TTJ Tech Talk
The Tech Juggernaut’s show: Apple news, product reviews, and deep VoiceOver teaching, plus hours of audio training for subscribers. If you learn by listening, start here.
Resources
Free training, apps, podcasts, and communities — including the ones nobody told you about. No gatekeeping: if it helps blind people, it belongs here.
aria-label="Resources" tabindex="-1" hidden>Resources worth your time
Everything here is listed because it’s good — no gatekeeping, no pay-to-play. If it helps blind people and it’s worth your time, it belongs on this page.
Learn your tech
Blind On The Move
A self-paced VoiceOver training series for iPhone that starts at zero — turning it on, first gestures — and builds lesson by lesson to advanced skills.
Mac for the Blind
Audio tutorials and one-on-one training for the Mac and iOS, including the short “Apple Slices” mini-lessons on single tasks like creating an email signature or moving files.
AppleVis
The community encyclopedia of accessible Apple apps: honest app reviews, guides, forums, and a podcast, all from blind users testing what actually works with VoiceOver.
Hadley
Free, practical workshops on daily life without sight — technology, cooking, getting around, and adjusting to vision loss — by phone, mail, or online.
JAWS tips & training — all free
Freedom Scientific Training Center
The official hub for learning JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion — and it’s all free. Sign up for live webinars, dig into the on-demand archive of recorded sessions (MP3 and MP4 with transcripts, on everything from managing complex documents to Gmail and PowerPoint), work through short task-based video tutorials, or take Surf’s Up, the training that teaches you to browse the web independently with JAWS.
Freedom Scientific Training Podcast
Free audio episodes of real training sessions you can stream on your phone or smart speaker — practical JAWS skills like layered commands, Picture Smart AI, working in Microsoft Office, and using AI tools like Claude and Gemini alongside JAWS.
FSCast — becoming Vispero Connect
Freedom Scientific’s official monthly podcast, free in every episode: JAWS tips and feature deep-dives — enhancing web accessibility with JAWS tools, exploring unfamiliar pages, multiline braille support — plus previews of upcoming free training webinars. It’s in the middle of a name change from FSCast to Vispero Connect, so you may see either name.
VisionAccess on YouTube
Free step-by-step JAWS tip videos made for blind users — stopping automatic web page reading, navigating the web faster, Windows 11, Microsoft Office, and the keyboard shortcuts that save you time every day.
Blind Accessibility Tips
Free screen-reader lessons taught the way blind users actually need them — including a free eight-lesson Microsoft Word beginner course that works with JAWS, NVDA, or Narrator, plus free downloadable guides and checklists. The lessons themselves are free; there’s just an optional tip jar if you want to say thanks.
Start the free Word course from Blind Accessibility Tips on YouTube
Dr. Denise Robinson — Your Tech Vision
Free, patient, step-by-step screen-reader tutorials from a teacher of blind students — JAWS, NVDA, and Narrator tasks broken into follow-along steps, like inserting images into a Word document entirely by keyboard.
iPhone & VoiceOver setup guides — all free
Hadley iPhone & iPad VoiceOver workshops
Free video and audio workshops that talk you through VoiceOver out loud, gesture by gesture — typing on the on-screen keyboard, four-finger gestures, your music library, and more, narrated by Hadley’s assistive technology expert Douglas Walker. Everything Hadley makes is free; a free account just tracks your progress. Stuck? Hadley’s phone support is free too: 800-323-4238.
Apple Support VoiceOver guides
Apple’s own free how-to guides for VoiceOver on iPhone — operating the phone with VoiceOver on, the full gesture list, getting live descriptions of your surroundings, and screen curtain, which turns the display off while VoiceOver keeps talking.
Dave Chaffey’s iPhone setup guide for new users
A beginner-friendly, step-by-step setup walkthrough written for a newly blind person — or the family member helping them. Three ways to turn VoiceOver on (Settings, Siri, or the triple-click shortcut), the three core moves (tap to hear, double-tap to activate, three-finger swipe to scroll), and starter tips like answering a call with a two-finger double tap.
Sight for Surrey VoiceOver lesson handbooks
Free downloadable lesson handbooks in PDF, written for brand-new iPhone users and the sighted helpers learning alongside them. Lesson 1 covers orientation and the basics — turning VoiceOver on with Siri and setting up the Accessibility Shortcut — in plain, follow-along steps. Pick the version that matches your phone.
The A11Y Project — Getting started with VoiceOver (iOS)
A concise, open-source beginner guide that gets you running fast: turn VoiceOver on in Settings, set up the triple-click Accessibility Shortcut, toggle it with Siri, and keep the gesture reference table handy while you learn.
NVDA learning resources — all free
Start with the headline: NVDA itself is free. It’s an open-source screen reader for Windows that costs nothing to download and nothing to keep — no license, no subscription, no trial that runs out. Everything below teaches you to use it, and every bit of that is free too.
NVDA User Guide & Quick Start Guide
The official documentation, free online — and it also lives inside NVDA itself (open the NVDA menu with NVDA+N, then choose Help). The Quick Start Guide is written for people who have never touched NVDA, and the full User Guide documents every feature when you’re ready to go deeper.
