Travelling independently, especially on public transport and through indoor spaces can be a difficult and sometimes impossible experience for blind/vision impaired people. In the UK, there is evidence that nearly 50% of blind people are not able to leave their homes as often as they would like to and 79% face serious difficulties when trying to use public transit. Traditional wayfinding aids, such as signage, are often inadequate for people with limited vision.
The rise of technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and augmented reality has the potential to transform independent travel for the world’s 253 million blind people. In particular, these technologies can support precision indoor turn-by-turn audio navigation services. Using just a smartphone, audio navigation can give blind users all the information they need to navigate complex indoor spaces, such as train stations, airports, and shopping malls, independently. Therefore, along with a primary mobility aid, audio navigation can empower blind users to travel wherever and whenever they want to.
Indoor positioning and navigation services are already a rapidly expanding market segment, expected to be worth almost $18 billion by 2021. A wide range of companies* are now offering audio navigation solutions, meaning this transformative technology can now be put in the hands of blind people.
For blind people all over the world to benefit from audio navigation, it is essential that the user experience of these services is consistent and high-quality. Consistency minimises the barriers to adoption of audio navigation amongst the user group by effectively meaning that users only need to learn how audio navigation works once.
To ensure this consistency and high quality, Wayfindr.org has developed the Wayfindr Open Standard for Audio Based Navigation, recognised by the International Telecommunication Union as Recommendation ITU-T F.921. The standard was created with the principles of consensus and user-centred design and with input from blind users and a wide range of experts.
The technology-neutral standard gives guidelines for the format, frequency, and timing of audio guidance to be provided to users of the system. The Standard gives building owners and application developers all the information they need to develop and deploy accessible audio navigation systems.
Work is ongoing with the Consumer Technology Association in the U.S. to have the ITU Recommendation recognised under the CTA/ANSI Standards programme.
In order to raise awareness of audio navigation and the role of standards to ensure user adoption, Wayfindr has developed an online eLearning course. The course is aimed at access professionals to help them understand how this type of accessibility solution works and how it can be included in access strategies for the built environment.
The course covers:
- Common types of vision impairments and their causes
- Approaches to orientation and mobility for people living with sight loss
- The development of indoor and outdoor navigation systems for persons with vision impairment, including indoor positioning systems, mapping, route planning and system functionality
- Creating audio instructions to support turn-by-turn indoor navigation for vision impaired persons.
Registration is available at an introductory discount through the ITU Academy eLearning Platform: https://itu.int/go/academy/t/f921 and more information can be found on the IAAP website: https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?admin=Y&contentid=543
*see www.wayfindr.net/community for some examples