The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has partnered with Ooredoo Maldives to launch “Thaana Mallow” for the visually impaired community in the Maldives.

The app was launched in an effort to break down barriers and improve access to information for the blind and visually impaired community in the Maldives, said Ooredoo while announcing the launch of the app on Google Playstore on June 6.

The idea came from the “Thaana Mallow” team that won “Miyaheli”, a social innovation camp during 2019, and is supported by the government of Australia.

The app is expected to help tackle the hindrances the blind and visually impaired community faces.

In a statement, the UNDP revealed that one of the biggest challenges facing the visually impaired community is that Dhivehi content cannot be read out loud, by screen readers, software programs that allow blind users to read the test displayed on the computer or phone screen with a speech synthesizer.

Through the app, the visually impaired community can access information as it is programmed to translate Maldivian scripts to Latin so that screen readers may read it out loud.