We are pleased to announce that voting for the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards of 2018 is now open; read on to find out which apps and developers have been shortlisted and how to cast your vote.
First launched in 2012, the AppleVis Golden Apples is an opportunity for blind and low vision users of Apple products to recognize and acknowledge the hard work and dedication which developers have put into making and maintaining great and accessible applications over the last twelve months.
Past winners of a Golden Apple include Blackbox, Voice Dream Reader, Dice World, Timecrest, A Blind Legend, Audio Hijack, The Iconfactory, and Kid Friendly Software.
The 2018 AppleVis Golden Apples consist of awards in the following categories:
- Best App
- Best Game
- Best Assistive App
- Developer of the Year
To be eligible for consideration for the Golden Apple Awards of 2018, an app must:
- Be fully accessible to blind and low vision users;
- Have been launched or significantly updated during 2018;
- Be from a developer with a demonstrated commitment to full accessibility for all blind and low vision users; and
- Be best-in-class in terms of design, functionality, and operation.
Candidates for Developer of the Year must:
- Have an exemplary commitment to making their apps fully accessible to all blind and low vision users;
- Be receptive and responsive to the needs of all blind and low vision users in a timely manner; and
- Have delivered significant new features or updates to their app(s) during 2018, particularly updates which directly benefit blind and low vision users.
Below are the nominees for each award:
Best App
- Chirp for Twitter
- Fiery Feeds: RSS Reader
- Google News
- Shortcuts
- Travelear: Listen to the World
- Weather Gods
Best Game
- FEER
- Frequency Missing
- Game World: Play With Friends
- Idle Crafting Kingdom
- Knight Commander
- Land of Livia
- Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind
Best Assistive App
- Aira
- BARD Mobile
- Dolphin EasyReader
- Envision AI
- FlickType Keyboard
- KNFB Reader
- Microsoft Soundscape
- Seeing AI
Developer of the Year
- Aira Tech Corp (Aira)
- AppA11y, Inc. (GameWorld)
- Dolphin Computer Access Ltd (Dolphin EasyReader)
- Hansjoerg Mikesch (FEER)
- John Sturt (Knight Commander)
- Kpaw, LLC (FlickType Keyboard)
- Meyume Ltd (Weather Gods)
- Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft Soundscape and Seeing AI)
- Will Bishop (Chirp for Twitter)
How to Cast Your Vote
Thank you for your interest in voting in the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards of 2018. Just as AppleVis relies on blind and low vision users to provide accessibility reviews of apps in our app directories, we rely on the genuine votes of blind and low vision users to choose the Golden Apples. With this in mind, we ask that if you are employed by one of the shortlisted companies, or if you are not a blind or low vision user, that you please not vote in the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards. Winning an AppleVis Golden Apple is a tremendous honor, and we appreciate everyone's cooperation to ensure that the voting is both fare and representative of the wishes of blind and low vision users.
Voting will close at 23:59 PDT on December 14, 2018. Voting in the AppleVis Golden Apples is open to all blind and low vision users who are not employees of any of the shortlisted companies. To vote, you will need to be logged in to the AppleVis website; if you do not already have an account, you can create an account now, then come back to this page to cast your votes. The voting form is at the end of this post, but it will only be displayed to logged in users.