Connected Cities: Inclusive Technology

BlindSquare is the world’s most widely used GPS-app for the blind, deafblind, and partially sighted. It helps people move around the city and explore their interests by telling them about what’s nearby. Ilkka Pirttimaa is the developer behind BlindSquare, and he believes his app can empower people to navigate our cities in much smarter way.

Getting into buildings, taking public transport, or moving from the roadway to the sidewalk can be tricky for people with mobility impairments. SozialHelden have been working on a set of tools that help wheelchair users navigate our cities in a better way.

Their story started with Wheelmap, a map designed to help people find and mark wheelchair accessible places, and grew to become a smart journey-planning solution that integrates data from elevators and public transport services.

Mirva Nevalainen*, head of partner innovations operations at KONE, believes it’s short-sighted to think of buildings, streets, and public transportations as separate entities; instead, we should be thinking about the bigger picture of how people move around a city.

In order to develop more holistic solutions, companies need to collaborate and share insights with each other. KONE has been working with partners such as BlindSquare to integrate data from KONE’s elevators into apps that help people with disabilities.

These collaborations have fueled new findings and boosted progress in developing accessible solutions that have the potential to improve city living for millions of people all around the world.

*) Following the publication of this podcast episode, Mirva Nevalainen has moved to a new role outside of KONE.