School’s in session and the campus is all abuzz for students around the world. Finding your classrooms can be a daunting experience, but for a blind student, far more so. Luckily, universities and colleges are installing BlindSquare systems throughout campus to reduce navigational challenges for blind students to use through their iOS devices. Only 10% of the blind community can read braille, so easily finding Room B76 isn’t so easy for most blind students.
Through a network of battery-powered beacons strategically placed around campus, BlindSquare is able to give you all the information you need to find your way around, both indoors and outdoors. Once you enter a building, a beacon will notice your BlindSquare app triggering a database on your device that delivers voice prompts to let you know there’s a stairway, corridor or elevator nearby. It’ll get you to room B76 independently, just in time for your Calculus 101 lecture (which the app, unfortunately, can’t help with)!
Integrating this system of beacons that connect to a database of situational cues across campuses is allowing blind students, faculty and visitors the ability to navigate through the school just as a sighted person would.
The benefits of the system are present not only for the users themselves but for the schools as well. “We believe this will help not only with our current faculty, staff and students but also be a differentiator for student recruitment,” said Tiffany McClain, director of Disability Services at Columbus State Community College. Making businesses accessible is critical at this stage, and the adoption of BlindSquare on campus has been very well received.
Do you have a local school that would benefit greatly from a BlindSquare system? We’d love to hear from you. Comment below or email [email protected] to discuss.