AS:032 Right-Hear Audio Format Signage

Welcome to the Accessibility Solutions Podcast, hosted by Linda Hunt, an award winning accessibility consultant, speaker, and author. With over 30 years experience in senior management rules and indeed passion for creating inclusive environments, Linda brings us unmatched expertise and credibility to our discussions. Join us as we explore the Transformative Power of accessibility and inclusion in today's world. Through captivating conversations, Linda shares her wealth of knowledge, provides practical solutions, and sheds light on the latest trends and investments in the field. Whether you're a business owner or disability advocate, or simply curious about the world of accessibility, this podcast is your go to resource. Get ready to unlock new perspectives, breakdown barriers, and embark on a journey of empowerment. Are you ready to create a more inclusive world? Let's begin! Welcome to the Accessibility Solutions Podcast.

Thanks everyone for joining us this week. This week I am very pleased to have Aiden Meyer. And Idan is the co-founder and CEO right here, an innovative startup on a mission to turn public spaces into accessible environments for people with spatial orientation challenges, including people who are blind or visually impaired. Idan is originally from Israel but relocated with his family to Rockville, Maryland in 2021. Idan holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and business from the Open University of Israel. He loves building companies, running and eating hummus, not necessarily in that order. And I think that's funny because, yeah, we could all say we love doing those kinds of things. So it is my pleasure to have Idan with me today to talk about, which everybody knows is a passion of mine making the world accessible, and how I can, and his company RightHear are doing just that, they are working to make the world accessible. So, I'm gonna just let you kind of take it from there. Let's give it, you know, let's go back and say, okay, what made you feel that you, when everybody's starting a business there, you come up with an idea or a concept and then, you know, you do a business plan and you figure out how you're gonna, you know, roll it out, how you're gonna market it to the marketplace. And so I'm really interested, you know, is there a call it your why, is there a story behind, you know, your why as to why this technology?

Yes, first of all, thank you, Linda. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me and, you know, you're asking the why at the right timing because why don't? So first of all, I'll explain in a minute. As you said in the intro, for me building companies is great, but really building companies and building the world, doing something in the world and the whole movement around it, which probably gonna talk about later. That's the real passion like doing, making an impact bottom line, just making an impact. And our story begins with my own challenges. So I have horrible orientation, orientation skills myself. I'm, you know, this friend we all have that is always getting lost very quickly, and when you go out of the elevator in a hotel, for example, it turns right, although it's obvious we need to turn left because we just started 10 minutes ago. As so I have really bad orientation skills, and when we started that, we thought, like, if we'll be able to solve my orientation skills, my orientation challenges by solving it together, have even more severe orientation challenges than we usually will be able to solve it for everyone at the time, my grandfather, and that's why it was a good timing because today was supposed to be his birthday and was one of my best friend. He turned to be blind at the end of his life. And this, like, I'm just, you know, seeing his challenges. They're setting my own challenges cause that's the story of my life kind of balls up together to a point of, okay yeah, it's time for a better way finding tools that we have out there. And to share, you know, for the audience a little bit of what we are doing, RightHear is a talking silent system. It's basically a talking science system that the easiest way to explain, it is 2024 already. And most spaces you go to, have very silent signs. Some of them do have Braille, but we know that over 90% out of the blind community cannot read Braille at all. So we thought how wonderful it would be if those signs could speak. They're not really speaking it. RightHear is an app that speaks to you, but they're basically giving you all the descriptions of the space around you so you can ultimately be more independent wherever you go.

I like how you said the sign speaks to you. And I have, I mean, I have a physical disability, so I know I'm not blind or visually impaired, but, you know, I've often thought from the standpoint of a Braille sign that first of all, that the person that's blind or visually impaired needs to somehow find the sign on the wall before even if they could read Braille. So that in and of itself is a barrier because you've got to, you know, find the sign, you know, read the Braille to find out, okay, this is the washroom or wherever whereas your technology is gonna tell you. As you said, when you get off the elevator, you know, turn right and go 10 feet in the washrooms on your left. That and I'll tell you my husband, I call him directionally challenged, but he's the guy that, you know, couldn't leave him in the airport by himself because he wouldn't know where to go, he wouldn't know. Yeah, you're pointing at yourself. Yeah, that's you. So he is directionally challenged from that standpoint, just because he would be, you know, he wouldn't know how to get to the security line and then when, you know, we get through the security line and he, you know, how to get to the gate to board the flight. So that's, I mean, he's not visually impaired. He's just, as I say, he's directionally challenged. So this technology RightHear is, to my mind, another example of technology that is making the world accessible. But I say to people all the time, it's also a technology that can be used by anyone to improve their experience when they're trying to navigate, especially a large building such as an airport for example.

