Voting Now Open for 2024 AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame Inductees

Hello from the team at AppleVis!

We’re thrilled to announce that the voting for the 2024 inductees into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame is now open, marking the thirteenth year of this esteemed event. Our Hall of Fame is a way for our community to honor developers who are committed to making their apps fully accessible to blind and low vision users. The inductees transform lives, empower individuals, provide invaluable information, and bring joy and entertainment to users. They represent the very best in accessible iOS applications, and we are excited to have the AppleVis community select the next inductees.

In order to be eligible for induction, an app must satisfy the following conditions:

Be fully accessible to blind and low vision users
Come from a developer who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to full accessibility of their app(s)
Demonstrate excellence in design, functionality, and operation
Have been available in the App Store and fully accessible for a significant period of time
Be under active development

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

Existing inductees include BARD Mobile, Be My Eyes, Blind Legend, BlindSquare, Dice World, Envision AI, lire: RSS Reader, NFB-NEWSLINE® Mobile, Seeing AI, Timecrest, Voice Dream Reader, and Weather Gods. Check out the full list on the Hall of Fame page.

Nominees

Below are the nominees for the 2024 induction into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame. The two nominees with the highest number of votes will be inducted.

Aiko

Aiko is a high-quality transcription app that converts speech to text locally on your device using OpenAI’s Whisper model. It prioritizes accuracy over speed and supports transcription in 100 different languages, including English, Chinese, Spanish, and many others. The app uses the Whisper large v2 model on macOS or the medium/small model on iOS depending on available memory. Transcriptions are done entirely on-device, with no data leaving your device for privacy reasons. Transcriptions can be exported as subtitles or text files for editing elsewhere.

Bookshare Reader

Bookshare Reader is the official iOS app that unlocks access to the world’s largest library of ebooks designed for individuals with reading barriers such as dyslexia, blindness, low vision, and physical disabilities. This comprehensive app offers a personalized reading experience by allowing users to listen to books in high-quality audio, adjust reading speed, font size, and colors, follow along with highlighted text, and seamlessly navigate through pages and chapters. With the ability to download books for offline reading and resume from the last stopping point, Bookshare Reader empowers users to read their way through millions of titles, including bestsellers, new releases, textbooks, educational books, children’s books, young adult fiction, mysteries, and biographies. To access this invaluable resource, users must have a Bookshare membership.

Red more about Bookshare Reader

Dystopia for Reddit

Dystopia is a feature-rich and highly accessible iOS app designed to provide a seamless and immersive Reddit experience. With its media viewer, power user features like full keyboard navigation and a built-in command interface, Dystopia caters to both seasoned Reddit veterans and newcomers alike. Users can effortlessly upvote with a flick, engage in real-time private chats, receive notifications for comment replies, and submit images and posts without leaving the app. Dystopia’s commitment to accessibility ensures a convenient and natural experience for all users, whether they prefer larger font sizes, VoiceOver, braille readers, or Switch Control. This comprehensive app empowers users to fully embrace the Reddit community while enjoying and user-friendly interface.

FruitPot 2

FruitPot 2 is an innovative and immersive iOS game that takes players on a nostalgia-filled journey back to the 80s. Building upon the success of its predecessor, FruitPot 2 offers an ever-changing fruit machine slot experience, coupled with over 15 engaging mini-games that unlock as players progress. With an original gameplay mechanic that requires players to strategically spend their earned “Bucks” at various stores within a virtual mall, the game seamlessly blends retro arcade thrills with modern gaming elements. Boasting great sounds, graphics, and a commitment to accessibility with full VoiceOver support, FruitPot 2 promises a captivating and inclusive gaming experience. As a continually evolving title with regular content updates and mini-game additions, FruitPot 2 invites players to embark on a timeless adventure without the need for internet connectivity, personal data gathering, or subscriptions.

Land of Livia: An Epic Fantasy

Land of Livia is a groundbreaking and fully accessible iOS game that transports players into an immersive, original fantasy world filled with quests, exploration, and a compelling narrative. Inspired by genre classics like World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, Diablo, and Planescape Torment, this game distills the essence of epic adventures into a relaxed and rewarding gameplay experience tailored for busy lifestyles. Embark on a 100+ hour journey across 150 diverse locations, complete challenging quests, uncover lost legendary items, and unravel a dark conspiracy afoot in the Land of Livia. With its innovative Campfire system, players can forge adventuring companionships with strangers, fostering a social and inclusive gaming experience. Designed with accessibility at its core, Land of Livia offers tailored VoiceOver support and a level playing field for all players, making it a pioneering title in the realm of inclusive mobile gaming.

