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scale patterns as too many colours can create confusion.
Signage
Low-level tactile signs help people who are blind or visually impaired to read the information,
but it is common for signs to only have raised characters. Braille can be read more quickly and easily than raised print, so information in Braille should always be included on signage.
Signage should be located at a consistent height and distance from the area it is identifying. Signage lettering should be raised and colour contrasted with the background
of the sign, and the background colour should contrast with the surrounding wall surface (see Figure 3).
Building layout generally
Hallways should be straight with 90° turns rather than curves as these can disorientate. They should have a clean, uncluttered design and no obstacles.
Stairs should have handrails that extend beyond the stairs at both top and bottom to give warning that they are about to begin
or end. Handrails must be easy to grasp and securely xed.
Glass doors should have contrasting markings at their leading edges. They should also have two horizontal bands of contrasting colour across the glass at heights between 850–1,000 mm and 1,400–1,600 mm above the oor level. Outdoors
A simple, logical outdoor layout is easier to navigate for those people who are blind or have low vision. Permanent outdoor furniture such
as seats, tables, drinking fountains and so on should not protrude into an accessible path of travel. They should be a contrasting colour to the surroundings.
Where bollards are installed, they should be at least 1.0–1.2 m high and a contrasting colour to the surroundings. Low bollards can be a stumbling hazard.
Technology aids
Technology is contributing to the eld of build- ing and spatial design and, in recent years, has made enormous advances for blind and visually impaired people.
Although there have been specialist devices
to aid navigation for some time, the introduction of Apple’s screen-reading technology for iPhone, iPad and iPod now provides low-cost options for navigation tools for the blind. This technology, called Voiceover, speaks everything that is displayed on the device’s screen.
BlindSquare
BlindSquare is a GPS app for blind and visually impaired people that uses the Voiceover technol- ogy from Apple to describe the surroundings, such as street intersections, locations of buildings and points of interest. Information is provided both on the device’s screen and in a spoken format through a headset or speaker.
While it provides excellent outdoor navigation assistance, information about the inside of the building is not available.
BlindSquare BPS
Specifying an indoor navigation system, such as BlindSquare BPS (beacon positioning system) can fill this gap. This uses iBeacons
– small, low-energy Bluetooth transmitters installed in buildings that provide information about the interior spaces.
iBeacon transmitters are battery operated, cheap, small and easy to install in di erent locations in the building. Each transmitter broadcasts a unique ID that can be received by
Apple devices. Data about the building must be created for each transmitter and published to the cloud.
When the app is launched, it accesses the information in the cloud and provides it as audio messages to navigate the user through the building. Information may include distance to the next door, whether the door is on the left or right side and the room or space that the door accesses. If the user turns 180°, the information they receive will be relevant to the direction in which they are now facing.
Several messages can be associated with one transmitter. If there are a number of messages, the message read out depends on factors such as the user’s walking direction, the direction in which their device is pointing or the other transmitters that have already been detected. This helps BlindSquare BPS to be context aware as it relates the user’s current location to where they have come from and to the direction in which they are moving.
The nature of storing information on the cloud means that, if information about a space needs to be changed, the new information is available for use as soon as it has been published to the cloud.
BlindSquare BPS can be installed at little cost and is ideal for large public buildings and spaces.
Additional references
● NZS 4121:2001 Design for access and mobility – Buildings and associated facilities.
● AS/NZS 1428.4.1:2009 Design for access and mobility – Tactile indicators.
● RTS 14 – Guidelines for facilities for blind and visually impaired pedestrians (NZ Transport Agency).
● Pedestrian planning and design guide (NZ Transport Agency).
40 — February/March 2016 — Build 152