NVDA Coach
A free NVDA add-on that turns NVDA into its own teacher: guided lessons, keyboard commands, and hands-on practice right inside the screen reader. Built for beginners learning on their own and for trainers teaching someone else.
Voiceover Learning Lounge — NVDA series
Free, in-depth NVDA video lessons from Charmaine Coe — review modes, braille support, and accessible Windows workflows — that go well past the basics once you’ve got your feet under you.
Double Tap — “Mastering NVDA”
A free episode of Double Tap, the daily tech show for blind users hosted by Steven Scott and Shaun Preece, devoted to mastering NVDA — including Charmaine Coe’s new accessible NVDA training and how to learn from it.
Hadley — Getting Started with NVDA
Hadley’s free beginner video walks you through your first steps with NVDA, in the same calm, follow-along style as all Hadley workshops — and like everything Hadley makes, it’s free of charge.
Watch Hadley’s free Getting Started with NVDA video on YouTube
NVDA Users mailing list
Free peer support from NVDA users all over the world, by email: ask the question you’re stuck on, get answers from people who use NVDA every day, and pick up tips and ideas from the questions everyone else asks.
Apps for blind people
This is the shelf of apps most people have never heard of — the ones that make a phone read a soup can, name a dollar bill, or connect you to a pair of human eyes. Most of them are free. Every app below says its price plainly and which phones it runs on, because that matters. Prices checked October 2026 — app stores change prices, so glance at the listing before you count on one.
“See for me” — a real person, looking through your camera
Be My Eyes
Press one button and a sighted volunteer answers by video, looking through your camera to read a label, check an outfit, or find the thing you dropped. It also has a free built-in AI describer, Be My AI, for photos — everything in it is free.
Aira
Aira connects you to a professionally trained agent — a paid human, not a volunteer — who sees through your camera and talks you through harder jobs like airports, forms, and unfamiliar stores. You get 5 free minutes every 48 hours, and Aira is completely free at partner places like airports, Starbucks, and Target.
AI vision — your phone describes the world
Seeing AI
Microsoft’s free app: point your phone at a can and it reads the label out loud; point it at a letter, a room, or a person and it describes what it sees — documents, products, money, colors, even handwriting.
Envision AI
Point your phone at text and Envision reads it aloud in more than 60 languages, with voice guidance that helps you line up a document for scanning. It can also describe photos and find a person or object by name — free, with an optional pay-what-you-want way to support it.
Daisee – Low Vision Aid
A warm, voice-first helper, rated 4.8 stars: it reads letters, menus, and labels aloud, describes scenes in natural language, answers follow-up questions about what it read, talks you toward lost items like your keys or the blue mug, names colors, and senses light. Every feature is free — the only in-app purchases are optional donations of $5 to $20.
Sullivan+
An all-in-one from South Korea: it describes scenes, reads text, recognizes faces and colors, senses light brightness, and works as a magnifier, with a photo shutter on the volume button. It’s free; a subscription tier was added in 2026.
TapTapSee
The classic point-and-know app: double-tap the screen to snap a photo of anything — a can, a shirt, a box from the pantry — and it speaks what it is. It reads barcodes and QR codes too.
SuperSense
A smart scanner for text, multi-page documents, money, and barcodes that works offline, with full VoiceOver support. The free version is limited; unlimited use runs $4.99 a month, $49.99 a year, or $99.99 once, for life.
Learn VoiceOver itself
VO Starter
A step-by-step course that teaches VoiceOver itself — the gestures, the rotor, the magic tap, the home and lock screens, text editing — in short lessons built for someone holding their first iPhone. Free, with no in-app purchases.
Also free and already on your iPhone: VoiceOver Practice, a built-in lesson area in Settings, then Accessibility, then VoiceOver — no download needed.
Readers — books, mail, and documents read aloud
Voice Dream Reader
The reading app blind people swear by: it turns PDFs, ebooks, web articles, and scanned paper into natural speech, with Bookshare built in and more than 200 voices, and it works fully offline. It’s a subscription now, from about $4.99 a month — and there is no Android version.
Voice Dream Scanner
The companion to Voice Dream Reader: point your camera at mail, a package, or a sign and it scans and reads it aloud instantly, offline — about $5.99 once, no subscription.
Speech Central
The budget answer: it reads PDFs, ebooks, Word and PowerPoint files, web articles, and news feeds aloud — and for blind VoiceOver users it is completely free with no limits. Everyone else gets daily limits that a one-time upgrade removes; there is no subscription.
Getting around — navigation
BlindSquare
The classic blind GPS: as you walk it announces intersections, nearby places, and your current address, and it guides you toward a destination with clock-face directions. Its free twin, BlindSquare Event, works at sponsored venues and events.
Lazarillo
A free accessible GPS that announces where you are, nearby streets, and places as you move, and searches by category — and it works indoors, in malls and offices fitted with Bluetooth beacons.
Soundscape
Instead of turn-by-turn directions, Soundscape builds your mental map: landmarks, roads, and your own audio beacons sound like they’re coming from their real direction in your headphones. Microsoft retired it in 2023; volunteers at the Scottish Tech Army rebuilt it from the open-sourced code, and it’s free on both phone platforms now.
