Careem, the UAE based transportation company that competes with Uber, added features to make it easier for sight impaired users to hail rides in Saudi Arabia. The new accessibility features available on both Android and iOS use speech-to-text and speech recognition.
The app launched in 2012 and has seen steady growth over the past six years. It now has over 170,000 captains in Saudi Arabia providing rides to millions of users in more than 50 cities in the kingdom.
Careem worked with several visually impaired users to learn of the challenges they faced when using the Careem app and what features could help them make most out of the app. Now, users can have the app read text out aloud to them and make simple commands using speech recognition.
“Our mission is to simplify and improve the lives of people in the region. We’re extremely proud to launch our new accessibility features which will support our visually impaired customers" said Dr. Abdulla Elyas, Co-founder and CEO of Careem KSA.
He added, "Our app underwent a rigorous testing process with the right target audiences and we can now ensure that our visually impaired customers can use our services without the need to ask for help from someone else, letting them maintain their independence.”
