For deaf, blind, and low-vision refugees, a phone with credit isn’t a phone — it’s the assistive device.

For sighted, hearing refugees, a smartphone is a tool. For a deaf or blind refugee, it’s the prosthetic. The screen reader that speaks an unfamiliar Polish road sign aloud. The video relay service that lets a deaf refugee in Lebanon sign with a family member in Berlin. The magnifier that turns 8-point German immigration paperwork into something a low-vision refugee can actually read. The whole assistive ecosystem now lives on the phone — and the moment the credit runs out, the entire ecosystem goes dark.

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A woman in a wheelchair sits in a refugee camp, making a phone call as her spouse and child cook on a small stove

A woman in a wheelchair sits in a refugee camp, making a phone call as her spouse and child cook on a small stove.

Why do we use Ai images? We don’t use photos of disabled refugees — their dignity, identity and safety come first. We’re powered by Ai and don’t spend funds on royalty payments for photos of refugees taken while in crisis.

— 01

The screen reader that doesn’t work without data.

Modern accessibility on Android and iOS depends on cloud services. TalkBack and VoiceOver work locally for the basics — but most blind refugees rely on apps like Seeing AI, Be My Eyes, Envision AI, or Google Lookout for navigating a new city, reading documents, identifying currency, recognising faces. Every one of those apps requires data. A blind refugee with no credit is an accessibility downgrade by a decade — back to memorising routes by touch and counting paces.

— 02

The deaf refugee who can’t hear the warning.

In a refugee camp evacuation, warnings are usually shouted, broadcast, or relayed via loudspeaker. Deaf refugees miss them entirely. The single tool that bridges the gap is video relay services and group SMS chains — both of which need an active mobile plan. Even basic information access — a doctor’s appointment, an evacuation order, a UNHCR registration update — depends on having credit on the phone to receive the SMS or open the WhatsApp.

— 03

What we send.

Same as everything else we do: free monthly mobile credit, sent direct to the refugee’s phone via top-up API. Whether the credit gets used for data (running the screen reader, video relay, accessibility apps) or calls (interpreters, family) is up to the refugee. The credit doesn’t expire on a tight deadline; some refugees roll it over, some burn through it in a week supporting kids back home.

The screen reader is free. The data plan isn’t. We cover the data plan.

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