Mona for Mastodon

Mona for Mastodon is a highly customizable and accessible iOS app that provides a native and optimized experience for the decentralized social network. With a strong focus on personalization, the app allows users to customize post actions, sync preferences across devices, create private user notes, and even control the app with game controllers. Mona prioritizes privacy by not collecting personal information and securing account tokens locally. Its feature-rich interface includes customizable themes, fonts, accent colors, tab bars, and translation options. Additionally, the app offers a full-screen mode, column view, widgets, and support for multiple accounts. Mona Pro, available as an in-app purchase, unlocks advanced features such as a full-featured post composer, additional post actions, filtering, and push notification customization.

OKO - Accessible Navigation

OKO is an innovative AI-powered iOS app designed as a smart camera copilot for individuals with visual impairments. This cutting-edge app harnesses the power of real-time feedback to help users explore their surroundings with greater ease and independence. At lighted intersections, OKO employs audio, haptic, and audio cues to convey the state of pedestrian signals, enabling users to cross safely. Additionally, the app assists in aligning users toward their desired crossing direction and prevents veering into traffic. With its intuitive design and advanced AI capabilities, OKO empowers users to navigate their environment with enhanced confidence and awareness.

Sonar Islands

Sonar Islands is a multiplayer online game where players explore various islands, search for hidden treasures, and overcome obstacles. The game emphasizes audio experiences, as all relevant events happen in the player’s ears. Each island presents unique challenges, such as navigating a jungle with tree traps, avoiding lava flows on a volcano island, and dealing with wind and mosquitoes on a treetop island. Players must also fortify their islands and attempt to take gold from opponents while playing various mini-games.

Speech Central AI Voice Reader

Speech Central is a text-to-speech app that allows users to listen to a wide range of documents and formats, including PDFs, web articles, eBooks, and more. The app boasts advanced artificial intelligence that can detect footnotes, headers, citations, and web links, ensuring uninterrupted reading flow. It also features a wide selection of options to customize voice, appearance, and various other parameters. Other notable features include annotation tools, the ability to import text from physical books with the camera, and an Apple Watch app that can play content independently of the main app.

VoiceVista

VoiceVista is designed to empower individuals with visual impairments by leveraging advanced audio technology and precise location services. Built upon Microsoft’s open-source Soundscape project, the app provides users with an enhanced awareness of their surroundings, offering reassurance in unfamiliar settings. By aiding in the formation of mental maps and guiding confident navigation along desired routes, VoiceVista empowers its users to navigate their environment with greater independence and confidence.

Zanagrams

Zanagrams is a brain-teasing word puzzle app that offers a unique twist on classic anagram games. Each puzzle presents six clues, with the answers broken into groups of two or three letters displayed as jumbled buttons. Players aim to spell out the one-word solutions by tapping the buttons, with correctly spelled answers disabling the used buttons for a progressively narrowing challenge. Featuring worldwide leaderboards, social competition, randomized replays, hints, and accessibility features, Zanagrams delivers an endlessly entertaining and cognitively stimulating experience. With free puzzles included and themed puzzle packs available for purchase, the app invites players to exercise their brains during downtime while immersing themselves in the joy of unscrambling words.

Is your preferred app or game not shortlisted?

If your preferred app or game is not included in the list of nominees, you have the option to select “Other” when casting your vote. By doing so, a text field will appear where you can enter the name of the app or game that you would like to nominate for induction. However, please ensure that your write-in nomination meets the eligibility criteria outlined above. Additionally, we kindly request that you review the list of existing inductees to confirm that your choice has not already been inducted into the Hall of Fame in a previous year.

If a write-in nomination receives enough votes to place it among the top two selections, it will be inducted alongside the highest-voted nominee from the provided shortlist.

Contest Rules and How to Cast Your Vote

Voting is open to all blind and low vision members of our community who are not employees of any of the shortlisted developers. Only one vote per person is permitted. To cast your vote, you will need to be logged in to the AppleVis website. If you don’t have an account yet, you can create one now, and then visit this page to cast your vote.

Voting will close on May 24, 2024, at 20:00 UTC.

We appreciate your time and participation, and we are eager to discover your choices!

The AppleVis Editorial Team
www.applevis.com

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