Technology opens doors for blind people

New technology is making the History Museum on the Square Inc. and its collections more accessible to visitors, particularly those who are blind or partially sighted.

NaviLens is a free phone app being deployed at the museum to offer wayfinding assistance and interpretive translations audibly.

The technology also translates information into 34 languages, so international museum guests can absorb all the museum has to offer. The museum’s location on historic Route 66 makes it a draw for people from all over the world, according to Charlotte McCoy, the museum’s business manager.

Frank Taylor is promoting Murcia, Spain-based NaviLens in Springfield. He is working on behalf of Mary’s Braille International, a Willard-based company that provides Braille transcription services, and said the local company’s vision is for Springfield to be a model of accessibility for cities throughout the United States.

The History Museum on the Square is a powerful demonstration of what the technology can do, Taylor said.

“When you go to the museum, you have access to every exhibit. You can find a specific artifact, and if you hit ‘more,’ it will tell you everything about that artifact,” he said.

“It literally empowers people who are blind or have low vision.”

Mary Weber, founder of Mary’s Braille International, said her company is part of newly created contingency of representatives for NaviLens. The company can set up 10 codes at about $5 per code, plus a fee for its time.

She added that some nonprofits provide help to public entities to cover the cost of implementation.

“Everything we do is with one thing in mind, to provide a more accessible environment to help blind, visually impaired seniors and others with visual challenges as well as opening the doors for people who live or visit and have difficulty with the English language in daily activities,” she said.

Taylor said during the pilot period, Mary’s Braille is paying for signage in the museum and in Empower: Abilities, a nonprofit service agency for people with disabilities where the app is now in use.

He has been talking up NaviLens with government, business and nonprofit officials throughout the area, and he said interest is growing in adopting the technology. He cited the city of Springfield and Missouri State University as two entities he hopes will get on board.

How it works
McCoy demonstrated using the tech recently at the museum. After the user opens the NaviLens app, markers at key locations throughout the facility allow them to sweep the phone’s camera across the room to locate them.

Codes can be spotted from some 60 feet away – 12 times farther than a QR or barcode – and within a fraction of a second, according to the NaviLens website. The app can also spot codes at an angle of up to 160 degrees, in most light conditions and without the camera being focused.

This is helpful to all users, but it’s crucial to people who are blind, as the app locks on to a code very quickly without the user having to center the phone over an icon.

As McCoy demonstrated, when the app spots a NaviLens code, it announces what it’s marking, like an elevator or bathroom, and then it emits beeping noises that grow more rapid the closer the user gets to the target, thus allowing the person to approach.

In the museum, the app offers more than wayfinding; it also provides interpretive information, reading exhibit labels and providing even more context if museum officials have programmed it to do so. McCoy said the sky is the limit for museum interpretation, as introductory panels can be read aloud in different languages for users. Eventually each relic on display could be described and interpreted.

“This all started last year when the International Federation of the Blind, Springfield Chapter, came, and when they reserved the group, our team was saying, ‘OK, how do we really help the visually impaired?’” she said.

A representative of the group made an advance trip and helped museum staff by pointing out issues they may not have been aware of, like tripping hazards. What became clear was that the museum did not have a good way to interpret exhibits for people with visual impairments, McCoy said.

“That was the hard thing,” she said. “We had one of our volunteers present in each gallery as a tour, but the visitors didn’t really get the whole story.”

A team member had seen NaviLens being used as a navigation tool in Europe and experienced its linguistic versatility and suggested it for the museum, she said.

It might be possible to find a person who can translate information from English into Spanish or French, but it gets a little tougher when the guest speaks Galician, Czech, Danish or some of the other languages NaviLens offers.

“We get a lot of people from far away,” McCoy said.

Taylor noted Springfield’s international profile will soon rise, with FIFA World Cup games coming to Kansas City in 2026.

“The eyes of the world are going to be on this area,” he said, adding that if Springfield incorporates NaviLens technology, it will secure its status as an attractive destination for multilingual visitors of all levels of ability.

A model city
McCoy said she is excited to be featuring the technology.

“I want to showcase this to city reps, other businesses, schools, whatever it is, so they can see it, and then maybe we can all work together and get grants or whatever to make this more widespread,” she said.

Taylor has been spreading the word in demonstrations throughout the city, and awareness is growing.

Cora Scott, the city’s director of public information and civic engagement, said city officials sat in on a meeting about the technology. She said they were enthusiastic, but no decisions have been made.

But the city’s interest is piqued, said Taj Suleyman, Springfield’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Our aim is to progressively roll it out in a trial phase across several departments,” he said. “This approach will help us gauge its effectiveness in providing inclusive and equitable services to both our community members and visitors.”

Nick Nelson, director of the Springfield Art Museum, also attended a demonstration of the technology and found it impressive.

“The museum is committed to being a leader in our community when it comes to accessibility,” he said, noting museum officials are exploring whether the technology is a good fit.

“Factors include how the technology might be integrated into planned spaces, our ability to maintain the system on the back end, support needs and customer support capabilities of the NaviLens team, and last but certainly not least, cost, which will weigh heavily on our decision going forward,” he said.

The cost to deploy NaviLens varies. For example, the city of San Antonio, Texas, piloted the technology with signs at 100 bus stops, according to a 2021 online news story in the San Antonio Report, and the cost of the pilot was $8,950. After the pilot was deemed a success, the ultimate price tag for this year’s rollout to 6,000 bus stops, with navigation help, next-bus information and trip planning updates, was $600,000, according to KSAT TV.

A 2023 story in the DeKalb County Daily Chronicle discusses NaviLens’ rollout on the Northern Illinois University campus, with 1,500-plus signs placed in campus buildings and on city buses. The cost in 2022, the first year of implementation, was $10,000 – about $50 per unique code, according to the university. In 2023, the university budgeted about $5,000 for upkeep.

Taylor said Mary’s Braille International is interested in seeing the technology spread throughout the city.

“Anybody who wants to use them, we can get access to that for them,” he said.

Programmable codes are the next level up, and Mary’s Braille is open to contractual agreements to provide those, Taylor said.

“To get them out there in public, whatever the cost plus our time, that’s all we’re charging anybody at this time,” he said.

Taylor said the company cannot discuss implementation costs, since services are customized according to need.

Accessibility the goal
Christopher Craig, a professor of education at Missouri State University and a member of the blind community, said MSU is exploring NaviLens after he introduced it at a meeting of the President’s Council on Accessibility. That council includes members of the university’s Office of Planning, Design and Construction and other key players.

“If we were to implement this, it would have to be part of a university-wide plan,” he said.

He noted MSU is like a small city, and the technology should not be confined to a single building or area.

“The idea is that this isn’t just something that would be helpful to people with disabilities; it has a broader application for lots of people, and it creates another pathway to get around campus,” he said.

Like others in the city who have only recently been introduced to the technology, the university has not yet committed to NaviLens, he said, but it is exploring options.

“Our commitment is always to inclusivity, and we always look at products that could enhance that profile and our capacity,” he said.

Craig said he is personally excited about technology that helps him access the world, and he relies on a few programs to help him with wayfinding and navigation.

“Using the iPhone as a person with a disability opens up all kinds of doors and capacity for independent travel,” he said. “I enjoy exploration, and people with disabilities often try to find the best route to get from Point A to Point B as efficiently as they can.

“It’s great to have something that allows you to independently explore like other people.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 7 million Americans have blindness or vision loss. Citing statistics from the National Federation of the Blind, Taylor added 151,000 Missourians are totally blind or have severe vision impairment, and that number is projected to double within the next 5-10 years, with people ages 60 and older to be impacted most.