Yes, and especially now because, you know, you've touched the fact that you need to know Braille in order to read these signs and then you need to know where they are in order to actually read them. And then, you know, sometimes it's maybe higher or lower to actually touch them, but especially now because in the past three years, touching them by itself is not as appealing as it used to be. If it's ever, it's a public surface. Covid hit the world and we don't like to touch things anymore as we used to, especially by way not in restrooms and things of that sort. So being able to hear it in your own language, you mention airports, you mention everyone, so everyone has certain language barriers, right? I can remember a horrible experience I had, like 10 years ago in a Chinese airport where I, surprisingly enough, got lost and really had a hard time to find my way back and where to go. So being able to hear where you are, what is there, what surrounds you in your own language, at your own pace, privately, freely, by the way, it's a completely free app for the end user. Both Android and iPhone. That's meaning better customer traveler visitor experience wherever they go and a higher level of accessibility for the facilities offering that.

Yeah, and I like, so those listeners right here is available in 26 languages and even for me, I travel quite often, but, you know, even for a sighted person that can read signs if you're in a country where the sign is not in English, I know Baños means bathroom in Spanish. Because when you're in places like that, you need to know that. But that doesn't necessarily mean that all signage that you're trying to read if it's not in your native tongue. This is a solution for that to be used by, as you said, anyone anyone, anywhere.

Even if you do, sorry, Linda, but even if you do know the language and you are sighted, it still doesn't mean that you can read the content on this sign because you might have dyslexia or other cognitive disabilities, right? So it's great for the sighting barriers, it's great for language barriers. It's also great for cognitive disabilities from different sorts, even mental disabilities that can go even there. But the idea from a universal design standpoint is that everyone can download the app. It's completely private and anonymous. So we don't know all of our users. To be honest, we are all a lot of being surprised by the use cases that we find with it because everyone can download the app and use it outdoors and indoors. And yes, our main focus has always been on those that have the most severe orientation challenges from the singing of if we'll solve it for them, we'll solve it for everyone.

Yeah, and so the, from the business perspective and a lot of times, you know, the work that I do is how accessibility is good for business. And your technology is,you know, just spot on and in terms of, you know, how installing this technology in your business is going to improve customer or user experience regardless of whether they have a disability or not. So let's talk about technology. Let's talk about, you know, what it is and how simple it is even from a business perspective to be able to have this installed in their locations

Idan 09:44.

Sure, from a technology perspective, the three main components to it is an app, again, free app, both under the iPhone 26 different languages, as discussed before. Just download the app and start using it wherever you are for the facility. There are two more components that are part of the system. One is these little beacons out of them currently holding, it's in the size of a finger to some Bluetooth device that has a 3M adhesive on the back of it. You put it off, you stick it on the wall, on the ceiling or whatever. That isn't the point of interest and the built environment there, the venue. And that's what helps us to identify the user's location when arriving there where there's no GPS. These beacons are not requiring Wi-Fi from the facilities whether you have Wi-Fi there or not. We don't need that, not even electricity. They run on batteries that last for about four years and it really is a Plug and Play You just, you know, stick the stickers that can stick on the wall just like signs, right? Just like signage, very similar to that. The third component is our cloud dashboard. That's an online portal, a very robust one that helps us and the facility to control, edit and manage all the audio descriptions that later on our users will be able to hear at each point of interest in the facility. I'll show you a small box. This is our kit for really small businesses. Inside this kit, you can find an installation guide of how to set it up. It can take a few minutes showing you where the entrance is, how to set it up on the wall really carefully and just go on light. And I'm also holding here our accessibility badge. You can also put on your business at the entrance if you like, being some pride of doing the right thing. This is a very fast process. You know, it depends on the project, but in many of our projects, it can take as short as 20 minutes if it's a small restaurant or something like that, you know, all the way to a day or two if it's a bigger stadium, for example. Their integration was the facilities usually, so its perspective is kind of covered very straightforwardly. Our focus, you know, Linda is having this as, as many locations as possible only once, you know, all your format signage, talking signs if you will be everywhere. That would be the day where we're actually making the impact that we're trying to make where people can go everywhere independently. If it's, that's gonna be only the specific spaces, it would be nice, but we wanted to be everywhere. And from that same point, you know, it's discussed before it takes a village, we're looking to partner with, you know, great partners like you and others having as many locations with users as there are, users are such a strong and important force in bringing this to reality. When they ask for this from their favorite, you know, store, restaurant, shopping mall, then they listen, then they really listen and contact, you know, us to really partner and higher up the level of accessibility.

