Have you ever wondered how blind and partially sighted people can control today’s touchscreen phones? They are designed to respond to the touch on the exact spot. This can be a huge obstacle for a visually impaired person. The nonprofit organization Stopka has developed COrvus – a set of applications that will help to remove these barriers. They became the finalists of the prestigious StartupAwards.com 2016 competition in the Society category.

Blind people for blind people

The set of applications is work of developers who perfectly understand the need of users- themselves included. The application development is led by programmer Peter Lecký, who has worked at Comenius University in Bratislava for many years as an expert for accessibility of applications. Together with his team, he has developed the COrvus Environment for Android OS. It is a home screen specially designed for the needs of the blind, such as font size or various functions, including, of course, calling, texting, calendar, reminder or alarm. This will simplify touchscreen control to the blind.

The project also includes COrvus Reader, which helps more technically skilled users. By means of voice, it gives them a possibility to read and control system´s dialog boxes indicating for example battery status, flight mode, or direct switching off of the phone.

Modern design should not be a barrier

COrvus differs from other apps for the blind because just as one of the few, it combines several functions of the phone. Other applications do not create an environment for the entire operating system but only for a particular function. COrvus is unique thanks to its simplicity.

This project can also work thanks to the EUR 30,000 support from the Telekom Endowment Fund with the Pontis Foundation.

Click here for more information on the COrvus application.