Looking at creating an IOS app, any ideas?

By Tristo, 22 November, 2022

Forum
App Development and Programming

Hi all, I'm interested in creating an IOS app that helps blind and low vision users. I am blind myself, however I thought I'd ask you all what apps you would all like to see on the app store. Any ideas appreciated.

Options

Comments

By yorkshire-drew on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

Would it be possible to create an app that gives a person the civil twilight times for their locality? I don’t mean sunset, as it’s still quite light then. Such an app with alerts would be really useful to tell the totally blind when to close the drapes etc. Thanks in advance.

By Siobhan on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

I'd love an app that when severe weather, like thunderstorms are around, there can be something to track the local radar. I don't know how that would work, or if it is even a possibility but that's what I was thinking about. I've thought of it forever. every time i see the lightning notification, and the "track local radar" notifications, this idea comes up.

By Paweł Masarczyk on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

Hello!

Congratulations on the idea to consult the community to find the best solution. I will be sure to pass it along in my network of contacts.

One thing that is definitely missing and would be of great help is an accessible Telegram client which sounds like a lot of work but there is the API to make this happen. It would be a tremendous help to blind iOS users from Ukraine and those in other countries who help them out as this is one of the most popular channels of communication over there.

Should this be too complex, I am sure the other ideas will be a great source of inspiration for your project.

Good luck and I look forward to testing your prototype of the idea you'll choose.

By CuriousNetEntity on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

I know this is likely a big difficult ask, but it would be incredibly useful to have an app that would read those segmented digital displays. Current OCR apps can read printed and handwritten text very well, but they can't read the ubiquitous digital displays on every appliance and measuring tool out there.
No hope of reading the time left on the microwave, instant pot, or washing machine. What temp is the oven set to. Who knows. Better hope you counted correctly when you hit the plus button 15 times.
Every measuring device and sensor in existence has a $200 bluetooth version that might or might not have an accessible app or a $10 version no blind person cannot use because it has a "large easy to read" digital display.
It would be best if the app only read what was on these displays and not the ordinary text labeling the buttons around them.
I saw someone did develop an app for this, but it never made it to the AppStore.

By Jonathan Candler on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

First, yall need to consider if this guy can even code and if he knows how to even program and how to use Ids, compilers and so on and so forth. XCode anyone? Do you know swift? Good, c plus plus? good but not required. Python all though not required? No? It's okay. If you don't know at least swift and at least the knowledge of know how, that's not looking good for ya my guy. I don't know the op at all but I'm hoping I'm wrong on all counts and if you do know programming, congrats! The reason I'm asking all of this is, 1. You don't wanna make yourself look like an idiot and find out that you're not able to do something that well, either the community expects because, ah, you know how some people are or... Don't make yourself feel stupid because you don't know enough to even code such a basic app. I haven't gotten in to the art of IOS app development because I haven't had yet the time or what not to learn what I wanna know before I dive in. I specialize in web and server side programming. Done a bit of C but that's been a long long time ago and way before swift was a thing. May wanna learn and refresh myself on some stuff. I'm not saying all of this to be mean, I'm simply stating if you don't know what you're getting yourself into, that's a bad vibe all around. I've really honestly never really, heard of this poster even mentioned anywhere on this forum that he knows programming or what not. Not saying that that should be a thing or whatever, However, I'd like to be wrong on all of this! If you don't know programming yet, that's okay, just get learning, do some exercises, practice, know your language syntax, learn about if statements, loops, wile loops, variables, arrays and that should be enough to get you started. I'm probs missing a couple but you get the idea. Again, I'm not trying to come off as being a mean person by any means, just wanting to in the proverbial saying of sayings, make sure? As it were...

By Cordelia on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

When iOS 16 was released, I read that some people reported sluggish input/output of Braille when using Braille displays. Has this problem been solved in the meantime? -- Thanks.

By Tristo on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions, I have a lot to consider. In reply to an above comment about my ability to code, I'm nearly finished a bachelor of IT at JCU in Townsville Queensland Australia. I've learned so many coding languages and skills. While I still have a lot to learn about IOS apps, I'll hopefully create an app that will help people with blindness and low vision all over the world.

By Laura Tosetto on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 14:16

Just wanted to let you know that an app that tells you when civil twilight has occurred in your location already exists: it is called Sundial. It gives you a whole lot more information about solar events, such as sunrise, noon etc, and you can set notifications for each of them. So you can set a notification for civil twilight so that when it comes in, it's time to close the drapes. It's not a blind specific app but it's fully accessible.
As for the app you're looking to build, I'll add my vote for the display reading idea. That would be so useful! I'm not a programmer, but I suppose that would be a quite challenging task, as we all know that kind of OCR hasn't been accomplished yet. Doesn't mean maybe it can be done in some way though. If you come up with a solution and create an app for that, I will get it for sure.