The Campaign

For the more than 285 million visually impaired people worldwide, losing their sight also means losing their independence because they have to rely on others to get where they’re going and to learn what’s around them. Guide dogs help them go from place to place safely, but they’re not trained to tell you about the places you’re passing by. To help Guide Dogs Association of the Blind improve the quality of life of the visually impaired, we started by asking: what if technology could help the visually impaired “see”? We combined smartphone accessibility with location data to create Guide Dots, a free audio-based discovery app with accessibility features (e.g. Android’s “explore by touch”) specifically for the visually impaired. It’s a powerful tool designed to complement guide dogs and white canes to give greater independence to the visually impaired. The app has been downloaded by visually impaired users globally, who praise the app’s ability to enhance independence and quality of life. As user MyRae Migliazzo explains, “[Guide Dots] gives me information about what’s nearby and what’s changed… It gives me the same ability I would have if I were walking with a partner. Independence just becomes second nature.”

The Brief

As an organization that’s committed to improving the quality of life of the visually impaired, Guide Dogs Association of the Blind was looking for a 21st century solution that can complement guide dogs to give greater independence to the visually impaired globally.

Creative Execution

Guide Dots combines location data from Google Maps API, Facebook Nearby API, GeoNames API and Beacon technology (which allows indoor accessibility) with proprietary crowd-sourced GPS locations to “paint” a picture of the user’s surroundings. Guide Dots calls out locations and intersections, finds friends who have checked in nearby, and informs users about special offers, opening up the user’s world. Underscoring GDAB’s understanding of its clients, the app was designed with the visually impaired in mind. The app used large buttons, with the most used buttons made bigger and easier to access. Guide Dots also leveraged on Android accessibility features familiar to the visually impaired, such as speech synthesis, voice recognition, and “explore by touch”, which narrates buttons with one tap, and activates them with two. Launched on 16 April 2014, the app was built on Android, because of the platform’s greater global download rate and lower hardware costs.

The app has enhanced the independence and quality of life of users in more than 57 countries, with an average of 16.2 minutes per session, 188% above the average session times on Android apps (Adobe, 2013). As user MyRae Migliazzo explains, "It gives me the same ability I would have if I were walking with a partner. Independence just becomes second nature." And with over 6,218 crowdsourced locations added within the first 3 months alone and more locations adding Beacons, Guide Dots is poised to evolve and become richer in detail as more people use it. Guide Dots also attracted praise from around the world, including from Reuters, MSN and Contagious I/O, and from the visually impaired community, with 72.7% of Guide Dots users polled agreeing that, "GDAB enhances my quality of life". This has already translated to greater awareness and support for Guide Dots, guide dogs and GDAB.

To help Guide Dogs Association of the Blind improve the quality of life of not just its clients but also the visually impaired everywhere, we started by asking: what if technology could help the visually impaired “see”? We combined smartphone accessibility with location data to create Guide Dots, a free audio-based discovery app with accessibility features (e.g. Android’s “explore by touch”) specifically for the visually impaired. It’s a powerful tool designed to complement guide dogs and white canes to give greater independence to the visually impaired. We spent years of research and testing over three continents to develop a solution that made sense for the visually impaired and that showed GDAB truly understood its clients. This led to the creation of a powerful tool that complements the use of guide dogs designed to give greater independence to the clients they’ve pledged to help.