Well, and I think from a business perspective, the fact that you can record what it is that you want that particular beacon location to point out. So whether it's here's the hostess desk, this way to the washrooms, this way to the elevator, this way to the stairs, this way to an emergency exit, I mean all of those things right now have what we call traditional, you know, visual signage. So if you can see them, they're not directional, like they're not. So you have to, you know, you kind of have to be walking that way and you see, okay, there's the emergency exit or whatever where as this technology is telling you right on your phone, on the app, you need to walk 40 feet. Turn right and walk 40 feet and there's the emergency exit. So this is, you know, such a notch above just signage. This is someone that's basically, escorting you around the facility, telling you, you know, where you need to go to find the places that you need to find in a business or a facility. And I, I think, you know, that's one of, you know, the very important pieces this technology brings. So you kind of alluded to it and I want our listeners, so Accessibility Solutions is very proud to be partnering with RightHear. To be able to market, RightHear has an accessibility solution which is the business that we're in. And so we're very pleased to be able to not only have Idan on our podcast, but you're going to start seeing marketing materials coming out from us. And we want to be talking to people as well. As we indicated, Idan is located in Maryland in the United States but, you know we are here in Canada and so I would just say that if you're listening to this and this is resonating with you, then please feel free to reach out to us or to write here directly to find out more information about how you can use this technology to make your business accessible. And as I always say, accessibility is good for business. Yeah, on that note, I think all any final words I didn't say in terms of how you'd like to, I want to say thank you again.

I want to say that we're always looking for you, strategic partners like you who are, you know, local, and we are just one solution out of your big toolbox of accessibility. So accessibility of the whole world, right? There is, they have to have a holistic view when thinking about accessibility for your business. Therefore, you know we're glad to be part of your toolbox there and partnering with you. And I thank you for the opportunity of speaking here today and for this partnership.

You're very welcome. And we're very excited, you know we're always on the lookout for any kind of technologies that really improve accessibility that feeds into, you know our motto and kind of you know in our case, our why which is making the world accessible. And this is a perfect, you know, strategic partnership in advancing that mission to make the world accessible. And the benefits to businesses and organizations, again, are just, you know you've got to, you know sit back and look at them, you know even from a, you know cost benefit perspective. You pay to put signs up. This is talking to your customers and escorting them through your facility basically. And I think that's just what we call you concepts of universal design. Everybody can get everywhere, how they need to go with this technology.

And if there, I mean I used to say that's the future, but to be honest, it's kind of the present. More and more locations are joining us all around the world, specifically here in North America. That's where we started our operations here just a year ago. It's time to be ahead of the curve before it's become the norm and the obvious and the expected and maybe even the law, you know, in Israel, it's already part of it. That's what helped us grow there pretty quickly. It is written there having an audio format of signage. So it's not just a dream, it is a reality in other countries, not too far today. I believe it will be here. Those who will leverage it first will gain the most, I think, out of it.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, we do have some legislation around, you know, buses and trains must audio, there must be audio announcement for stocks here in Canada, and new elevators must have the audio, you know, first floor, second floor, so that the technology, you know, is is coming along, the legislations coming along. But I like what you said that you wanna be leveraging the technology that's available, so you're ahead of the curve and giving visitors to your business or your facility a positive experience that can be utilized by everyone, including my directionally challenged husband. Anyway, so I wanna thank you very much for joining us for this episode and for listeners, thank you for tuning in. We're very pleased with this partnership, so watch for lots more to come from us as well. And again thank you, Idan, for taking your time to speak with us and I'm sure that we'll be having more discussions on this technology. Thanks again, and I will talk to you again soon.

Cheers.

Thank you!

Thank you for joining us on the Accessibility Solutions podcast hosted by Linda Hunt. We hope these discussions have inspired you and provided valuable insights into the world of accessibility and inclusion. If you're ready to take the next steps in creating an accessible and inclusive environment, we invite you to book a personalized Accessibility solutions consultation with Linda. As an experienced accessibility consultant, Linda will work closely with you to develop innovative solutions tailored to your unique needs and challenges. Together, you'll navigate the complexities of accessibility regulations, explore inclusive design principles, and implement practical strategies to ensure equal access for all. Don't miss this opportunity to make a real difference. Visit our website at solutions for accessibility.com, and that's the No. 4. So solutions4accessibility.com. Schedule your consultation today. Let's transform your space into an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone. Thanks again for listening to the Accessibility Solutions podcast. Stay tuned for more empowering episodes as we continue our journey towards a more accessible world.