BlindShell Turns 10: From a Thesis to an Award-Winning Phone for the Blind Summary

This year, BlindShell celebrates its 10th anniversary — and we couldn’t have asked for a better gift than winning the FeelVision Award 2025 for Best Product at the international SightCity fair in Frankfurt. It’s a huge honor for us. But it also made us reflect: how many of you actually know the story behind BlindShell?

It hasn’t been an easy journey. But it’s one that fulfills us deeply. We love what we do and see it as a mission. And we hope that passion shines through — especially in our latest phone, the BlindShell Classic 3.

From Thesis to Our Own Phone

It all began as a university thesis by Petr Svobodník, supervised by Professor Daniel Novák. Together with Michal Jelínek from the SONS organization, they developed an app that helped blind users operate modern touchscreen phones — devices without physical buttons.

The app was initially available on the Google Play store. In 2014, BlindShell won the Idea of the Year competition, and with the support of the Vodafone Foundation, the project officially took off. The app was installed on Samsung smartphones, which we then sold. But as you might guess, it wasn’t sustainable — each new phone model required new tweaks, testing, and adjustments. It quickly became clear that this approach wasn’t viable long-term.

The Right People in the Right Place (at the Right Time)

Our current CEO, Jan Šimík, wasn’t part of the project from the beginning. He joined later, after leaving his previous job and looking for new opportunities. As he puts it: “We were all in the right place at the right time.”

As a child, he dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but the project completely captivated him — and he became an essential part of it. And it was thanks to this “coincidence” that the BlindShell story really began to unfold.

From an Email to Foxconn to Manufacturing Our Own

We knew we needed our own phone — one designed specifically with blind users in mind. But how to make that happen?

Jan made a bold move and sent an email to Foxconn, a company based in Taiwan:“We’d love to adapt your phones for blind users — but we can’t pay for them.”

We didn’t expect much. But to our surprise — they said yes. So BlindShell began by adapting their phones. These still didn’t have physical buttons. But eventually, we were able to offer a button-based phone running our own software — even if the hardware was still from another manufacturer at the time. In 2018, we launched the BlindShell Classic. Some of you might still remember it.

Since then, a lot has changed. Together with design studio Herrmann & Coufal, we gave the phone a bold new visual identity, earned several awards, and started exporting to many countries around the world.

Always Listening, Always Improving

Most importantly, we’ve always tried to keep up with the times and respond to our users’ needs. That’s why our phones have evolved so much over the years. Our latest model, BlindShell Classic 3, features Luna, an AI assistant who can help with just about anything — like finding the best strawberry cake recipe. Thanks to the Observo feature, the phone can describe what’s in a photo. And who knows — maybe it’ll even help you finally find two matching socks in your drawer.

But we don’t just focus on the phone itself. In November, we launched our Tandem app, available exclusively on BlindShell Classic 3 — but also for Android and iOS. Tandem enables remote support, allowing your sighted friends or family to help with things like phone settings. It can also be used for communication, including video calls and text messages.

And that’s not all — we’re constantly improving the phone, adding new features all the time. If we listed them all here, it would fill a whole book.

What Does “BlindShell” Actually Mean?

In tech speak, a “shell” is a user interface. And “blind” is, well, blind. So BlindShell quite literally means “user interface for the blind.” Simple. Clear. Just like we believe our phone should be.

Today, we have thousands of users around the world, a fantastic team, and a product we’re truly proud of. Everyone contributes to development — from A to Z, and sometimes in ways you wouldn’t expect. Did you know, for example, that many of the melodies in our phones are composed by our own colleagues? For example, the sounds in Classic 2 were created by Lukáš Chromek, a well-known musician and guitarist who has worked with artists like Ewa Farna. She recently performed in Prague alongside Albanian-British singer Dua Lipa. You can listen to a recording from that concert here.

But in the beginning, it all came down to a simple idea, the courage to write an honest email — and a few people who truly believed in it.

Thank you for being with us. We look forward to the years ahead.