Watch Your Step
Over two million people in the UK are affected by sight loss, and nearly half of them have to battle depression due to isolation.
One of the key reasons blind people are isolating themselves is because of the lack of independence when it comes to mobility.
Some are too reluctant at the idea of leaving their home on their own although half of them say they wish they would go out more often.
And indeed, according to a survey conducted by the RNIB, 95 percent of people affected by sight loss have said they have collided with an obstacle at least once on a period of 3 months.
These accidents at repetition not only can leave someone bruised physically, but it can also bruise their confidence.
Car parked wrongly, bins in the middle of the way or advertisement boards, here are some of the most common obstacles sight impaired people meet when they are walking about.
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For those who desire it and are lucky enough to find the right match, a guide dog can come as a handy solution to avoid obstacles.
Trained to see for others, guide dogs are a real asset to walk safer and faster in an urban area.
But some people are still on a waiting list for a guide dogs, the association Guide dogs estimate around £55,000 the cost of support of a guide dog from birth to retirement.
Although some people simply do not wish to have a guide dog, because they might not be dog people, or it can be too much of a commitment and responbilities.
Fortunately, new technologies have evolved considerably and are allowing more independence for people with sight loss.
In London, WayFindr a non-profit organisation took up the challenge to empower visually impaired people to navigate independently in the city using their smartphones.
Taking it further than GoogleMap, WayFindr promises “it will give venue owners and digital navigation services the tools to implement high quality, consistent, audio wayfinding solutions”.
In other words, this Open Standard will not only provide navigation information on outdoor areas, but also indoor areas such as the underground.
Thanks to signals emitted from bluetooth “beacons” throughout the subway, the smartphones of WayFindr users are able to pick up on their location and give them the instructions to navigate in the tube.
Providing them with precise directions such as:
“The down escalator is the left one.”
“The wide gate is the left one.”
“The call buttons are between the two lifts.”
The device has been in trial in London, Sydney and Oslo and is set to expand to other cities in the World.
Its expansion to different cities around the globes depend mostly on venue owners and accessibility consultants to integrate them to their spaces.
If it will not be able to spot the moving obstacles like advertisement boards on the street, it is still a big step forward for visually impaired people’s independence and mobility.
In the long run, the improvement in mobility could also translate into an increase of employment opportunities.
To find out more about WayFindr
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