

With everyone banging on about how great iPhones are, spare a thought

for those of us who can’t see their fiddly little screens. Here are my

top five free apps for visually impaired Android users.

Catch Notes

This is your basic note-taking and memo app. It’s infuriating to try

and take notes on a touchscreen phone, especially if you are visually

impaired. But with the app’s compatibility with Google’s latest voice

recognition software, it can transcribe your natural speech in real

time. Great for budding novelists – and just think, even with the

occasional lapses in accuracy, you’ll still write better than

Stephanie Meyer.

Walky Talky

There are dozens of free satnav apps out there, but few of them are of

use to a visually impaired user who can’t drive, but need help with

navigation. What makes Walky Talky stand out from the pack is that it

is made for walking and using public transport. It constantly updates

you on your location – even down to the house number you’re walking

past, and vibrates if you’re going the wrong way.

Your Magnifying Glass

Using a smartphone to enlarge print is simple, yet ingenious. But Your

Magnifying Glass is simply brilliant. Utilising your phone’s camera,

you can zoom in and out over text, freeze the image, flip it, invert

the colours, light up the page with the camera’s flash, and then save

the image onto your Google Drive to view later.

Ideal Accessibility Installer

Beneath its clunky interface lie some great features for visually

impaired and blind Android users, including KickBack, SoundBack and

TalkBack. The installer allows the user to add audible, vibration and

spoken elements to any Android device.

Audioboo

There is a large visually impaired community on Audioboo, and the

Android app gives you access to everything that you would expect from

the site. It’s perfect for catching up with the audio version of the

Guardian, packages from Radio 4’s Today, and podcasts from all manner

of people – I recommend Sean Dilley and Documentally.