First opened in 2011, the AppleVis iOS App 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.
Each year we stage a public vote to select the apps which the community believes are worthy of induction into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame. To be eligible for induction 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 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; and
- Be under active development.
In short, our Hall of Fame represents the best of the best in accessible iOS applications, as decided by the AppleVis community.
Inductees
The following apps have been inducted into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame:
May 2024
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.
Link to Mona for Mastodon in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
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.
Link to VoiceVista in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2023
GoodMaps Explore
GoodMaps Explore is designed for individuals who are blind or visually impaired, providing accurate indoor and outdoor information and navigation. The app offers location awareness with customizable notifications about the user's immediate surroundings, including current direction, nearest room, street, and points of interest (POIs). Users can set the frequency of these notifications and save their favorite POIs, which are automatically preserved. The app also offers accurate indoor directions for independent travel within mapped indoor venues. The LookAround feature enables users to discover POIs in the direction they point their phone, while the Virtual Mode allows them to explore the surroundings of outdoor POIs or search for indoor POIs virtually. Additional features include tutorials for easy setup, POI search indoors and outdoors, locating nearby intersections, integration with Be My Eyes for live visual assistance, and access to restricted buildings with a registered account.
Link to GoodMaps Explore in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
lire: RSS Reader
lire is designed for RSS feed enthusiasts. It addresses the common annoyance of websites offering only partial entries in their feeds to entice readers to visit their sites. Unlike other RSS feed readers, lire eliminates the need to click through to websites by converting partial feeds into full feeds. This means users can access their favorite RSS feeds without being redirected or having to click on "Read more" or "Continue reading" links. lire also offers offline access to cached full-text feeds, allowing users to read without an internet connection. Additionally, the app provides options to use it as a standalone feed reader, sync with iCloud, or sync with various services such as Feedly, Feedbin, FeedHQ, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader, Newsblur, Feed Wrangler, FreshRSS, Miniflux, Nextcloud News, and Tiny Tiny RSS. Lire offers dedicated customization options for VoiceOver users, allowing them to personalize the speech preferences and prioritize the order of spoken feed article information.
Link to lire: RSS Reader in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2022
Blind Drive
Blind Drive is an audio-based, black comedy arcade action game.
You’re blindfolded and going against traffic. Cars rushing past, angry drivers yelling at you. Cops on your tail. And you can’t see a thing. Can you do it?
The entire game is experienced through your ears. Play as Donnie, trying to make a quick buck in a scientific study but quickly finding himself in over his head, cuffed to the wheel and driving blindfolded. Plus he’s late for dinner with Grandma.
Link to Blind Drive in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Dolphin EasyReader
EasyReader is a FREE accessible reading app for readers with dyslexia, low vision or blindness. Browse & download from the World's largest collection of talking book and newspaper libraries. Or copy text from anywhere on your phone & hear EasyReader read it back to you. Experience perfectly synchronized text & audio. Or for text only titles, EasyReader can add a human sounding voice of your choice. Boost comfort or contrast - choose colours, text size and highlights to suit your visual needs.
Make your books' text as big as your eyes require. Unlike other mainstream reading apps, there's no restriction with EasyReader. Zoom in with a standard 2 finger pinch or make fine adjustments with the simple sliders. There's never any blurry text or fuzzy fonts - your books' words are always crystal clear and always easy on the eye.
Navigate your books or newspapers by skipping directly to specific pages or headings. Search your book for words or phrases. Add text bookmarks or record your own audio bookmarks and return to them with ease.
EasyReader is fully optimized for use with iOS VoiceOver and iOS supported Braille displays.
Link to Dolphin EasyReader in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2021
Cash Reader: Bill Identifier
Cash Reader allows blind and low vision users to simply point their device’s camera at a banknote to hear, see, or feel its value.
The bank note denomination is read aloud via the device’s speaker and is also shown as large contrasting characters on the screen. When your device has silent mode enabled, denomination will be transformed into vibrations. This helps to quickly count bills in noisy environments or to give privacy when needed.
The app currently recognises 100 currencies and supports 35 languages. Cash Reader is also capable of identifying different currencies at the same time, making it a great choice when travelling.
Link to Cash Reader: Bill Identifier in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Overcast
Overcast is a fully featured audio podcast app with a clean and intuitive interface and a range of useful and powerful features.
