During March 2017, Wayfindr carried out its latest audio navigation trial in partnership with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in central London. Shakespeare’s Globe has an interest group of visitors with access needs who regularly meet to look at how access to the Theatre, exhibition spaces etc. can be improved. Navigating Shakespeare’s Globe can be challenging due to the numerous entrances and layout of the estate, as well as the large numbers of people passing through the venue for tours and performances.

Using an updated version of the Wayfindr open source demo app, Wayfindr installed a constellation of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and created audio guidance for a typical user visit to Shakespeare’s Globe. This consisted of guiding visitors from the main entrance to a lecture theatre, then to the bathrooms and finally to the main theatre itself, via an elevator.

We were also very luck to have Adi Latif from AbilityNet come to test out the audio navigation guidance. Check out this video of Adi describing his experience of using audio navigation to enter the elevator and find the right button to take him up to his destination.

Over the course of two days, a diverse group of users with a range of ages, vision impairments, and primary mobility aids trialled the audio navigation solution,.

As ever, the feedback from testers was overwhelmingly positive, with people able to use audio navigation, along with their guide dogs or canes to find their way around the building.

If you would like to know more about how Wayfindr can help you install and test an audio navigation system, please follow this link to find out how we can support you to make your space more accessible using cutting-edge indoor navigation technology. If you would like to find out more about accessible indoor audio navigation in general, you can find out here.