New Approaches in Access: Smart Tools for Indoor Navigation and Information Transfer

<p class="p1">This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss.</p> <p class="p1">Artifacts from Blackbeard’s sunken pirate ship are on display in the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina. But now they are also accessible to visitors who are blind, thanks to the efforts of Peter Crumley, who spearheads the Beaufort Blind Project. In this episode, we ask: How can new technology help make sites like these as accessible to people who are blind as they are to sighted people? We profile three companies applying new technologies paired with smartphone capabilities, to make strides in indoor navigation, orientation, and information transfer. Idan Meir is co-founder of RightHear, which uses Apple’s iBeacon technology to make visual signage dynamic and accessible via audio descriptions. We check in with Javier Pita, CEO of the NaviLens QR code <a href= "https://lighthouseguild.libsyn.com/how-the-simple-qr-code-became-an-empowering-navigation-tool-0"> <span class="s1">technology which we profiled</span></a> in our first season to see what they have been developing in the last two years. Rather than iBeacons or QR codes, GoodMaps uses LiDAR and geocoding to map the interior of a space. We speak with Mike May, Chief Evangelist. Thanks to Peter Crumley, the North Carolina Maritime Museum is fully outfitted with GoodMaps, and will soon have NaviLens as well. As the prices of these tools come down, the key will be getting them into all the buildings, organizations, and sites of information transfer that people who are blind need to access – which is all of them.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1"><strong>The Big Takeaways:</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li1"><em>Beaufort Blind Project.</em> Peter Crumley, a blind resident of Beaufort, North Carolina, has advocated having accessibility tools brought to various parts of his hometown. Along the way, he helped the North Carolina Maritime Museum outfit itself with GoodMaps technology for indoor nav