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Click And Go News

Sero Talk Audio Podcast Interview with ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps Joe Cioffi at ATIA 2010 Orlando

February 1, 2010 - Michael Lauf of SeroTalk.com, a podcast channel sponsored by SeroTek.com, maker of the popular screen reader System Access To Go (SATOGO), interviews Joe Cioffi.

Click here to access the Sero Talk website to listen to the podcast.

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Blind Bargains Audio Podcast Interview with ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps Joe Cioffi at ATIA 2010 Orlando

February 1, 2010 - Earlier, we posted a quick audio demo of a ClickAndGo Map, a new service which provides accessble walking directions taylored for blind and visually impaired travelers. We speak to Joe Cioffi, founder of InTouch Graphics, the company behind these innovative maps in this audio interview.

Click here to access the Blind Bargains website to listen to the podcast.

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Blind Bargains Audio Podcast: Navigating Around ATIA 2010 Orlando with ClickAndGo Maps

January 27, 2010 - InTouch Graphics has provided accessble walking directions directions for navigating around the hotel and conference center here in Orlando, taylored for blind and visually impaired travelers. In this podcast, we put a ClickAndGo map to the test, as we locate one of the meeting rooms for an interview.

Click here to access the Blind Bargains website to listen to the podcase.

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Great Lakes ADA Center - Accessible Technology Bulletin: A New Concept in Accessible Mapping

January 2010 (Volume 4 Issue 2): If a blind or deafblind traveler wants to visit a new environment, such as a city park, mall, train station, or bus transit center, with independence, the options or methods that have been available to travelers to "learn about" such environments have been limited.

One of the oldest methods involves the time-consuming task of independently exploring a new area with one's cane or guide dog. Depending upon the size and complexity of the area in question, this may indeed be a daunting proposition. Depending on the environment, it can be exceedingly difficult to gather the necessary information to form a complete and helpful "cognitive" map of such an area.

Another method available to travelers is to seek out the necessary orientation and familiarization support from a mobility instructor. This option, however, is not always easily available. State and agency services are vocationally based, and unless the traveler has a vocational reason for being there, the services would have to be paid for by the individual. Of course, some say that one can always just ask another pedestrian for information. However, as experienced blind travelers know only too well, the general public is not very adept in providing the kind of directions or orientation support that blind travelers need to walk a route alone.

An additional option is to gather the spatial information from an appropriately designed tactile map. Tactile maps that are simultaneously appropriate for low vision users are available in portable formats, and also in a permanently etched format that can be placed in a pedestal table. These types of accommodations are an excellent option. Unfortunately, very few environments provide them to blind travelers. Tactile maps are not specifically required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and up to the discretion of the owning entity. Tactile maps are an excellent option for environment orientation, but they are not routinely provided.

This trend may indeed be changing. Both France and Japan have recently passed legislation that requires tactile maps be provided for all new public buildings. In a recent case involving the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C., a legally blind individual filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice claiming that he and others were denied full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, and facilities of the museum. As a result of the investigation by the Department of Justice, the museum agreed to increase access to its exhibits and programs for people who are blind or have low vision, including to provide tactile maps of the museum floor plan that visitors can borrow; and a qualified audio describer for any requested museum audiovisual presentations, computer interactives, or exhibits; and three, a qualified reader to read labels in all exhibitions. For more information visit ADA Spy Museum Fact Sheet.

Advances in technology give users the option of handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) for outdoor settings. One significant obstacle to GPS is the units are expensive. Given that the overwhelming percentage of working-age blind and deafblind adults are either unemployed or severely under-employed, the costs are can be prohibitive.

ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps (CNG) has recently been developed a new, exciting technology for accessible mapping. The service is free for any blind and deafblind travelers, provides detailed customized route guidance for both indoor and outdoor areas, and is fully accessible either by computer or via any standard telephone.

CNG was inspired by the often-used "directions" feature of Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and MapQuest. With those services, sighted users make their selections for a starting point and destination from a drop-down menu of landmarks, and then click "GO" for driving or walking directions. CNG has taken this idea and programmed and compiled the necessary adaptations to meet the specific needs of the blind and deafblind. With this new technology, CNG is now able to provide non-sighted travelers with customized, mobility-friendly, walking directions. This service renders public facilities such as schools, airports, and hotels accessible to blind and deafblind travelers to a level of detail that is unparalleled by any other service or technology today.

It should be emphasized that CNG is not using GPS data, and that the service requires licensing by participating institutions. Following licensure, mobility specialists physically walk each indoor and outdoor route to compile the data. The goal of this service is to provide mobility-friendly, blindness-specific walking directions. That means clear landmarking and travel cues that cane and guide dog travelers can easily follow for accurate direction taking. To date, CNG has focused on adapting this technology for university environments, hotels, and schools for the blind.

