AI is rapidly changing the world of work, rest and play, including for people living with disabilities. It can help with a wide range of challenges, from visual impairments to mobility issues. From a text to speech app to AI that helps you automate your home, apps for people living with disabilities can help you get more out of life.

In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the best apps currently available to help you improve communication, navigation, and access to information.

#1 Apps for people living with disabilities – Lookout and Seeing AI

When it comes to the success of apps for people living with disabilities, assisted vision apps have made a huge impact. Here’s a couple to explore:

Lookout

Google’s accessibility app Lookout has been around for a few years, and in that time has helped thousands of blind and visually impaired people navigate the world with more independence. It uses your phone’s camera to identify objects and surroundings, and then speaks them aloud so you can hear them. It can also be used to control your phone with gestures, so you don’t have to touch the screen.

It’s available for free on the Google Play Store and is compatible with Android devices running Android 6 or higher. See more below:

Seeing AI

Seeing AI is like Lookout, but for iPhones and iPads. Like Lookout, it helps people with low vision or blindness see the world around them. It uses your phone’s camera to identify objects, people, and text, and then verbally points them out so you can hear them. It can also translate languages.

Speaking of phones, have you tried these fantastic smartphone accessibility features?

#2 Apps for people living with disabilities – IFTTT

Automation apps for people living with disabilities can be very useful. IFTTT stands for “If this, then that.” This app allows you to create custom automations that can be triggered by events or actions. For example, you could create an automation that turns on your lights when you arrive home, or that reads your emails aloud when you receive them.

This is particularly useful if you have trouble using your hands, limited mobility, difficulty reading, or vision or hearing impairments. It’s also great for those living with invisible disabilities or problems with memory as it automates things you’d ordinarily have to remember.

IFTTT has a large library of triggers and actions that you can use to create your automations. Some of the most popular triggers include:

• Time: Create automations that are triggered by specific times of day, such as turning on your coffee maker in the morning or turning off your lights at night.
• Location: Automations that are triggered by your location, such as turning on your alarm when you arrive at work or turning off your sprinklers when you leave your house.
• Events: Automations that are triggered by events, such as sending yourself a notification when your favourite team wins a game or posting a photo to social media when you arrive at a new location.

IFTT is available on the iStore and Google Play Store.

#3 Apps for people living with disabilities – Ava

Ava is a popular speech to text app for people living with disabilities. This AI-powered app helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing follow conversations in real time. Ava is available for free on the App Store and Google Play and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

Here are some of its features:

• Real-time transcription: Can transcribe speech to text in real time, so you can follow conversations as they happen.
• Live captioning: Ava can live caption video calls, meetings, and other events. This is helpful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to participate in these events.
• Customisation: Ava can be customised to meet your unique needs for a speech to text app. For example, you can choose the language that Ava transcribes in and you can choose the speed at which Ava speaks.

#4 Apps for people living with disabilities – Access Now and WheelMap

These two apps for people living with disabilities help those who use wheelchairs find accessible spaces.

Access Now is a non-profit organisation that develops and maintains a crowdsourced database of accessible places around the world. The database includes information on wheelchair accessibility, hearing aid accessibility, and other accessibility features. Their mobile app make it easy to find accessible places, and the crowdsourced database is constantly being updated with new information.

Wheelmap is a free app that helps people with mobility disabilities find wheelchair-accessible places around the world. It uses crowdsourced data to provide information on the accessibility of over 100 million places, including restaurants, shops, hotels, and public transportation.

It’s available in over 50 languages, and it has over 1 million users worldwide! Wheelmap has consistently been ranked as one of the best apps for people with disabilities, and it has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Wired.

#5 Apps for people living with disabilities – SymboTalk

SymboTalk is among the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system apps for people living with disability.

By this we mean it uses symbols to help people with communication disorders express themselves. The app has predefined communication boards from different areas of life, and each board contains symbols. Clicking on a symbol reads it aloud and adds it to a sentence that can also be read. This way SymboTalk can be your voice and talk for you.

Confused? Here’s more on SymboTalk:

Read more from our blog

Interested in all things disability? Our blog has a wide range of articles on many topics, including:

• The Latest Innovations in Assistive Technology Today
• These Toys with Disabilities are Helping Teach Inclusivity
• Australia’s Best Wheelchair Accessible Restaurants
• Respite Care – What It Is and How To Get It
• Disability Art Creators and Organisations Across Australia
• How to Create an Accessible Home
• Car Modifications for People with Disability

Smart insurance for your independence

Now you have the rundown on some of the most popular apps for people living with disabilities, why not look into protecting other tools and equipment that improve your accessibility. Like your wheelchair and WAV, for example.

At Blue Badge Insurance, we offer cost-effective wheelchair insurance, mobility scooter insurance and car insurance for wheelchair accessible vehicles and disability converted cars too. Have a DPP? We give customers up to 25% off our disability car insurance, which includes cover for modifications and mobility equipment that you list on your policy. That way if your wheelchair or mobility scooter are in your car during an accident or theft your plan can help pay to repair or replace these as well.

Why not click below to get a quick quote today?