Getting key features like book reading, speech to text, browsing, email, calendar etc. on smartphones may be taken for granted by a big set of the smartphone user base but then there may be another group of users who may find navigating and using those features overwhelming. 

Elderly people who are losing vision because of AMD, Glaucoma or other similar conditions and
people with low vision or partial sight may find using the smartphones in its traditional/out of the box mode difficult. Smartphone manufacturers don’t necessarily provide bigger characters by default (even the size provided by the phone’s accessibility setting may not be big enough for some users), contrasted themes, bigger keyboard and speech activation on any screen. The lack of such features may make using smartphones challenging for these users. The presence of icons can be a distraction too.

To curtail these shortcomings, Claria, a French provider of digital solutions for visually impaired people, has recently launched an Android app called Claria Zoom, which removes all the “clutter” and turns an Android into a phone with the most basic features and makes navigation and accessibility much easier with its large interface, simple text driven menus, very large texts, bigger keyboards and speech recognition available everywhere. Users get 20 easy to use features like phone, text messaging, emails, calendar and camera, voice recognition for dictating text messages and emails, vocalized GPS, a book reader and an electronic magnifier. These features are constantly updated and adjusted by Claria.

Watch the video below to see what the Claria Zoom interface looks like.

Claria Zoom can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for $3.99 per month without commitment. A 30 day trial for the app is also available.

Website: claria-zoom.com