ANKARA (Web Desk/APP) – A new Turkish app is allowing blind or visually impaired moviegoers to enjoy the show too.
Users can simply launch the app before the screening of a film and plug in their earphones to receive full audio description.
Developed by Turkish mobile operator Turkcell, the app was launched at a gala screening of new film ‘Kiss of Life’.
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The head of the company’s division for disabled people is visually impaired herself, and says the technology is a world first.
“With our app those scenes that used to be missing are being depicted and this app makes those scenes visible for visually impaired people. Today, I can watch the movies with the app with audio description and I can have a more pleasant experience without missing any scenes,” says Gamze Sofuoglu, the head of the Turkcell division for disabled people.
“We had audio description for every scene and every second with no problems. I listened to it easily and I enjoyed it very much,” she says.
The movie’s star and director Ali Sunal was also happy to see visually impaired moviegoers enjoying his work.
“I am very happy that ‘Kiss of Life’ was chosen for this project. I came here with great excitement. It is an enormous pleasure to see that the audience can fully understand everything I wanted to depict. It is great to see all the obstacles are removed,” says Ali Sunal, a Turkish leading actor and director of the movie ‘Kiss of Life’.
Turkcell’s app is a free-of charge service available to all customers of all operators in Turkey. The cellphone operator says it expects it to be used by 800,000 visually impaired citizens in the country by 2016.
