Innovation: Big Launcher

Czech Republic

AAI Domains:

• Capacity and enabling environment (use of ICT)

• Participation in society (social connectedness)

Big Launcher is an innovative operating system for Android smartphones that enables people with visual impairments, older people especially those who have dementia or Parkinson’s disease and people who are paralysed to use their device more easily. The operating system was devised by Daniel Kunes and Jan Husak after Jan’s mother broke her old phone and they realised that older people were put off smartphones with a complex user interface. Kunes and Husak started a company and developed Big Launcher to resemble the linear operating systems of older mobile telephones such as Nokia, that allows users to take one step back if they do not get the function that they want.

With enlarged icons, large fonts and full screen notifications available in a variety of themes it is easier to use for people who are registered blind or who have decreased level of manual dexterity. It can also be used when linked to a keyboard or via the Tecla wheelchair interface that people who are paralysed commonly use in their daily lives.

Big Launcher is available as both a free version which has been downloaded more than half a million times from the Google Play Store, and as an enhanced version for $10 that more than 30,000 people have purchased. They have established partnerships with a number of mobile phone companies to pre-load Big Launcher in the Czech Republic

They also have international arrangements with

• Vodafone in Italy

• Ucall in France

• Sim in the Netherlands

• Easiphone in the UK

• Overmax for Inutab tablets in Poland

• Jeenee in Australia.

These arrangements with mobile phone companies makes it even easier for people to access the system rather than having to download it from the Google Play Store.

Big Launcher enhances the use of information and communication technology in order to enhance social connectedness. With the number of smartphones in use continuing to increase, it is increasingly important that older people and people with visual and physical impairments are able to use this form of communication technology to enhance their social inclusion.

Websites

Big Launcher

Social Tech Trust