Apps for Children with Vision Loss

ACCESSING BOOKS

Audible – Free – Provides access to a variety audio books and podcasts recorded and narrated by actors.

BARD Mobile – Free – A service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), the BARD Mobile app provides access to braille and talking books directly from the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD).

Blind Abilities—Free—A collection of podcasts and blogs for the individuals suffering for a visual impairment. Life skills, teen blogs, and opportunities are all kept to date and easily accessible. 

Bookshare – Free –Provides students with reading disabilities access to an online digital library of over 500,000 titles.

KNFBReader – $99.00 – Converts printed text into high quality speech to provide “accurate, fast, and efficient” access to both single and multiple page documents. 

Learning Ally– Free – Provides access to a library of more than 65,000 audiobooks and is a great source for K-12 and college-level text books.

Read2Go– $19.99 – Browse, search, download, and read books directly from Bookshare using your Bookshare membership.

Spotlight Gateway – Free – An e-reading application specifically designed for people with vision loss.

Voice Dream Reader– $19.99 – Accessible reading tool with advanced text-to-speech and a highly configurable screen layout that can be tailored to auditory readers and visual readers.

Voiceye – Free – Reads text from images out loud. 

BRAILLE

Ballyland Magic App – $2.99 – Educational game that teaches touch gestures for VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader.  

Braille Pad – Free – Write SMS, mails, and social posts using braille code. 

MBraille Touch – Free – Type, edit and send tweets and text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille.

Braille Writer–$4.99—Translate between Braille and standard. Learning too l for all individuals with a visual impairment. 

PocketBraille Reference Lite—Free—Learn different braille symbols which includes alphabet, numbers and punction.

Smart Braille—Free—  Communicate via braille through the app. For android users.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Baby First Aquarium – Free – Interactive aquarium that plays music while users pop bubbles and tap on fish to make them swim faster.    

Bebot – $1.99 – Simple sound cause and effect app that makes funny synth robot sounds. Touch the screen and make the robot sing!

Cause & Effect Sensory Light Box – $3.99 – Abstract animations and sounds that introduce basic touch skills and awareness.

Doodle Kids – Free – Create drawings with special effects.

iLoveFireworks – $0.99 – Create beautiful firework displays.

Fluidity – Free – Encourages visual attention and interaction as users touch the screen to control fluid flow and color.

My Talking Picture Board – $19.99 –  This app helps children with CVI learn how to locate and recognize two dimensional images. Use your own images of people or favorite objects!

Tap-N-See Now – $2.99 –  The first app created specifically for children with CVI but the bright colors and pictures will also appeal to babies and young toddlers without CVI.

EARLY LEARNING

Photo Touch ABC – Free – Encourages letter recognition through interactive activities. 

See Touch Learn – Free – Customizable picture card learning activity.

See Touch Say – Free – Helps children learn about people and objects in their world. 

Sparkabilities– $2.99 – Encourages learning skills through videos and flash card sets.

GAMES

Audio Game Hub – Free – Arcade audio games that use audio as their primary interface making them accessible for both sighted and non-sighted users. Race against the clock and disarm bombs in Bomb Disarmer. Follow Simon as he leads you through unlocking complicated patters in Super Simon. Sit at the round table and enjoy a causal game of blackjack. Also: Animal escape, slot machines, archery, hunting, samurai tournament (multiplayer), Labyrinth, memory games, Bejeweled. 

A Blind Legend – Free – audio-only mobile video games available that is aimed at both sighted and non-sighted players. Using 3-diminsional sound, the game features a blind knight who must journey to the High Castle Kingdom to rescue his wife with the help of daughter Louise. Players navigate and interact with the game using touchscreen.

Blind Cricket – Free – Worlds first accessible cricket game for visually impaired.

Blindfold Solitaire – Free – Solitaire for visually impaired people, designed for rapid audio play to play by listening. 

Blindfold Word Games – Free – Word games for visually impaired including Hangman, Unscramble, Word Latter, Word Search and Word Flick. 

Blindscape– Free – videogame done entirely through sound.

Dusk – Free – Gaming experience designed for the blind but playable by everyone, series of mini games that do not require the use of sight. Uses a combination of movement sensors, vibration, sound, and voiceover. High contrast design. 

Match2Braille—Free—Like the game concentration, match the roman letter to the corresponding braille character.

IDENTIFICATION

Aria- – Free – Real time personal assistance via video.

Be My Eyes – Free – Connects individuals with vision loss with sighted volunteers who provide virtual assistance through a live video call.

BeSpecular – Free – Ask questions via photo upload or voice message and receive feedback via voicemail or text. 

Blindsquare – $39.99 – Describes the environment, announces point of interest and street intersections.

Color Detectors – Color Identifier ($.99), ColorDeBlind (Free) and Say Color (Free).

Color ID – Free – Color identifying tool.

EnvisionAI– – Free – Leverages artificial intelligence to recognize objects and people with the camera and then narrates it back. (Android compatible)

EyeNote – Free – Paper currency identifying tool. 

Facing Emotions—Free—Translates seven major emotions on the human face; anger, sadness, fear, disgust, happiness, surprise, contempt into corresponding sounds, allowing the visually impaired users to have a deeper connection with people they are talking to (must be used with Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro).

Google Lens- – Free – Translate text in real time, look up words, add events to your calendar, call a number, and more. 

