Assisting Apps and Technologies for Emergency Times

On this webpage, we have gathered for you apps and technologies that might assist you during an emergency, organized by types of disabilities. Are you interested in adding a helpful technology to the list? Send us an email to pvm@aisrael.org with the technology’s name, goal, the way it assists people with disabilities in emergencies, and a link, and we will contact you soon.

Assisting Apps for People with Visual Impairments

Be my eyes

A simple and free tool that connects you with a global community of volunteers and Company representatives who are ready at a moment’s notice to help you see and support your daily tasks.
The service is free and can be activated independently through the Google/Apple app store. Simply log in to the app and connect to a volunteer who will help you see and perform the needed activities.
To the company’s website

Envision

An app for reading documents and QR codes, and identifying colors and objects by taking a picture.
It is a free, simple, and very practical app. All you have to do is use your smartphone camera to scan every piece of text in your surroundings, objects, people, or products, and the information will be read thanks to the AI of Envision and optical character recognition (OCR).

The service is free and can be activated independently through the Google/Apple app store

Step-Hear

A system and an app that enables people with blindness or visual impairments to find their way and be guided using vocal anchoring and directing inside buildings and in public areas. Each time you pass near an installed Step-Hear device in a public or commercial area, the vocal guidance is received automatically, via a vocal control panel installed in the area, a smartphone, or both.
In addition, the app provides real-time data on public transportation near the user and the arrival time of lines (independently of Step-Hear devices).
The system can be installed everywhere, for example in hotels that provide housing for people who were evacuated from their homes.
People who have a blind certificate can get a subsidy from the state of 90% when purchasing the app through the website.

To the company’s website

Righthear

A system for voice navigation that assists users to easily orientate in new or occasional environments. The app assists the user to walk anywhere and anytime, with accessible spots installed in different institutes:
The Knesset, Shufersal, Azrieli Mall, The Open University, Assuta’s hospitals, McDonald’s restaurants, Ben Gurion Airport, Bait Balev chain, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Max Stock branches, Habima Theater, Pizza Hut branches, Weizmann Institute of Science, Shufersal BE branches, Technion Institute of Technology, Aroma branches, etc. The service is free and can be activated independently. The full details about the app’s functions can be read on the app store
Guides for the app

To download the app through Google/Apple

Assisting Apps for People with Hearing Disabilities

Bettear

A solution that helps cleanly listen to audio via the smartphone. Following the security situation, the company set up a center for communication between people with hearing disabilities and the state’s hospitals and emergency centers. You can ask for assistance via email or by filling out a form, and the company will get back to you with a WhatsApp message while being in contact with the relevant center.
To contact via email
To contact via a form

To download the app Google/Apple

Sign now

The Sign Now app, which allows deaf people to contact a translator via video chat in real-time, makes it accessible in an emergency for the deaf community in Israel – in the Gaza Envelope, the north, the evacuees, and in general to call in real-time to the emergency centers, the mental health support lines, family members and do urgent arrangements.
For an emergency call, you can enter the app in the link

Live Transcribe

Live transcription of a variety of languages to make communication with deaf and hearing impaired people accessible.
The service is free, and built-in as a part of the accessibility package of cellphones and tablets.

To download the app Google/Apple

Assisting Apps for People with Cognitive/Communicative/Mental Disabilities

TA’AL (Hackautism tech)

A digital platform for helping people with cognitive disabilities, learning difficulties, PTSD, and mental disorders to gain orientation in their daily tasks during the new reality that was forced upon them following the emergency situation.
The app, which can run on a smartphone or a tablet, allows for building personalized routes for people with special needs that allow for:

  • Learning and performing daily tasks in new conditions and anxiety states
  • Orientation in a new area (following an evacuation)
  • Learning and following emergency procedures and routes for evacuation during an alarm
  • Gaining abilities of integration into employment – in an emergency period too

The information is made accessible using a multilingual app that presents pictures, sounds, and text in the user’s native language (with linguistic simplification when needed)

To the company’s website

RelaxElf (Hackautism tech)

A sensory, portable, and user-friendly device and solution designed to alleviate stress and anxiety, by showing down breathing rate, with emphasis on prolonging exhalation compered to inhalation. The technology incorporates an individualized biofeedback mechanism (auto-biofeedback), allowing users to determine when relaxation is achieved and stabilize the breathing rate and depth at that point.
The device is tailored for children and adolescents, including typically developing as well as those on the autism spectrum and with disabilities, which are among the most affected groups in the aftermath of emergency or other stressful situations.

For additional information

MemoApp (Hackautism tech)

An advanced, personal, and autonomic Telecare system for streamlining and improving physical and mental recovery processes in the domestic space. A prosthesis for the brain that presents the patient with information and knowledge in real-time for strengthening the abilities, activities, reality comprehension, security, and independence and is intended for people with cognitive , congenital brain (autism) or clinical (dementia) disability and the like. Includes an online communication service for medical staff and therapists to provide treatment, guidance, tracking, and accompaniment from a distance in improved conditions.

To the company’s website

YALMO(Hackautism tech)

A platform for following and managing a routine for children with special needs by addressing the educational, therapeutic, and medical challenges of the child, following the perception that the children’s mental strength is manifested through maintaining a routing and a relationship between the students/parents and the educational staff during the emergency period. The system collects digital information about the child’s activities during the day, for example: where were they, who were they with, what did they do, how did they feel, etc. Children will be able to mark those things themselves or with parents’ guidance, and the app functions as an additional communication channel for the child’s self-expression and sharing their experience of reality. The staff will be able to see what the children marked and conduct a conversation about it during daily conversations via Zoom or phone.

To download the app Google/Apple

Choicestory (Hackautism tech)

An app that helps reduce anxiety in different daily situations for people on the autistic spectrum who experience base-level anxiety when a difference in the routine is formed. The app allows them to cope with the situation using choice stories as a therapeutic way to make the changes and transitions that the children go through accessible, and choose between solution alternatives to the different situations. Examples of situations: relocation, pauses in the routine, coping with loss, etc.

To the company’s website

Ozzystory (Hackautism tech)

Interpreting challenging situations and making them more accessible for children using social stories – the website has different situations and AI-based interpretation with personalization of relevant situations for the emergency period like – alarms, loss, boredom, etc. The usage is open freely for the entire population.

To the company’s website

A Variety of Disabilities

TOM -Tikun Olam Makers

A global movement of communities that creates and distributes solutions within the fields of technology, engineering, and design at a fair price for the challenges of people with disabilities, elderly people, and disadvantaged people.
Examples of products:

  • Blocks’ box for children with difficulties in motoric control
  • Key chain with an enlarged head for a more comfortable grip
  • Cup/bottle holder for crutches
  • Lightweight and adjustable prosthesis for the arm
  • Mouth-operated device for holding objects – for people with a limb disability

Products and projects details
You can reach out for information and assistance with the variety of available technologies and accessories on the website

To the company’s website

Read More Information

Publication of Accessibility Arrangements for Emergencies

How to Prepare a Personal Protection and Evacuation Plan in Advance

Assisting Apps and Technologies for Emergency Times