Georgie Phone
A smart phone app to help blind and visually impaired people with daily navigation around the cityTHE CHALLENGE
Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds, a blind couple from Peterborough, had developed a range of apps for people who are blind or visually impaired. Georgie Phone helps the user to complete tasks such as catching a bus, reading printed text and pinpointing location. The couple were seeking funding to deliver a test project in Peterborough to help mitigate the anxiety felt by blind or visually impaired passengers who often don’t know where they are on a journey, or when to get off a bus.
THE SOLUTION
A grant from Peterborough DNA’s Test Bed Fund allowed Georgie Phone to acquire 20 smart phones equipped with locally engineered bus and taxi apps, to train participants to use the equipment and then monitor their bus journey experiences over a 2 month period.
THE RESULTS
Due to the success of the project, Georgie Phone has been able to scale-up their work and now operates in several parts of the country helping to improve the mobility of those that are blind or have low vision.
Georgie Phone’s excellent work has been recognised – they were awarded the Digital Inclusion Award at the Made Me Awards in Birmingham in 2015.