WayAround App Uses Smart Sensors to Assist Users with Vision Impairments

November 2017 - WayAround, a Texas organization founded by architects with vision loss, launched discrete smart tags to assist people with vision disabilities to identify and keep track of common household items. The goal of WayAround was to create a precise but cost-efficient option for people who are blind or low-vision to tag household objects. The device, approximately the size of a quarter, is available in a variety of form factors ranging from buttons to magnets and stickers. Users can stick the tags discretely into items of clothing or other items, and add customizable information about that item in the WayAround app. Darwin Belt, co-founder and manager of WayAround wrote, “As architects, our job is to provide information to contractors, municipalities, customers, and others in a way they can best use it.  Most of the information in our world is presented visually, which is not very helpful for people who are blind. Our goal is to make information accessible to anyone with any degree of vision disabilities.”

 

The founders of WayAround hope that its minute size and flexibility will appeal to people with visual impairments and be a tool to simplify and expedite routine activities. Armand Fisher, WayAround co-founder, who became blind in his fifties wrote, “When I first lost my vision, I felt a lot of fear and frustration just trying to understand the world around me.” WayAround provides much-needed information, but more importantly, it gives independence and hope.” Founded on the belief that inclusive design can be beneficial to sighted and non-sighted persons, WayAround and its companion app will launch later this year. [Source: Global Accessibility News]