NaviLens
NaviLens reads bright printed codes from about 12 meters away — no careful aiming — at transit stations, bus stops, and on product packaging, and speaks directions, live arrivals, and product information.
Money, color, and light
Cash Reader
Hold any banknote up to the camera and it instantly speaks the value — 114 currencies, offline, with vibration patterns when you’d rather your money stayed private. Free for low denominations; unlocking everything costs $0.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $24.99 for life.
EyeNote
The U.S. government’s own free bill reader: hold your phone over a dollar bill and it speaks the denomination, or vibrates it privately, and it works offline. Search “EyeNote” in the App Store — it’s published by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
IDEAL Currency Identifier
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s free Android bill reader — EyeNote’s counterpart for Android phones. Search “IDEAL Currency Identifier” in Google Play.
Lookout by Google
Google’s AI vision app for Android: it reads text and documents aloud and identifies objects, food labels, and banknotes. It’s one of the best reasons to choose Android. Search “Lookout” in Google Play.
Color ID
Point the camera at a shirt, a wall, or a piece of fruit and Color ID speaks the color name in real time. Search “Color ID” in the App Store — the free one is by GreenGar.
Light Detector
It turns light into sound — the brighter the light, the higher the pitch — so you can tell whether the lights are on, find a window, or locate a glowing indicator LED. An AppleVis Hall of Fame app. Search “Light Detector” in the App Store.
Boop Light Detector
Another light detector, built by an MIT student: it adds a vibration mode for quiet places and speaks the brightness as a percentage. Search “Boop Light Detector” in the App Store.
iDentifi
Snap a photo of anything and iDentifi describes it out loud — objects, brands, colors, facial expressions, even handwriting and text. Simple, and free.
Not an app, but worth knowing while we’re on money: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing mails a free iBill currency-reader device to eligible blind Americans — no phone needed at the register. Our iBill page in Shopping & Reviews explains how it works and who qualifies.
Library — free talking books
BARD Mobile
The Library of Congress in your pocket: tens of thousands of free audiobooks, magazines, and music scores in audio and electronic braille. It’s free, but you sign up first through the National Library Service — if you can’t read standard print, you qualify. Call 1-888-NLS-READ or start at the NLS site.
iOS vs Android: which phone?
If you’re choosing a phone — especially if you lost your sight later in life and you’re picking the world you’ll live in — here’s the honest version, no fanboying.
The iPhone has the deeper blind-app shelf. BlindSquare, Voice Dream, VO Starter, EyeNote, iDentifi, and Light Detector exist only there, and because most blind users carry iPhones, tutorials and peer help are easier to find. VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader, is the more mature of the two: its rotor — a two-finger twist that changes what your swipes move through, headings, links, words — is genuinely powerful. It’s also famously the hardest gesture to learn, which is exactly why VO Starter exists.
Android is fully viable — and for many people it’s the right call. Capable Android phones cost a fraction of an iPhone, and when money is tight, that’s decisive. TalkBack, Android’s built-in screen reader, has improved enormously: its gestures are simpler — one finger swipe changes what your swipes move through — and with headphones on it will speak the characters you type into a password, which VoiceOver flatly refuses to do. And Lookout, Google’s excellent free AI vision app, is Android-only.
Our recommendation: if an iPhone fits your budget, get the iPhone — more apps, more help, smoother edges. If it doesn’t, buy the Android without a second thought: TalkBack is a real screen reader, and the free core of this whole shelf — Be My Eyes, Seeing AI, Envision, Daisee, Lazarillo, Soundscape, Speech Central, BARD Mobile — exists on both sides. Either way you’re not settling. You’re choosing.
Community & organizations
Blind Professionals Network (BPN)
A free community of working blind adults helping each other succeed — blind professionals guiding blind professionals, with no dues and nothing to buy. Join free Zoom meetings on all kinds of topics: Monday Momentum for purpose, energy, and success, the BPN Connect support group, a new-member orientation, even Friday Fitness. You also get free guidance and mentorship from people already doing the jobs you’re aiming for.
American Council of the Blind
A membership organization run by blind people, with state and local chapters, a daily community call schedule, and a well-known audio-description project tracking which shows are described.
National Federation of the Blind
The largest organization of blind people in the U.S., with chapters in every state, training centers, scholarships, and a free white cane program.
Be My Eyes
Free visual help by phone: sighted volunteers and AI describe what your camera sees — a label, a thermostat, a street sign — any time of day.
Get back outside
Freedom Waters Foundation
Free therapeutic boating and fishing days for people with disabilities and veterans, run with volunteer boat owners — mostly in Florida, with events in Georgia and Indiana.
Blind Fishing Boat
Founded by blind angler Lawrence Euteneier, it matches blind fishers with sighted fishing partners and shares techniques and gear advice for fishing without sight.
Reading
Talking books from the NLS
The National Library Service sends free audiobooks and a talking-book player by mail to anyone who can’t read standard print. Your state library runs it locally — the directory in Find Help in Your State will carry every state’s sign-up.