The visually impaired day: Touch screens - recognize and overcome barriers!

The visually impaired day: Touch screens - recognize and overcome barriers!

On June 6, 2025, the day -disabled person is celebrated in Germany. This year the focus is on using touchscreens and the associated challenges for people with visual impairment. District City Council for Youth, Family and Health, Christoph Keller, emphasizes the importance of this topic in a current press release. Touch screens have increasingly replaced switches and turntables, which makes operation difficult for many people with visual impairment.

The district office Mitte plans to start various initiatives that day, including special courses in the "General Blind and Visually Impaired Association" (ABSV). These should not only take place in the club rooms, but also at district adult education centers (VHS). In addition, a further training of the VHS lecturer is to be planned to ensure that the training is optimally tailored to the needs of the participants.

advisory services and training courses

A nationwide unique municipal contact point for visually impaired people is the advice center for people with visual impairment. This offers low -threshold offers for those affected and interested parties. The Health Department Mitte is available to all visually impaired Berliners to offer advice on compensation options for an independent life. Interested parties can test optical and electronically enlarged visual aids there and get information about a wide range of aids and apps.

There is further focus on the training for barrier -free operation of smartphones. As Manuela Myszka reports from ABSV, there are challenges everywhere in everyday life, for example when entering PIN at terminals in restaurants or taxis. The introduction of tactile stencils about touchscreens in some Berlin restaurants is already a possible solution to promote independence of visually impaired people.

law developments and digital barriers

With the entry into force of the accessibility law on June 28, 2025, companies are obliged to make their digital products and services barrier -free. This legal regulation is considered a significant step to reduce digital barriers. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, over a million visually impaired people live in Germany, and their self -determination depends crucially on digital accessibility.

digital barriers, such as inadequate contrasts or missing image descriptions, may no longer be accepted. The German Blind and Visual Persurement Association (DBSV) has started several initiatives to draw attention to these topics, among other things with the film "Blind and visually impaired people in a digitized world" and a YouTube video entitled "The Veruved Touchscreens!". These information campaigns are intended to help raise awareness and to design digital solutions.

Overall, the day of visually impaired people shows in 2025 how important it is to reduce barriers and to promote the integration of visually impaired people into digital society. Those responsible are required to check the digital entrances and, if necessary, to adapt.

For further information and advice, interested parties can contact the advice center for people with visual impairment:

• Address: Turmstr. 21, Haus M, 10559 Berlin, start J, 3rd floor right
• Telephone: 030 9018 45246
• Office hours: Mon - Thu: 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Tue - Thu: 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Fri: 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

For more information about the topic of digital accessibility, you can use the websites of ABSV and DBSV Visit.