Interview

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra,  Michael Hansen and Thomas Domville talk with Hans Wiberg, creator of Be My Eyes.

Launched internationally on 15th January 2015, the Be My Eyes app allows blind iOS users to connect with sighted volunteers via live video chat to ask questions about objects or situations that they have encountered.

Hans provides some background to Be My Eyes, discusses the response to the app since its launch, and answers some of the questions which have been raised by users over the past week.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Thomas and Scott meet with Shalin Shah, developer of Voice - Take A Picture And Have It Spoken.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Scott and Alex sat down with John Panarese of MacForTheBlind.com, who is an Apple-certified OS X instructor. He told us all about how anyone, blind or sighted, can obtain this certification. The only limitation is that the test must be taken in person at an authorized training center; use this page to locate your nearest training center.

In this month's edition of the AppleVis Extra, Michael Hansen, Thomas Domville, and Alex Hall speak with Marty Schultz of Kid Friendly Software. Schultz is the developer behind the wildly popular Blindfold series of accessible audio games, with over 25 games currently in the App Store and many more exciting titles on the way.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Lisa Salinger, Jeff Bishop and Thomas Domville talk with Winston Chen about the much anticipated version 4.0 release of Voice Dream Reader for iOS.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Michael Hansen, Alex Hall, and Scott Davert are joined by Matt King, Accessibility Specialist in UI Engineering at Facebook.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Thomas Domville and Alex Hall meet with Ryan McLeod, a 2017 Apple Design Award Winner for his iOS App, Blackbox - think outside the box.

Every year at its Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC), Apple celebrates and acknowledges through its Apple Design Awards the mobile and desktop apps which raise the bar in design, technology and innovation. The award to Ryan was cited by Apple as recognition of Blackbox being "fully accessible, and offering unique and ingenious gameplay, deep iOS integration, and clever innovations".

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, Thomas Domville and Scott Davert are joined by Hema Natarajan, product manager at Benetech, the parent company of Bookshare.

Bookshare is an ebook library that currently has 1,097,526 titles and is the most extensive collection of accessible ebooks in the world. It includes books for school, career, and reading pleasure, as well as titles in over 34 languages.

In this podcast, Thomas Domville sits down to chat with Wojtek Figiel, one of the team behind Zuzanka, a recently released product expiration date scanner that can be used with an iPhone, iPad or Mac. Topics discussed include the story behind the app, its development, and the future plans of its team.

Description of Zuzanka from the App Store:

In this episode of AppleVis Extra, Thomas Domville chats with Willem Van de Mierop, one of the creators behind the innovative iOS app called OKO - AI copilot for the blind. OKO is a smart camera app that uses artificial intelligence to provide real-time feedback to help people with visual impairments safely use pedestrian traffic lights at intersection by providing haptic and audio feedback to inform users of the current state of the light.

In this episode of the AppleVis Extra podcast, host Thomas Domville is joined by Chris Kolbu, one of the team members at Itty Bitty Apps, the creators of Reveal, a powerful set of tools for professional iOS developers. Chris shares insights into how Reveal's advanced visualizations can be used to inspect apps at runtime, modify views on the fly, debug layout problems, diagnose common accessibility issues, and experience your app across different modes of accessibility.

Welcome to a special episode of AppleVis Extra, where host Dave Nason is joined by Hans Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes, and the new CEO of Be My Eyes, Mike Buckley, to discuss the recent announcement of Be My Eyes' new Virtual Volunteer feature powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 model.

In this episode of AppleVis Extra, Thomas Domville talks with Jianfeng Wu about VoiceVista, an iOS app that is essential for the blind and low vision community.

VoiceVista is based on Microsoft’s discontinued and open-source project Soundscape and is licensed under the MIT License. The app uses cutting-edge iOS audio technology and precise location services to help people develop a greater awareness of their surroundings, providing comfort in unfamiliar spaces, and supporting individuals in creating mental maps and making personal route choices.

Update June 2025: Zanagrams is no longer available in the App Store. We are preserving this interview, as the developer's accomplishment remains the same and we believe it is an important piece of our community's history.

Welcome to AppleVis Extra 101, where Dave Nason is joined by Xiaoran Wang and Huasong Cao from Agiga, the team behind the upcoming Echo Vision smart glasses. Check out some early demos, with more to come, on their YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@AgigaAi/videos And learn more on their website at: https://echovision.agiga.ai/ The team would love to hear your feedback, so please comment below, or contact them through the website.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, David Nason speaks to David Janssen of Wanderlost Games, the creators of Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG, winners of Best Game in the 2024 AppleVis Golden Apple awards.

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello there and welcome to the AppleVis Extra podcast.

My name is David Nason.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, David Nason speaks to Saqib Shaikh, a key member of the team behind Microsoft's Seeing AI, winner of Best App in the 2024 AppleVis Golden Apple awards.

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello there, and welcome to another episode of the AppleVis Extra Podcast.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, David Nason speaks to Karthik Kannan, co-founder of Envision Technologies, winner of the inaugural AppleVis David Goodwin Award. This award recognises developers who have excelled in providing great apps and experiences for the blind and low vision community over a sustained period of time. They discuss the background of the company, key milestones, and the exciting Ally app which is due to launch soon.

In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, David Nason and Thomas Domville speak to Ged Maheux from The Iconfactory, the developers behind innovative new universal timeline app, Tapestry. Long time iPhone users will be very familiar with the company, previously responsible for the highly popular and highly accessible app Twitterrific. Download Tapestry from the App Store.