Overcast has frequently been the first to introduce features which improve podcast discovery and management and enhance the listening experience, with many of these features subsequently adopted by other podcast apps. Its developer has also been an occasional contributor to discussions on AppleVis, which - along with the excellent VoiceOver support of his app - demonstrates his commitment to accessibility. It is no surprise, therefore, that Overcast is a popular choice for those in our community seeking something more feature-rich than Apple's Podcasts app.
Link to Overcast in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
June 2020
Aira
Aira is a free service that connects you to real people instantly to simplify daily life.
When you need to do something where some extra information can help you save time and be more efficient, just open the app and give us a call. You'll connect with real, highly-trained people who can see your surroundings through your phone's camera.
Link to Aira in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Envision AI
See what you can't with Envision, the fastest and most reliable app that describes the visual world around you with the help of artificial intelligence and OCR. Envision is carefully designed with the help of the visually impaired community, to bring the best assistive app to the blind and low vision. Read text in over 60 languages, use the magnifier, scan barcodes or your environment and so much more.
Link to Envision AI in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
June 2019
VDScan (Formerly Voice Dream Scanner)
Using artificial intelligence to analyze the live feed from the camera for text, angle, rotation, and document edges, VDScan delivers fast and accurate text recognition. Captured text can be saved and read in Voice Dream Reader, or exported to other apps or storage locations.
Link to VDScan in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2018
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 its 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.
Link to Seeing AI in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Weather Gods
This feature-rich weather app for iOS takes a unique approach to presenting weather information that caters for both casual users and weather enthusiasts alike, 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..
Link to Weather Gods in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2017
Timecrest
Timecrest is an immersive 225,000-word blend of epic fantasy and interactive fiction, where every decision matters and leads to one of multiple endings. The story progresses in real-time; and you can build a team and Unlock secret storylines by building your relationship with other characters. The Timecrest developers have proactively engaged with blind gamers to ensure that this app delivers the optimum experience for VoiceOver users.
Link to Timecrest in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2016
A Blind Legend
A Blind Legend is described by its developers as “… the first-ever mobile action-adventure game without video – where ears replace eyes”. It was little surprise, therefore, that this app was of immediate interest to blind gamers as soon as it hit the App Store in September 2015. You need only look at the comments posted to the game’s App Directory entry here on AppleVis to see how that initial interest has turned into a large and passionate fanbase.
Link to A Blind Legend in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2015
Be My Eyes
Be My Eyes connects blind users with sighted volunteers over live video chat. Using the camera on the iOS device, the blind person can then ask questions about an object or situation that they need help identifying.
Link to Be My Eyes in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
OneStep Reader (formerly KNFBReader)
OneStep Reader is a feature-rich text recognition app for iOS devices. With OneStep Reader, users can convert nearly any type of printed text, including mail, receipts, class handouts, memos and many other documents, into high quality speech.
Link to OneStep Reader in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
August 2014
MBraille
MBraille is a feature-rich Braille typing app for iOS devices. With MBraille, users can type text messages, Facebook updates, tweets, e-mails, and much more - all using a standard six-dot Braille keyboard.
Link to MBraille in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
February 2014
BARD Mobile
A service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) in the US. BARD Mobile provides access to Braille and talking books directly from the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD), which contains nearly 50,000 books, magazines, and music scores in audio and Braille formats.
Link to BARD Mobile in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Dice World
The hard work and dedication of the developer to make this collection of dice games fully accessible with VoiceOver has made this an extremely popular choice with blind gamers.
Link to Dice World in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
August 2013
BlindSquare
Developed to help the blind in their daily lives, BlindSquare uses GPS and the compass to locate you. It then gathers information about the surrounding environment from FourSquare. BlindSquare has some unique algorithms to decide what information is the most relevant and then speaks it to you with high quality speech synthesis.
Link to BlindSquare in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Amazon Kindle
Enables you to read Kindle books, newspapers, magazines, textbooks and PDFs on your iOS device.
Link to Amazon Kindle in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
TapTapSee
Designed to help the blind and visually impaired identify objects they encounter in their daily lives. Simply double tap the screen to take a photo of anything and hear the app speak the identification back to you.
Link to TapTapSee in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory​
Voice Dream - Read Aloud
Listen to PDF and Word documents, eBooks, articles, and Web pages anywhere with offline text-to-speech. Built-in integration with Dropbox, Bookshare, Pocket, Instapaper, and Gutenberg makes it easy to import and read material.
