Mister Beacon

A UK based nonprofit has created the first internationally recognized standard for accessible audio navigation - helping visually impaired people travel independently, removing barriers to employment and interacting with friends and family. With the number of visually impaired estimated to be 295 million and increasing, Wayfindr saw a lack of accessibility solutions and a lack of consistency which was impacting young people in particular. In order to fix the fragmentation created by different offerings, they created an open standard for indoor navigation (ITU-T F.921). This enables venues, such as a metro station, to create detailed audio navigation instruction with help from Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons. We talk to Tiernan Kenny, Head of Communications, Public Affairs, and Standards at Wayfindr about the advantages and limitations of different indoor location metrics, how their standard can help the visually impaired and beyond, and why all venues should be implementing audio wayfinding today.