Transcript: Winners of the Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards

18 December, 2011

Roberta:  Last week Vodafone UK announced the winners of the 2011 Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards. The Awards launched in June this year promoted the development of software applications that improve the lives of people with disabilities and the elderly.

Clarizza Fernandez from Media Access Australia is here to fill us in here. Hello Clarizza.

Clarizza:  Hello.

Roberta:  Now can you tell us a bit about the Awards Clarizza please?

Clarizza:  Yeah. The Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards are run by the Vodafone Foundation in the UK and they promote and invest in social change through technology. The Awards recognise the development of software that helps people who have a disability or the elderly to use features on their Android, Smart Phone or Tablet which can sometimes be a challenge. So basically they were looking for Smart Phone apps that improve accessibility. And the winners of the Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards won £50,000 each which is roughly $76,000 Australian dollars.

Roberta:  You mentioned an application or app, what is that exactly?

Clarizza:  An app is short for application which is software that you can use on your Smart Phone and Tablet computers that add functionality to your device. There are many different types of apps including games, organisational apps, health and sickness apps, pro-activity apps and many more.

Roberta:  So who are the winners for this year?

Clarizza:  Well there were four categories, each with a winner. And winning the Wellbeing Award was a company called 1000 Impressa for their help talk app. So help talk is an app that lets people use their Smart Phone to communicate by speech. It uses the text to speech technology. So if you tap on an icon that represents a common phrase the app will electronically voice the phrase or saying, so someone who isn’t able to verbally say it can communicate that phrase to someone else.             

And a Wheel Map app by a company called was the winner of the Mobility category for the accessible environment rating app. The map works on their user ratings which means people can rate how accessible a specific public space is for wheelchair users, which is useful for people to be able to plan their trips around the city. 

The Independent Living Award was given to 232 Studios zoom plus magnifier app which is a video magnification app that works like a traditional magnifier. It’s great as it provides an affordable to otherwise expensive magnifying equipment. The app is larger text and icons as you move it across whatever it is that you want to read or see. And it also adjusts colour contrast.

Finally, the winner of the Social Participation Award was the Big Launcher. The Big Launcher app provides an alternative customisable home screen. Sometimes the home screens of the Smart Phones are really complicated, busy and have small text, but the Big Launcher app simplifies it. It lets you easily access features on your Smart Phone without using the sometimes complicated default home screens. The large easily recognisable buttons increase text size and clean layouts are designed to assist the elderly or people who are vision impaired.

Roberta:  What is exciting about each of the winning applications and how did they help the vision or hearing impaired?

Clarizza:  Well each of them gives older people or people with disabilities the option to use Smart Phones and to use them to help improve daily tasks. They also provide cheaper alternatives to assisted technologies. The help talk is great because it gives someone who has difficulty talking the opportunity to communicate with a stranger, and it can help them get around, particularly in a place they’re not familiar with. And as many Smart Phone users will tell you Smart Phones have really enhanced people’s lives and makes certain things like looking up where you are going easier.  So with the Wheel Map app planning trips is just one of the things that wheelchair users can also benefit from.

The Zoom Text app as well is great because it means vision impaired people can leave their house without lugging around sometimes heavy and expensive magnifying equipment. 

The main thing is that these commercial products everyone else enjoys are improving the lives of people with a disability and the technology is.

Roberta:  When will these apps be available and how can people get them? That’s the important question.

Clarizza:  Well they’re available now and are for Android Smart Phones and they can be downloaded from the Android market website.

Roberta:  So if you’d like to know more about the winning apps or for information about access to digital technology for you or someone you know who is living with a vision impairment or a hearing impairment, visit Media Access Australia’s website, mediaaccess.org.au.

Thank you Clarizza for all of that.

Clarizza:  Thank you Roberta.

Roberta:  I’ve been speaking with Clarizza Fernandez from Media Access Australia. And Media Access Australia are supporters of this program.