Navigation app sends blind students personalized alerts

Using the university information system and voice navigation, this app creates personalized routes and alerts for blind students.

Five students from the Warsaw University of Technology and Jagiellonian University developed a voice navigation app, Indoor Available, for blind students. The app is based on the Indoorway technology that lets users digitize spaces for smarter use. Having won the University’s recent Campus App Challenge hackathon, the Indoor Available app is now in development.

Although designed specifically to help blind students navigate university campuses, the app will be available for general way-finding. The app uses voice navigation to guide users en route to a destination. Additionally, it has access to the the university’s information management system, which contains a complete class schedule for each user. This enables the app to send alerts if a class is cancelled or moved to a different location.

Finding ways to make spaces and experiences more inclusive is an interesting area of innovation. For example, one technological solution is a smart shirt that converts classical music sounds into vibrations, allowing deaf people to feel a concert. Another innovation is a glasses add-on that helps hearing impaired people see sound. How can your business use a library of accessibility options to make services more easily accessible?