Lookout – Free – Detects objects laying in the walking path through the camera phone.

Light Detector—Free—Turns light in sound. Higher or lower sound frequencies depending on the intensity of the light.

Object Identifiers – LookTel Recognizer ($9.99) and TapTapSee Blind & Visually Impaired Camera (Free) 

Say Color – Free – Color identifying tool.

SayText – Free – Reads out loud text from images.

ScriptTalk – Free – Identifies pharmacies that provide accessible labels on medication.

Seeing AI – Free – Narrates the world you by describing nearby people, text, and objects. 

Sullivan+ – Free – A visual-aid app to enhance the accessibility of the visually impaired and low vision users: AI mode, text recognition, face recognition, image description, color recognition, light brightness, magnifier. 

TapTapSee – Free – Identifies objects that users encounter in their daily lives.

Voice Dream Scanner—Free—Scan paper documents, labels, signs with your devices camera and recognize the text. With build in text-to-speech. 

Talking Calculator – Free – iPad or iPhone compatible app that provides speech for answers, button names, formulas, and full VoiceOver support. 

MAGNIFIER

Big Browser – Free—Allows users to adjust color themes and zoom in on content for an easier read. App is also equipped with a larger keyboard and controls that are easier to see. 

Brighter and Bigger—Free—A reading glass too for individuals struggling to read fine print. Application helps read small letters by enlarging them and making them brighter.

Lumin—Free—Magnifying apps that enlarges and brightens texts. High resolution glass that you can take anywhere. 

Magnifying Apps – Free – Brighter and Bigger, Mag Light/icam and Eyesight, Magnifer

Magnifying Glass with Light – Free – Allows users to magnify text or other objects up to 10x their natural size.

Magnificent – Free – Increases magnification up to 16x and offers color filter modes. 

Spotlight Text – Free – Adapts e-book to a higher magnifications and provides audio output.

WAYFINDING

Ariadne GPS – $4.99 – Provides directions for navigation using talking maps and an innovative interface.

Evelity: all-disability GPS—Free—Guides people with disabilities using step by step GPS.

Life360– Free – Family locator, messaging tool and communication app.

Lazarillo – Free – Provides GPS navigation.

Microsoft Soundscapes – Free – Provides information about surroundings with synthesized binaural audio, creating the effect of 3D sound.

NavCog – Free –app that allows the visually impaired to successfully navigate the world around them with turn-by-turn guidance not unlike GPS. 

Nearby Explorer – Free – Describes the environment in ways comparable to reading signage or observing road characteristics.

Seeing Eye GPS – Free – Provides GPS navigation.

NOTE TAKING

AccessNote – Free – iOS note taker, works in collaboration with VoiceOver. 

Dragon Anywhere – Free – Dictate your message, and Dragon types it out on the screen. Delivery options include text message, email, copy-and-paste, Facebook, and twitter.

Evernote – Free – Allows users to take notes, capture photos, create to-do-lists, and record voice reminders. 

MessagEase Keyboard – Free – A replacement for the QWERTY keyboard, which has larger keys to increase speed and accuracy when typing. 

KNFB Reader – $99.99 – Converts printed text into high quality speech to provide accurate, fast, and efficient access to documents. Picture accuracy is facilitated by a Field of View Report, Automatic Page Detection, and Tilt Control. It will determine the words and read them aloud in high quality text-to-speech and will also highlight text.

iTalk Recorder – Free – Edit and manage recordings.

SOUND

Baby Rattle Toy – Free for Android, $1.99 for iOS – Soothes and entertains children age 0 to 2 years.

Big Bright Keys – $0.99 – Create music by pressing the colorful buttons.

Bloom HD – $3.99 – Create elaborate patterns and melodies.

Finger Paint with Sound – Free – Paint with music or sound effects. 

Peekaboo Barn – $1.99 – Peekaboo game with farm animals and music. 

Talking Tom Cat – Free – Animated cat that repeats words and sounds to encourage vocalization and interaction with the tablet.

STORYTIME

Dr. Seuss’s ABC – Free – Interactive Dr. Seuss stories with sound effects and pages that turn automatically.

Tickle Finger in the Jungle – Free but $1.99 to finish the story – Highly interactive story, the reader must help Tiny Tinga the monkey get home by “tickling” various predators along the way.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Magic Ink Book – Free – Color the pages to advance through the interactive storybook. 

The Frog Prince Magic Ink Book – Free – Color the pages to advance through the interactive storybook. 

The Smelly Sprout – Free – Story of an outcast who finds his path and makes a friend. 

TECH SUPPORT

AppleVis – Online resources for blind and low vision users of Apple products such as the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV 

Apple Accessibility – The Apple Accessibility Support team is availabile to support users with vision loss using iOS devices.
Phone: 877-204-3930 

Google Accessibility Support -The Google Disability Support team is available to support users with vision loss using Google products. Support includes accessibility features, functionalities, and assistive technology in Google products.
Email: disability-support-external@google.com   

Microsoft Accessibility– The Microsoft Accessibility Support team is available to support users with vision loss using Microsoft devices. 

Phone: 800- 936-5900

VO Lab—Free—Learn the basics of iOS voiceover through educational and interactive activities and experiments. 

VO Change-VoiceOver changes—Free –Offers updates to the IOS voiceover.

Voice Over Video—Free—Add voice over and audio recordings to your videos.

*Lighthouse Guild does not endorse products.