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ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps Launches Innovative Wayfinding Service for Blind Students at the University of Minnesota

January 18, 2010 - An innovative navigation tool that promises to make travel much easier and offer a lot more independence for blind and deaf-blind students at the University of Minnesota has just been released for the 2010 spring semester.

Students obtain detailed audio narratives of walking directions, virtual tours, and point of interest descriptions for the university's twin cities campus using their cell phones and computers (www.clickandgomaps.com/umn).

ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps are compiled in advance by mobility specialists and incorporate terminology, technique recommendations, and landmarking cues exclusively intended to assist people who are blind. Unlike GPS technology, the company's wayfinding information covers indoor routes and offers a level of detail unavailable through satellite systems or any other means.

"The CickAndGo narrative mapping technology is absolutely phenomenal!” said Ken Rodgers, who is blind and a Master's candidate at Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and the Past Minnesota Chapter President of the American Council of the Blind. “It's easy to use and will revolutionize the way I find unfamiliar destinations without the fear of getting lost. Talk about maintaining my independence!" Rodgers said the system offers a level of detail that is unparalleled by any other service or technology today.

A caller may hear, for example: “From the building corner, there is a wheelchair ramp 10 feet ahead at 1:00 and a straight curb at 12:00. This plus-shaped, light-controlled intersection has 2-way traffic on both streets. Cross Washington, step up and continue straight along this 12-foot wide sidewalk. In 20 feet, a grass-line begins on the left and continues to the first slope down, a driveway opening 330 feet from the corner. Cross and stay straight. After a second driveway slope at 500 feet, the sidewalk continues uninterrupted to the corner of University and Oak."

All ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps can be accessed through the company´s fully accessible website and downloaded as text files and MP3 recordings, or obtained by using the company’s voice activated technology with a standard telephone.

ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps are ideal for airports, hotels, convention centers, tourist destinations, cruise ships, beaches, public parks, amusement parks. ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps help companies accommodate their customers as well as comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.

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Cutting-Edge Invention for Blind and Deaf-Blind Travelers to be Launched at Assistive Technology Conference

October 25, 2009 - A cutting edge navigation tool that promises to make travel much easier and offer a lot more independence for blind and deaf-blind travelers will be launched at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference October 29 through 31 in Chicago, Ill.

The system is called ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps and it offers detailed narrative route descriptions that help vision impaired people successfully find their way to unfamiliar destinations. The maps are free to users and can be accessed by telephone.

"This is modeled after the popular ‘directions’ feature of Yahoo, Google, and MapQuest maps," said inventor and mobility specialist Joe Cioffi, who has 28 years experience teaching blind and deaf-blind clients white cane techniques. "With Internet maps, sighted users select a starting point and destination from a drop-down menu and then click 'go' for driving directions.

"We adapted ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps by adding the options of voice output or Braille that literally walks blind and deaf-blind people through the route to the destination with customized 'mobility-friendly' walking directions," Cioffi said.

Rather than depend on strangers for directions, blind ATIA Conference attendees will pick up a telephone or use a computer to access a website, give their point of origin and destination, and hear specific directions to help them find their way independently to the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center's registration desk, interior restaurants, ballrooms and function rooms, restrooms, guide dog relief areas, and other destinations.

A caller may hear, for example: "After entering through the main doors, the flooring changes from carpet to tile. There are two elevators along the right side wall, 25 feet away. The elevator call button is located between the 2 elevators. Enter and press floor 2. Exit on floor 2 and walk straight. In 10 feet you will reach entry doors separating the elevator foyer from the main hallway. After these doors, walk straight 5 feet and turn right. You are now facing a 20 foot wide hallway, and straight ahead in 70 feet you will reach the double doors of the hotel ballroom."

The directions can be downloaded on a notetaker for later access.

ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps are mainly intended to help vision impaired travelers more easily orient themselves and move through airports, schools and universities, hotel and convention centers, public parks, amusement parks, tourist destinations, and other public places. But Cioffi also offers customized narrative walking directions for outdoor landmark-to-landmark route travel that can be downloaded at www.clickandgomaps.com, a fully accessible website, or obtained by using the company's voice activated technology with a standard telephone.

The system has been praised by users such as Ken Rodgers, who is blind and a Master's candidate at Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and the Past Minnesota Chapter President of the American Council of the Blind. Rodgers said the system offers a level of detail that is unparalleled by any other service or technology today.

"The CickAndGo narrative mapping technology is absolutely phenomenal!" said Rodgers who tested the product at the University. "It's easy to use and will revolutionize the way I find unfamiliar destinations without the fear of getting lost. Talk about maintaining my independence!"

Cioffi is the owner of InTouch Graphic which also produces tactile/low vision maps for people who are blind and vision impaired. ClickAndGo Wayfinding Maps will be offered free to users. Cioffi is hoping to market the product to participating institutions such as airports and hotels that wish to accommodate their customers as well as comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.

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