Link to Voice Dream - Read Aloud in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
February 2013
NFB-NEWSLINE® Mobile
NFB-NEWSLINE® is an information source designed to keep persons who are unable to read conventional newsprint informed about current events locally, nationally, and around the world.
Link to NFB-NEWSLINE® Mobile in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
November 2012
Audible: Audio Entertainment
Immerse yourself in a great story anytime, anywhere, by downloading from a breathtaking range of 100,000+ titles to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad—from best sellers to classics, and everything in-between.
Link to Audible: Audio Entertainment in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Zello Walkie Talkie
Chat one-to-one with other users or create and join channels to enjoy open group chats. You can use Zello one-on-one with a friend or for a live group chat with your family; friends; or people with a shared interest.
Link to Zello Walkie Talkie in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
August 2012
Light Detector
Light Detector uses the camera on an iOS Device to transform any natural or artificial light source that it encounters into sound. You will hear a higher or lower sound depending upon the intensity of the light.
Link to Light Detector in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
May 2012
Digit-Eyes
Quick and easy access to extended information on more than 25 million products, with thousands more added to the database each day. Users can also create and print their own personalized barcode labels.
Link to Digit-Eyes in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
March 2012
ooTunes Radio: Record & Alarm
Easy and feature-rich access to Music, Talk, Sports, and Entertainment Radio from 32,000 Internet audio streams and more than 150 genres.
Link to ooTunes Radio in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
February 2012
Dropbox
A simple but elegant solution for sharing and synchronizing files across multiple devices and platforms. Made even more useful by the many apps that utilize its functionality.
Link to Dropbox in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
HeyTell
A voice messaging application that has gained a strong following among VoiceOver users because of its ease of use and accessibility.
Link to HeyTell in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
January 2012
Downcast
A powerful and feature-rich way to manage your podcast subscriptions, all wrapped up in a fully accessible interface that provides a very satisfying user experience.
Link to Downcast in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
King of Dragon Pass
This game blends interactive stories and resource management into an epic saga of conflict, mythology, and community. The developer's commitment to accessibility ensures it has a strong following among VoiceOver users.
Link to King of Dragon Pass in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
December 2011
Ariadne GPS
A ground-breaking app that allows you to explore the map of what's around you by simply sliding your finger across the screen. Whilst out, monitor your location and direction. A perfect meld of assistive technology and mainstream hardware.
Link to Ariadne GPS in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Sero (formerly iBlink Radio)
Provides access to radio stations, podcasts and reading services of special interest to the blind and vision-impaired.
Link to Sero in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Apple Books
Provides access to new and popular books as they hit the virtual bookshelves. Accessible and easy to use, and for many blind users has restored a joy of reading.
Link to Apple Books in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Legacy Inductees
The following apps have been removed from the App Store since their induction, so are no longer available for download:
- Fleksy VO - for VoiceOver users (originally inducted September 2012)
- Microsoft Soundscape (originally inducted June 2019)
- NantMobile Money Reader (originally inducted December 2011)
- Nearby Explorer (originally inducted May 2017)
- Papa Sangre (originally inducted April 2012)
- Read2Go (originally inducted December 2011)
- Twitterrific: Tweet Your Way (originally inducted May 2016)
- TweetList 4 For Twitter (originally inducted December 2011)
- VizWiz (originally inducted December 2011)
- Vokul (originally inducted July 2012)
Suspended and Revoked Inductions
At times it may be necessary to temporarily suspend an induction or in extreme circumstances revoke it completely.
These decisions are not taken lightly, but are essential to maintain the integrity and value of the Hall of Fame.
Suspended Inductions
Pandora Music
Pandora Music is free personalized radio that only plays music you’ll love. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a custom "station" that plays similar music.
Inducted: June 2012 Suspended: August 2014 due to ongoing issues with browsing and managing stations.
Link to Pandora Music in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
TuneIn Pro - Radio & Sports
Listen to your favorite radio stations for free with TuneIn Radio. With over 100,000 radio stations, TuneIn has the largest selection of sports, news, music and talk radio from around the world.
Inducted: December 2011 Suspended: September 2020 due to developer's failure to address what had become longstanding accessibility issues introduced since induction.
Link to TuneIn Pro - Radio & Sports in the iOS & iPadOS App Directory
Important
Please keep in mind that the app market is constantly evolving. An app listed may no longer be the best option due to changes in its features, advancements in other apps, or updates in iOS/iPadOS functionality. It is advisable to research and determine the best app for your needs.