The future is on the march! The Family Day Out programme is here to ensure that partially sighted or blind people need not miss out on a great day out because of their disability.

The main players in this endeavour are; Future Cities Catapult, Guide Dogs and Microsoft. On its website, Catapult Future Cities describes the programme as follows:

“Enjoying a day out in the city depends on being able to get from place to place, seamlessly. For blind and partially sighted people, just navigating around a city can leave them feeling tired, anxious and vulnerable. Technology-enabled navigation provides an opportunity to help make this experience better.

We are working with core partners Guide Dogs for the Blind and Microsoft to develop a detailed understanding of the challenges faced by blind and partially sighted people as they travel in and around cities. There are two initial phases to the project:

• Understanding the user experience. Using a human-centred design approach allows us to understand the issues of mobility, navigation and stress reduction from the perspective of blind and partially sighted people in the city. We are already undertaking a pilot to build ‘anxiety maps' of people's stress levels during a journey from Reading to London using public transport.
• Transforming mobility in cities. From the location of bus stops to improving information on train platforms, we are working with businesses, government and research organisations to explore opportunities for incremental innovations and new services that will make navigating cities easier and more enjoyable for people with sight loss.

This project will not just help to improve mobility and independence for blind and partially sighted people. Developing ‘inclusive design' solutions like these can help surface innovations that are beneficial to all people navigating around complex urban environments.”

Guide Dogs have even obligingly provided a short video to help give us a better idea of what the programme is aiming for.

The thinking behind the Family Day Out programme kind of raises a point about the future role of technology in the lives of not only disabled but also non-disabled people. The hardware is after all the same for everyone; it’s intelligent technology like iPads and iPhones. Could it be that the gap between disabled and non-disabled is closing?