5 Ways Google Maps Can Help Visually Impaired

Afam Onyimadu August 15, 2024

Key Takeaways

Google Maps offers voice guidance, which uses verbal cues to ease navigation for visually impaired persons.
Visually impaired persons benefit from indoor maps to navigate large buildings like airports.

Way 1: Offering Voice Guidance and Verbal Cues for Navigation

While walking in a new area, many elements, such as intersections and streets, may feel confusing. These elements become more worrisome for someone visually impaired. With the addition of Voice Cues, Google Maps’s Voice Guidance has become more helpful to this demography.

It offers a detailed description of intersections, including traffic lights, the number of lanes, and pedestrian crossings. You also get verbal cues to indicate the presence of hazards like construction or uneven pavement.

Verbal cues will also indicate landmark descriptions, usually including their size, shape, materials, and unique characteristics to help you identify them.

Way 2: Allowing Voice Commands for Finding Locations

Voice commands are an important accessibility feature that makes navigating locations easier for the visually impaired. Basic features like direct search will help you locate places with commands such as Take me to McDonald’s, Find the nearest ATM, or Navigate to Main Street.

You may also input search addresses verbally, including street names, city, and zip codes. However, the visually impaired may even enjoy advanced features like landmark-based search. So, you may search for a location by saying Take me to the park next to the library.

You may save frequently visited locations using voice commands. Simple commands like navigate to home or take me to my favorite restaurant will help you access the saved locations.

Way 3: Giving Detailed Points of Interest Information

A visually impaired person must have adequate Points of Interest (POI) information to navigate their surroundings successfully. Some information Google Maps offers includes building type, materials, size, entrances, and internal layout.

It also provides accessibility information, such as elevators, ramps, automatic doors, and braille signage. You can also find business information, including opening and closing hours, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Way 4: Providing Indoor Maps

Visually impaired persons enjoy enhanced navigation aids with Google Maps indoor maps. Some more used features are detailed floor plans and clear verbal guidance for navigating the building. These will often include obstacle warnings and building plan descriptions.

Additional indoor map features are haptic feedback for important waypoints and live or real-time updates of people or objects.

Way 5: Giving Public Transit Information With Audible Alerts

With public transit information, visually impaired individuals will receive audible alerts of departures, arrivals, delays, or cancellations, which will help them better plan their journeys.

Google Maps also offers route guidance, which includes verbal instructions on which stop to get off, transfers, and walking directions to the final destination. This helps with enhanced independence while traveling. You can benefit from all these features as long as Google Maps voice works.