Shanell Matos lost her vision just after moving to New York City. She said her experiences in public places can sometimes be frustrating.
“It is a little bit soul-crushing when you are an independent person, and all of a sudden you're stuck standing there crying in the middle of a lobby because you can't find your way out of it,” said Matos, who still lives in New York City.
She said her dependency on others often deters her from going to intimate places — like museums.
“My first fear when I go to someplace like that is, ‘Oh, my God, I'm going to break everything’,” Matos said.
But that led Matos to help develop a software program, RightHear, that allows people who are blind or have low vision to navigate through these spaces independently by downloading an application to their smartphones and paying attention to audio cues.
“For the users, it's a free app on their phone,” said Darren Gladstone, operations director for RightHear in the U.S. “For the organizations, our system gets placed into their facility.”
And the Susan B. Anthony House and Museum will be the first museum in the U.S. to implement their technology, Gladstone said.
“We just think it’s such a powerful story, which ties into the powerful nature of what the museum represents,” Gladstone said.
The company places markers throughout the building, and the application detects them from as far as 50 feet away. These markers cue the app to provide audio instructions to the person who is blind or has a visual impairment, like directions to the restroom or elevators.
At the Anthony museum, the software will also provide historical information about exhibits.
“This is something that the blind and low vision communities want,” said Allison Hinman, president and CEO of The Susan B. Anthony Museum and House. “And I feel that it's our responsibility as a museum to have the technology and tools in place to allow them to have a really enjoyable visit.”
Hinman said the goal is for the software to go live in June.
This story is reported from WXXI’s Inclusion Desk.
