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Munich (dpa / lby) - The Bavarian Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired (BBSB) has criticized the fact that the Luca app for corona contact tracking is not barrier-free.

Without assistance, the visually impaired could not use the application at the moment, said the state manager for association and social policy of the BBSB, Steffen Erzgraber.

"Assistance, however, means another contact, which the app should actually be used to avoid."

According to the BBSB, blind users cannot set up the app on Apple devices themselves because they cannot accept the data protection regulations with the read-out function.

There are also problems with the version for Android operating systems, said Erzgraber.  

A spokesman for the Bavarian digital ministry said that they were aware that the app had "selective improvement requirements" in terms of accessibility.

When selecting this instrument for contact tracking, it was particularly important that the application “had to meet the requirements of effective pandemic control”.

The Ministry assumes that the developers will improve the app.

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The developer company of the Luca app, culture4life GmbH, announced that the first restrictions for the visually impaired had already been removed.

"To be honest, we didn't have that on the screen at the beginning," said a spokesman.

"The focus was on working on the system."

But now there is an exchange with the visually impaired associations to make the app barrier-free. 

"We assume that accessible versions will be available by the middle of next month," said the spokesman.

The exact date also depends on the duration of the examination by the store operator.

The Luca app is a kind of virtual business card: users first have to enter their contact details, the program then encrypts the information and generates changing QR codes.

With the codes, users can log into restaurants, cinemas or other places.

This replaces entering in a list.

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If an infection occurs in the vicinity of the visited location, the health department can identify the endangered visitors via the app.

The state government expects this to result in faster and more effective follow-up of risk contacts.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210414-99-195084 / 2

BBSB to Luca app

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Digital Ministry to Luca app

Luca app