, receipts, and business cards. KNFB Reader is supposed to be able to transcribe text in spite of the font, but I’ve found it not always so accurate when, say, reading spice jar labels. I’m not sure if it’s the curvature of the jar or the font selection of the spice company, but oftentimes I’ve spent more than five minutes trying to figure out which spice is which to no avail. (Before you ask how come a MasterChef can’t tell spices by smelling or tasting it, I will say I usually can, but when they’re unfamiliar spices I don’t cook with often or if I’ve been cooking with a lot of them and my senses are fatigued, it’s hard to tell. Besides, who wants to risk taking a big whiff of cayenne?)Cost: $99.99 on the Apple app store, although I'd caught it on sale for 50% off—it ain’t cheap, which is why I have higher expectations. Overall, I’m still glad I have it for things like reading boxed labels or random papers on my desk.Get the KNFB Reader for your iPhone.
Be My Eyes
What it is: An app that helps the blind see.How it works: Using the camera and microphone, the app connects blind users with sighted volunteers in realtime video chat for visual assistance like simple identification or reading that would require a set of working eyes.Why I like it: It comes in handy when KNFB Reader fails me.How it can be better: Sometimes there’s a long wait to connect to someone. Of course, this isn’t necessarily the app’s fault—it all depends on the number of blind users versus the number of sighted volunteers—but last I checked, the variance was pretty vast. (Surprisingly, I recall the number of blind users to be significantly less than the pool of sighted helpers.) Also, there’s the issue of privacy; it’s not like I would want to use Be My Eyes for help on credit card bills.Cost: Free on the Apple app storeGet Be My Eyes on your iPhone.Dear blind readers, have you used any of these apps? Which other apps for the blind do you find useful?