Reading glasses, smart magnifiers or an app to do the Camino de Santiago. Companies from more than fifteen countries present this Friday at Madrid the latest technological innovations for the blind or visually impaired at the Tifloinnova 2022 show, organized by ONCE.

Under the motto “The friendly face of technology”, it is a fair in which “it is forbidden not to touch” and in which the ear often becomes the protagonist of new technologies.

An example is the application of Blind Explorer, which after a geographical study of Spain launched a mobile phone application so that blind people can carry out, among other routes, the French Way of Santiago through accessible routes.

“With our mobile application we want to offer everyone the possibility of making safe routes through the Spanish geography, visually and sonically adapted to any handicap“, underlined one of its creators on the day of the opening of the show.

In order to commit to global accessibility, the emphasis has also been placed on accessibility for children, with games and reading material so that the little ones can become familiar with the Braille alphabet or the usefulness of certain instruments, like canes for children.

Printers capable of enhancing any initiative are also on display; voice recognition systems for home appliances; glasses that allow reading from dictation or navigation systems for cities or commercial areas.

For those looking for a substitute for the conventional magnifying glass, the Canadian company Humanware has presented an “intelligent macro magnifying glass”, a device similar to a mobile phone, of different sizes, which allows precise reading thanks to a camera with zoom and a led for night vision.

The Flowy Pro application, from the South Korean company Overflow, pursues a similar objective, but in software format: it can be used on mobile or on the computer and, intuitively, an electronic magnifying glass will scroll to better see the content who is seen, with voice commands for the blind.

Among the great claims of this edition, with its particular space, is the development of video games for blind people or with impaired vision.

“I was blind from birth, but I always liked video games, from a very young age I played audio games or thanks to friends who guided me, but what we want to be included in the headlines, adapt things like 3D sound or the vibration of the controls,” said Mai Rodriguez, 28, an employee at the ONCE science and technology center.

The fair, inaugurated by the general manager of ONCE, Ángel Sánchez; the deputy mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, and the director of the ONCE Center for Tiflotechnology and Innovation (CTI), Carmen Millán, It will remain open until Sunday.