Peter, Principal Habilitation Specialist, explores how the use of a mobile phone and colour coded tiles make travel more accessible for people with a vision impairment.
Stepping inside the new shiny Translink Belfast Grand Central Station transport hub, you may wonder how a person with a vision impairment is meant to go beyond the main entrance never mind travel across the province, further south to Dublin or to one of Northern Ireland’s well-connected airports and on to sunnier climes.
As you’re greeted by a vast open space of grey floor tiles, sun glaring off glass walls and an array of arrival and departure information, all on high level screens, you could think this is an accessibility challenge of modern architecture - which, as a professional working with people with vision impairment, can often be an obstacle at the least. Due to acoustics, there isn’t any audible announcements for departing buses; everything is visually displayed.
However, when you start to look at things in a little more detail, much has been invested to ensure that this is a transport hub for the future and is accessible for all.
Like many other bus and trains stations across the UK, you’ll find tactile wayfinding routes on the floor, that’ll take you on a journey to the main points of the building, including bus boarding bays, railway platforms, information desk and the toilets. Lines of tactile can allow a cane user to navigate the vast expanse with relative ease, and junctions are identified by squares of blisters. However, with so many junctions to choose from, how do you know which is the right one to take or pass by? The answer, in this instance, is NaviLens.
What are NaviLens codes?
The general public may take little notice of the coloured QR style codes, strategically placed at the key junctions along the tactile routes. Yet, armed with a mobile phone and the NaviLens app, the floor comes alive with audio instructions, providing you with information at key junctions to allow you to make an informed choice of which way you can turn, and where each branch may take you.
NaviLens and a company called Journeo have worked to provide a dynamic wayfinding solution, which provides a traveller with a vision impairment with all the information they need to navigate independently.
How NaviLens can help people with a vision impairment
By holding your phone to preview the floor around three meters in front of you, NaviLens will look for the code tiles on the floor, and on their location will give you a description of the options available at the junction. What’s more, it’s dynamic, meaning that it knows which direction you’re coming from by the orientation of the code, so will change the directional information accordingly. For example, ‘Turn left for the information desk’ when approached in one direction, becomes ‘Turn right for the information desk’ when coming from the opposite way. NaviLens assistance doesn’t just support navigation through this vast space, it has also been adopted to allow easy audible access to the bus stand and train platform screens, with individual screens having their own unique code. Simply approach the screen and hold the mobile device upwards to find the code, with a couple of screen taps and seconds later the live departure information is streamed onto the device and read aloud. The general departure screens on the main bus concourse are also accessible, giving passengers information about bus bay departure numbers and times.
Designing a space that is all inclusive does require a fine balance. Too much tactile can be confusing for someone travelling with sight loss , and potentially uncomfortable to someone who uses a wheelchair. There are areas in the station where tactile wayfinding hasn’t been used, mainly towards the retail areas. However, there are plans for codes to be added above doors to each shop, locating them central to the doorway. In 360 Vision Mode, NaviLens will announce the name of the shop and guide the user across the open space to the doorway, by giving them audible directions.
Considerations while using NaviLens
Using NaviLens does have some drawbacks, and considerations for practitioners when working with people with sight loss. The position and angle of the device to scan the floor is quite critical to pick the codes up accurately. This may take some time for a user to perfect. Each code does provide a considerable amount of information, so for anyone unfamiliar to the layout it can take a while to listen to all of the information, which may slow their journey down.
When using NaviLens, there are some safety considerations too. Walking around with a mobile phone in your hand or holding it up to locate those higher-level NaviLens screen codes, does carry some risk. It should also be recommended using bone conducting-headphones, so audible information can be relayed without impeding the sounds from the environment.
This is by no means perfect but having a vision impairment myself, it’s a big stride in the right direction for inclusion and independent travel. In most instances the need for any assistance is totally removed.
It certainly showcases what can be achieved and hopefully similar approaches will be adopted across other public spaces across the UK in the future. And the best part is, it can easily be retrospectively fitted, so any building can be adapted!
Read more about the NaviLens app and codes, and how they can help you navigate with a vision impairment in our guide to NaviLens.
