Most Popular Types of Apps for Disabled People

Posted on August 25th, 2018 by Quertime Writer in Mobile

People are using technology on a daily basis in ways we could never think of before. There are mobile apps for everything, and their main goal is to make life easier for all people. Disabled people are a part of our society and mobile apps can become another thing that will help them to effectively integrate into it.

A desire to be viewed as a normal human being is the thing you’ll hear often from disabled people. They want to integrate into a society as everybody else and become its functioning members, who just happen to have a disability. App makers are already trying to provide tools for disabled people, and our society has made a great progress towards developing accessible technologies.

However, there are still plenty of work in this direction, and new apps can be developed in each of the categories we’ll mention in this article. Let’s wait no more and see what was made in the world of mobile apps to help disabled people.

Travel Apps

Travelling isn’t always a piece of cake, but travelling with a disability can be even harder. Mobile apps have been around for many years, guiding travellers from all over the world around cities in all kinds of travel destinations, and some of these apps were made with disabled people in mind.

For example, TripTripHurray is an app that is similar to TripAdvisor. It provides a customizable search for people with special needs. It is location-based, so any places in an unknown city that fit the requirements (for example, wheelchair-accessible restrooms) will appear in notifications as soon as they appear in a predefined radius.

Another application that is extremely useful not only for disabled people, but for all people in general, is Flush Toilet Finder. This app for Android and iOS is a relief for any traveller, as it helps to find flushable toilets nearby. Why is it amazing particularly for the disabled? The reason is that is finds public restrooms with disabled access. In addition, this app is able to work offline which is definitely a plus.

Apps for Children with Special Needs

At the moment there aren’t lots of working applications for children with special needs, and that’s a pity. Parents often find it challenging to find assisting tools that could help their children learn and develop socially.

Apps that teach children to distinguish emotions are particularly useful for children with autism.

Other apps like Montessori Numbers help those kids who find it difficult to understand numbers and quantities. This math application is one of the best applications for people with disabilities. It not only explains numbers but also pronounces them. This helps kids who need to relate sound and visual information to understand the material better.

Speech difficulties some children suffer from, can be a serious obstacle to learning and socializing. Apps like Proloquo2Go and LetMeTalk for iOS and Android respectively, feature a visual vocab that can be vocalized.

This enables real-time communication and develops kid’s communication skills with the help of games. The apps are highly customizable, allowing kids to choose from a variety of voices and accents.

Apps for Students with Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities are closely connected to problems with learning math, writing and reading, and if they are ignored, it can lead to further difficulties with abstract reasoning and planning time in adulthood. Thankfully, there are applications for people with developmental delays. They help to overcome these problems and assist students in their studying.

Studying for students with disabilities is a challenge that can result in anxiety. To cope with that, they can use a mobile app Stop, Breathe and Think. This is one of the top accessibility apps that allows students to reflect on their feelings and dissect them with the help of breathing activities. Basically, Stop, Breathe and Think is about meditation, and it is useful for everyone.

Voice Dream Reader is an app for users who have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This application is focused around teaching people with audible materials. Research has shown that people with ADD or ADHD understand information better if it’s presented in audio.

Apps for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

This is the last type of mobile apps for disabled people who have trouble with communication. They provide alternative methods of communication to those people who have speech and language impairments. Such applications are useful for people with a wide range of disabilities: from autism and cerebral palsy to Parkinson’s disease.

The main principle of AAC applications is choosing words, symbols and images to express feelings and speak to other people. For example, TouchChat is a communication solution for individuals who have difficulty using their natural voice. This AAC app is designed for individuals with Autism, Down Syndrome, ALS, apraxia, stroke, or other conditions that affect a person’s ability to use natural speech.

iCommunicate is another example of an advanced app for people with speech impairments. It is very flexible and has a wide choice of items like storyboards, cards, schedules and so on. There are over 20 voice options for users to choose from, that will read the text aloud.

Conclusion

Accessibility is getting more and more attention in recent years, and we view it as a great tendency that is able to make our world better. Big tech companies like Google and Apple work on providing digital solutions for disabled people and create guidelines for developers who are willing to make their applications accessible for all users. These guidelines make development of accessibility apps easier and faster.

And the number of applications for people with physical or mental disorders is also growing. However, there is still lots of things that can be done with mobile technology that will be able to help people with any kinds of disabilities.