How Rehnuma Awaz helps blind and visually impaired Urdu speakers

Picture a message from your family arriving on your phone, and waiting for someone else to read it to you. Or a bank statement you cannot check, a textbook you cannot study, a form you cannot fill in. For many blind and visually impaired Urdu speakers in Pakistan, that has been ordinary life. The technology to help them existed, but it did not speak their language well enough to rely on.

We built Rehnuma Awaz to change that.

A voice for the tools you already trust

Most blind and visually impaired people use phones and computers through a screen reader, such as NVDA on Windows, TalkBack on Android or VoiceOver on Apple devices. The screen reader decides what to say. A text-to-speech engine decides how it sounds.

Rehnuma Awaz is that engine, for Urdu. It plugs into the screen reader you already know and gives it a natural, accurate Urdu voice. The rest of the way you use your device stays the same.

• On Windows, Rehnuma Awaz is an add-on for NVDA. It improves how NVDA reads Urdu and keeps English clear.
• On Android, it is a system voice for TalkBack and for other apps that read text aloud.
• On iPhone, iPad and Mac, the Rehnuma Awaz app brings its voices to VoiceOver and other apps.

What changes in your day

Messages. You hear WhatsApp chats, texts and notifications in natural Urdu, with the English words in them read correctly too. You talk to family, friends and colleagues without a go-between.

Money. You check balances, transaction alerts and bills in private, and Rehnuma Awaz reads the amounts the way people say them.

Learning. You study Urdu and English course material on your own and revise at your own pace. You can check any letter or diacritic by name.

Work and public services. Documents, emails, websites and online forms come within reach, and with them the jobs and services that have moved online.

Reading for pleasure. News, articles and books in Urdu, in a voice you can enjoy for hours.

Why Pakistan needed this

Free screen readers have been around for years, and neighbouring countries have built natural voices for their own languages. Urdu speakers were left with two poor options:

• Robotic Urdu voices that tired the ear and mispronounced everyday words, numbers and names.
• No real Urdu at all, which forced people to run their devices in English, a language many do not read with ease.

Both kept capable people dependent on others for tasks they could do themselves. Rehnuma Awaz fills that gap: your screen reader stays, and gains the Urdu voice it was missing.

Built with the community

The people who use Rehnuma Awaz shape it. At hands-on sessions across Pakistan, blind and visually impaired participants test it on their own devices and tell us what to improve. The apps also let you send us any word Rehnuma Awaz pronounces wrongly, and we build that feedback into each release.

Start today

Rehnuma Awaz is free on every platform. Hear the voices, then download it for your device. If you work with blind or visually impaired people, request a session for your team.