These instructions aim to guide a new user towards accessing the Blinda mobile application for iOS and Android devices.
Access to the Blinda mobile application is limited to registered and approved users. To be approved, the user must be blind, partially sighted or have any other reading disability, which entitles him or her to access audiobooks for the blind and partially sighted, which are made available through Blinda.
To register, a user must fill out an online registration form located at https://blinda.org/register/request.
After a successful submission of the registration form, the applicant will be sent an email with a confirmation link. To finish the registration, the applicant must confirm it by following this confirmation link.
A confirmed registration will now be processed by the partner organisation selected in the registration. If approved, a new user account will be created for the applicant and he or she will receive an email with further instructions on how to set a new password, download and install the Blinda mobile application for either iOS or Android devices.
Blinda mobile application is available free of charge, for Android mobile devices (phones and tablets), with Android 8 or newer operating system, which have access to Google Play Store application marketplace.
To download and install the application on their device, a user can search for “Blinda” in the Google Play Store or open this link on their device: https://blinda.org/android
Blinda mobile application is available free of charge, for iOS mobile devices, with iOS 11 or newer. To download and install the application on their device, a user can search for “Blinda” in the iOS AppStore, or follow this link on their device: https://blinda.org/ios
To function, the Blinda mobile application requires an active internet connection to be available during use.
On first open of the Blinda mobile application, the user is presented with a login screen. At the top of this screen are located controls for increasing or decreasing the default size of all texts in the application. This is intended for partially sighted users, to help with the readability of the application. This same setting is also available later on the settings screen. These controls will not be detected by iOS Voiceover and Android TalkBack, to avoid unnecessary confusion of blind users.
Below the font size controls, the login form is presented. The form requires the user to enter their email address (the one they used to register for Blinda) and the password they created following the new password creation process in their registration approved email.
If the email address and password are correct, clicking the “Login” button below will log the user into the application and open the main application screen.
If the user can not remember the correct password for their account, they should use the “Forgotten password?” link below the “Login” button.
If the user can not remember the correct password for their account, they should use the “Forgotten password?” link below the “Login” button on the login screen. This will take them to a new screen where they can follow the on screen instructions to start the password reset process.
Following a successful login attempt, the user will be taken to the main application screen. Main application screen is divided into a series of sub-screens, of which the default is “Categories”. The full list of sub-screens is the following:
Each of these screens is divided into three sections:
After finding a book of interest, by browsing the categories or by searching for it through the search screen, the user can click the row of the preferred book and the details of this book.
In the newly opened screen, the user can listen to a sample of the audiobook, borrow the book and read the book’s information such as the author and narrator names and the book description. In the top left corner of this screen, there is a back navigation button, positioned left of the book title.
The “Play sample” and “Borrow” buttons are located underneath the title and the rest of the book information is listed below these buttons.
To borrow a book, the user must click the borrow button in the book details screen of the desired book. A confirmation window will appear where the user needs to confirm the borrow. If successful, the book will be borrowed and a new button will appear in this book’s details instead of the “Borrow” button. This will be the “Play book” button. Clicking the “Play book” button will open the audiobook player and start playing the selected audiobook.
Every borrow unlocks the book for thirty days from the moment the borrow is completed. After thirty days, the audiobook will automatically disappear from the “My books” screen.
The number of borrows a user can make is limited to:
The audiobook player can be opened by:
Once opened, the user can play and pause, skip forward and backward, navigate to next and previous chapter or navigate to a specific chapter of the audiobook.
For further information, contact us at:
info@blinda.org +386 (0)41 612 526
