Introduction and Project Summary

To increase accessibility to the visually impaired as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, many intersections have certain features to assist the visually impaired in navigating and crossing such intersections. These features, such as those at Forbes and Morewood Avenues, include ribbed edges at the entry points of the crosswalks and/or aural cues to alert when and where to cross. While having these features constitute a gold standard of accessibility, they are not prevalent at every crosswalk. In Pittsburgh, such as the intersection of Morewood and Ellsworth Avenues, intersections (“ElMo intersections”) lack such accessibility features and even do not have dedicated crossing signals. Therefore, in the absence of external assistance (i.e. a seeing eye dog), it can be challenging for a visually impaired individual to navigate such intersections. We are developing wearable device for a visually impaired individual that will alert the wearer when to cross at “ElMo” intersections. Therefore, the goal of our system is to deliver binary feedback about whether to cross or not.