A smartphone specifically designed for the blind people was unveiled last week in the UK. The device, dubbed Geaorgie, features a voice-assisted touchscreen. The new phone offers a range of apps to enable execution of tasks including reading printed text, catching a bus and pointing out locations.
Georgie runs an Android operating system and uses existing Samsung handsets including the Samsung XCover and Galaxy Ace 2.
The smartphone can allow users to access the features of a variety of modern phones in a user-friendly and accessible mode.
Users of Georgie can dial a number using the voice-assisted touchscreen. They can as well use speech to key in texts and send SMS. Extra apps are available in three different bundles namely lifestyle, travel and communicate.
The phone, distributed by Sight and Sound Technology, a firm that supplies hardware and software to blind and visually- impaired people, will retail at around US$465.
Georgie comes pre-installed with a data SIM card although users who have pre-existing phone contracts can have it transferred to a new device. Users can as well install a pay-as-you-go SIM card. Those with existing Android smartphones can download a version from Google Play at US$230.
The phone, designed by, Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds, both blind, was named after Mrs. Wilson-Hinds’ first guide dog. The two, who run a nonprofit social enterprise called Screenreader, come from rom Peterborough, UK.
According to Mr. Wilson-Hinds, the device is the type of digital experience they want to make easily available to people with little or no sight.
It will also help solve the blind people’s everyday problems as they can now be more confident about navigating the real world as well as become independent, he explained to the BBC.
The WHO estimates that 39 million of the 285 million visually impaired people worldwide are blind. About 90 percent of the visually impaired live in Africa. The estimated prevalence of blindness in Africa’s giant economy South Africa is 0.75 percent.
In Africa, studies continue to reveal that a majority of visually impaired people struggle with the intrigues of the modern-day smartphone technology.
Plans on when the phone could be launched into the African market have however since not been made.
