We are about to see the release of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first mobile phone to come with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system installed. There are some well documented improvements offered by this new system such as unified applications for both mobile phones and tablet devices. There are however some features that are less well known and one of them is the support offered to visually impaired users.

Darwin Reader for Android

Darwin Reader app screenshot

Darwin Reader is the first accessible Android book reader designed specifically for blind, low vision, and print disabled users.  The app fully supports DAISY formatted audio and text books.

For the visually-impaired students of Bangalore University, lessons will become a tad easier as soon thanks to Shreedhar TS. The 23-year-old visually impaired lad from Karnataka has come up with an innovative idea which will benefit visually-impaired students whose mother tongue is Kannada.

Shreedhar, a second year degree student of Karnataka State Open University has incorporated Kannada script in 'Text to Speech' software, used by the visually-impaired.

The outcome: they can now convert their lessons from English to Kannada without any hassle.

Until a few days ago, Arjun and Althaf, Std X students of SMV School were at the mercy of their teachers to learn their daily lessons. Unlike other students of their class who had no problem following the new textbooks with changed syllabus, visually-impaired Arjun and Althaf who have not yet received the Braille texts had been struggling to keep up with their friends. “Not any more,” said the boys showing their audio CD packs which had recordings of all the lessons for their coming exams.

Aiding learning

A major television manufacturer is about to launch a new range of televisions which, they claim, will be completely accessible to visually impaired people.

Panasonic will launch new models of their sets that will include text-to-speech software built-in, without the need for a seperate set top box.

Viewers will also be able to access the Electronic Program Guide, menus and audio description - something that has never been available in a single solution.