The AppleVis Community Inducts Seeing AI and Weather Gods into its iOS App Hall of Fame

We are pleased to announce that the 2018 inductees into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame, as chosen by the AppleVis community, are Seeing AI and Weather Gods.

First opened in 2011, the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame is one of the ways in which the AppleVis community seeks to recognize developers of accessible iOS applications. Apps in the Hall of Fame can be liberating; empowering; life-changing; provide access to information that sighted users take for granted; or, in some cases, they can just be good fun!

In short, the iOS App Hall of Fame represents the best of the best in accessible iOS applications, as decided by the AppleVis community.

Voting for the 2018 iOS App Hall of Fame induction was held from Friday, May 11 to Friday, May 18, 2018 with seven apps shortlisted.

All of the shortlisted apps gained significant backing; showing how each was a worthy nominee and is highly regarded and valued by the AppleVis community. The two apps which ultimately received the most number of votes - and which will be inducted into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame - are Seeing AI and Weather Gods.

The 2018 Inductees into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame

Seeing AI

Beginning life as a research project to explore ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to enhance the lives of the vision impaired, Seeing AI harnesses the power of AI to describe text, objects and people.

Since it's launch in July 2017, the tools offered by Seeing AI have evolved and expanded, enabling many blind and low vision users to replace a number of standalone apps with this single app capable of performing multiple tasks.

From the App Store:

Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world and describe nearby people, text and objects.

Optimized for use with VoiceOver, the app enables you to recognize:

• Short Text - Speaks text as soon as it appears in front of the camera.
• Documents - Provides audio guidance to capture a printed page, and recognizes the text, along with its original formatting.
• Products - Scans barcodes, using audio beeps to guide you; hear the name, and package information when available. (works with iPhone 6 and later)
• People - Saves people’s faces so you can recognize them, and get an estimate of their age, gender, and emotions.
• Scenes (early preview) - Hear an overall description of the scene captured.
• Currency - Recognizes currency notes. (Requires iOS 11)
• Color - Identifies color.
• Handwriting - Reads handwritten text like in greeting cards
• Light - Generates an audible tone corresponding to the brightness in the surroundings.
• Images in other apps - Just tap “Share” and “Recognize with Seeing AI” to describe images from Mail, Photos, Twitter, and more.

Read more about Seeing AI
Download Seeing AI from the App Store

Weather Gods

This weather app for iOS takes a unique approach to presenting weather information, and VoiceOver support is a major consideration of the app's design with its developer engaging proactively with blind users to seek feedback and suggestions on how to enhance the user experience..

From the App Store:

Meet the Gods: Fire, Ice, Water, Air & Moon delivering you the Weather as you have never experienced it before. Weather Gods redefines the weather app with painstakingly crafted data visualizations, procedural graphics and audio that enable you to literally see, hear and feel the weather. With no more weather icons to decode, the Weather Gods is simply the quickest, most engaging, most enjoyable way to get the accurate weather information you need.

The Weather Gods skillfully integrates premium weather data into an elegant, iOS Exclusive, easy-to-use interface that will delight casual users and weather enthusiasts alike.

With a wealth of rich weather data from the world’s most respected providers, the Weather Gods provide detailed site-based forecasts for over a million locations worldwide. Our advanced, next-generation notifications are easy to setup and bring you exactly the information you want right when you need it.

With 24 hour charts, observed weather, built in moon phase, widget, world clock and much, much more, the Weather Gods is a powerful personal time machine that lets you travel the world and visit the future. Please come join us on this exciting journey as we begin our mission to bring you the finest, most practical, most enjoyable weather app experience ever. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

Read more about Weather Gods
Download Weather Gods from the App Store

It is wonderful to see two such different but equally deserving apps gain induction into our Hall of Fame, and we offer our sincere congratulations and appreciation to the teams behind Seeing AI and Weather Gods.

Notes

To be eligible for induction into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame, an app must:

• Be fully accessible to blind and low vision users;
• Be from a developer with a demonstrated and long-term commitment to full accessibility;
• Have been available in the App Store for a significant period of time; and
• Demonstrate excellence in design, functionality and operation.

If there is an app that you believe should be considered for the next induction shortlist, please take a moment to nominate it here.