AppleVis and Be My Eyes are pleased to announce the winners of the 13th annual AppleVis Golden Apple Awards and the inaugural David Goodwin Award.
Since their launch in 2012, the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards have afforded blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users of Apple products an opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the hard work and dedication which developers have put into making and maintaining great and accessible applications over the given year. Launched in 2024 as a part of our exciting partnership with Be My Eyes, the David Goodwin Award recognizes a developer who has made an outstanding and lasting impact for people who are blind, DeafBlind, or who have low vision over a minimum of the last three (3) years.
To be eligible for the Golden Apple for Best App or Best Game, an app must:
- Be fully accessible to blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users;
- Have been launched or significantly updated during 2024;
- Be from a developer with a demonstrated commitment to making their app(s) accessible to blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users; and
- Be best-in-class in terms of design, functionality, and operation.
To be eligible for the Golden Apple for Developer of the Year, a developer must:
- Have a demonstrated commitment to making their apps fully accessible to blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users during 2024;
- Have delivered significant new features or updates to their app(s) during 2024, particularly updates which directly benefit blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users; and
- Have been actively engaged with blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users during 2024 and established or maintained positive relationships with our community.
To be eligible for the David Goodwin Award, a developer must:
- Have actively been developing accessible applications for a minimum of three (3) years;
- Have at least one (1) fully accessible app in the App Store which is actively being developed;
- Consistently deliver app functionality which represents both excellence in design and vision accessibility implementation;
- Demonstrate an ongoing and exemplary commitment to empowering people who are blind, DeafBlind, or who have low vision; and
- Be actively engaged with blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users and consistently go above and beyond to serve the needs of our community.
Below are the winners for each award:
- Best App: Seeing AI
- Honorable Mentions: PiccyBot, VoiceVista
- Best Game: Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG
- Honorable Mentions: Brailliance - Learn Braille, AudioCat
- Developer of the Year: Jianfeng Wu (VoiceVista)
- David Goodwin Award: Envision Technologies B.V. (Envision AI)
- Honorable Mentions: Weather Gods Ltd (Weather Gods), Aira Tech Corp (Aira Explorer)
Thank You To Our Nominating Committee
We would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank the below community leaders for serving on our 2024 Golden Apples Nominating Committee:
- Shelly Brisbin
- Judy Dixon
- Michael Feir
- John Gassman
- Jonathan Mosen
- David Redmond
- Joe Steinkamp
About the Nomination and Voting Process
Nominations for the 2024 AppleVis Golden Apples and David Goodwin Award were submitted by a committee of leaders from throughout the blind community. Additionally, our Editorial Team put forward nominations based on reviewing and analyzing website activity (App Directory entries, forum posts and comments, etc.) The Nominating Committee was provided a copy of the criteria for each award and asked to consider this criteria when making nominations. Additionally, the Nominating Committee was advised that Be My Eyes and the Be My Eyes app are not eligible for this or any future AppleVis awards.
The 2024 AppleVis Golden Apples consisted of awards for Best App, Best Game, Developer of the Year, and the David Goodwin Award. Voting was held between December 13 and December 23, 2024. Voting was open to all blind, DeafBlind, and low vision members of the AppleVis community who did not have an employment or other financial relationship with any of the shortlisted developers/companies.
In Closing
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the developers who were nominated for this year's awards. All of the nominees have demonstrated tremendous dedication to empowering people who are blind, DeafBlind, or who have low vision; and our appreciation for their efforts cannot be overstated. We would also like to thank the team at Be My Eyes, as well as all of our members and visitors, for being part of the AppleVis family. We wish you the very best and every good thing in 2025.
Comments
Wow surprised
Well amazed at some of these results. Also, can we have clarification here on exactly what was done to pick the winners. I assumed and from above not convinced I'm right that the winners would simply be those that got the most votes from the members. If this is not true what % was from our votes? Sounds like Eurovision to me lol.
Interesting.
As Mr. Spock tended to state: "Facinating".
Most Number of Votes
Hi Lee,
The winners for each category were the app or developer that received the most number of votes. Honorable mentions were those that came in second and third place, respectively.
Details of votes poled etc?
It would be interesting to have details like the total number of votes poled in each category, the No. of votes the winner and the honorable mentions got etc out there on the table. Will make the whole process more transparent I guess. And will also give app developers a better perspective on the demands of the silent voter, as it were.
Re: Details of votes poled etc?
Hi Gokul,
While I don't feel it would be appropriate for us to release vote totals, what I can say is that the app or developer with the highest number of votes for each category was declared the winner. For the honorable mentions, the app or developer with the second-highest number of votes was listed first, and the third-highest was listed next.
Best,
Michael
disappointed to See Triode didn't make the cut
Disappointed to see Triode didn't make the cut. They have been making accessible apps for years.
Dennis Long
interesting. The only app that I had seen asking for input and responding ASAP to questions is Scott from WG. Seeing AI? Did they? Did I miss something?
Well done to all the winners…
Well done to all the winners and runners up. It's great that we are recognising ingenuity in a rather narrow market space. I also can see why the winners are the winners. They are most likely the most used apps and therefore got the most votes.
Maybe, in the future, there could be categories for small devs, newcomers, etc. This isn't really saying what is the best app, nor which developer is most deserving of an award, it's simply the popularity of the app. It's an award, maybe then, for the most useful app. As I say, I would like to see Recognition of innovation as well as celebrating smaller devs. Seeing AI, for example is, as far as I understand it, funded by microsoft.
Just a few thoughts there. I'm really glad you have this each year.
Congratulations to Dawncaster!
Congrats to Dawncaster for winning! I was sure that my game, Azmar Quest, couldn't compete with such a popular game, but I'm still happy it got nominated!
Who knows, maybe next year!
Ollie
Agreed. Also the developer willingness to listen to input and respond to suggestions regarding accessibility.
Congrats from me as well to all these devs and their respective
Congrats from me as well to everyone. I've checked out the new stuff in Seeing AI, and it seems pretty neat. I just discovered a couple days ago, that the spacial-awareness stuff does indeed work with my hearing aids. I therefore am going to try and create a route to follow in one or more of these apps.
I tell ya what.
Very glad that Dawncaster made the cut. It's been one of my go toos as of late
Clarification
Hi all,
I wanted to take a moment to provide additional clarification regarding the voting process:
Thanks
Thank you, AppleVis and Be My Eyes, for recognizing these apps, developers, and leaders in accessibility. I look forward to the day when accessible development is the norm, and recognizing it would be like awarding a construction company for their outstanding wheelchair ramp design.
Hi Michael. I'm sorry if I…
Hi Michael.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. You've been transparent about the pole, which is great. What I was getting at is it becomes a popularity contest rather than a Recognition of innovation. This is not specific to this situation by any means, it simply makes me question the point in it. I'd argue we should be celebrating those developers who have gone above and beyond, mainstream apps that have pushed for accessibility, smaller devs who have made something unique, and even, the rotten apple award for those apps which are and have remained a disaster for accessibility.
I know this adds to the complexity of the awards. As it stands, I don't know if it encourages app developers to go further, to reach higher and all those well worn metaphors.
Also, I must say, I'm not trying to take anything away from winners here. they are all fantastic apps with amazing people behind them. I'm just hoping that, in years to come, there is more nuance to how other awards are created and presented to create a more informational rich result. All we have at the moment is what most people like, which is a great starting point, but could also be expanded to further our plight.