We have a dream of making a world that's more inclusive and more accepting.

While heading to the Hackathon venue, my cofounder and I got lost and had to navigate our way. While we were able to do this in some 15 minutes, our thoughts went to people with disabilities, who wouldn't have been able to do what we just did.

The best solution that exists for people with visual impairments is the Braille system. But that's really not a good solution- these partially- or fully-blind people need to somehow find the exact point on the wall where the Braille dots are located (which is mostly going to be guesswork), and then have to guess where the Braille starts from.

We decided to build an app that would help people with disabilities navigate indoors. Instead of having them use their hands to feel the entire wall for Braille, they just need to put their finger on the phone, and the phones will vibrate in a pattern that corresponds to the Braille system- meaning no further training is required. This lets them communicate with their phones. We also provide alternatives- users can talk to their phone and provide voice instructions, and receive navigation instructions via voice or the vibrations.

We're mapping the indoors by geofencing certain areas. When you walk within a certain distance of a geofenced object, the app gives you a notification, telling you what you walked past. If you provide the app with a destination (by talking to it), then it will navigate you there.

Our dream is to make every single office, every single building in the world accessible to the public. Because while every company is quick to quote their equal opportunity policy, that doesn't mean much if people with accessibilities are effectively locked out and have no way to navigate around.

"Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. If anything, it's the only thing that ever has."

yhacks_2019

YHacks 2019

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