Walking navigation apps for blind and low vision users

Introduction

There are several different kinds of navigation apps available. Some behave like satnavs for pedestrians and are usually also satnavs for motorists and others. Other apps will let you set beacons and advise you as you approach and give you details of roads to be crossed and other features as you near them. And you will also find apps which merge these features. For someone like me with enough useful vision to spot upcoming road crossings and junctions the satnav, turn-by-turn style apps work well for unfamiliar journeys. I believe some totally blind people use these apps but excellent mobility skills will be essential. The other style of app is designed to describe your surroundings and give you a clear sound picture of what is around you and the distance and direction of your destination. Some of these apps also offer links with satnav style apps. I understand that this type of app can be very helpful to people with little or no useful vision, especially while walking in familiar areas but I don't use them myself and won't attempt to describe them since my experience of them won't match the experience of someone who is totally blind. I restrict myself here to describing three satnav-style apps, one of which includes several features to describe the location more fully as you walk.

Warning

First a warning about the technology: all navigation apps are prone to giving occasional misleading and potentially dangerous instructions and must be used with caution.  Don't rely on the apps alone for safe places to cross roads. Navigation apps tend to be best for people with sufficient vision to be reasonably confident about turnings and crossings but they are used effectively by some people with no vision at all.  Some guide dog users may also be able to work with these apps.  I strongly recommend trying navigation apps in a familiar area along with a sighted helper in the first instance. 

Before you use any phone-based navigation aids unaccompanied, it is essential that you have received mobility training appropriate to your level of sight loss and have good general mobility skills

Headphones

If you are walking in a noisy location, you will probably need to use headphones in order to hear the spoken navigation instructions from your iPhone. Wired headphones will operate well, but the wires may be an unwanted encumbrance. If you use some older bluetooth wireless headsets, you may not hear the first part of spoken instructions since many bluetooth headphones enter power saving mode between the infrequent spoken directions; if this happens then the first part of each spoken direction may be lost if the connection between iPhone and headphones is reestablished a little too slowly. A work-around for this is to play a quiet music track on repeat as you navigate; the music track should fade away to allow you to hear navigation directions in full. This issue does not occur if you use Apple's AirPods and many other modern bluetooth headsets, including Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses  as your wireless headphones. The Ray-Bans are an excellent choice because they leave your ears open to environmental sound which is important for your safety. The smart glasses can also read text and describe what is around you. You may also want to consider bone conduction headphones which also leave your ears fully open.  Most bone conduction headphones are a horseshoe-shaped spring that fits behind your head and above your ears to press speakers gently against bones just in front of your ears.  Your ears are left fully open and, if the speakers are positioned well, the sound should be at a comfortable volume and quality. Another alternative is Apple's Airpods Pro or Max models which have a transparency mode which allows you to hear environmental sound while listening to audio such as  spoken navigation instructions.

Navigation apps

There are several satnav-style navigation apps in the apps store. I shall outline just three here. Apple's Maps is free and pre-installed on iPhones and iPads. The other two, Google Maps and GoodMaps Outdoors, are also free and can be installed from the App Store. All three work well with VoiceOver and will probably be accessible to people with low vision using Zoom and other low vision iPhone features but I have little experience of that. 

Apple Maps and Google Maps have satnav capability designed for general use which has excellent accessibility. GoodMaps Outdoors was designed specifically for blind users and was originally a charged app from Sendero, then sold as RNIB Navigator and was finally acquired and made free by GoodMaps, who previously specialised only in indoor navigation systems.

All three apps have good knowledge of pedestrian alleyways that aren't accessible to vehicles but can't guide you on countryside footpaths. In addition to turn by turn instructions, Goodmaps Outdoors can also provide information about approaching intersections and nearby points of interest. I have found that Goodmaps Outdoors information about approaching intersections isn't totally reliable and sometimes doesn't alert me to an upcoming intersection that I have to cross so please use it with caution.

Google Maps has an excellent voice search feature which isn't matched by the others. Rather than just guessing the spelling of a road name it checks for roads with names that sound like your spoken name in the requested town. For example, a street in Loughborough is Lemyngton Street, spelt L E M Y N G T O N. Only Google Maps will find this with a voice search. The others look for a street spelt L E A M I N G TON. Google Maps also has a "detailed voice guidance" option in its navigation settings which provides additional information including frequent announcements of your distance from your next turn and confirmations that you are still on the correct route. This helps avoid the need for frequent reassurance checks of the app screen. I find this setting very helpful.

Turn by turn instructions from all three apps are generally good although roundabouts can be confusing and you should certainly include routes involving roundabouts when you are familiarising yourself with a new navigation app, preferably with sighted assistance. If you aren't sure if you have chosen the correct exit from a roundabout try walking a little way from the roundabout and then asking Siri "where am I"? to check that you are on the intended road. 

Siri and navigation apps

All three apps can provide turn by turn walking directions using Siri.

Apple Maps and Google Maps can direct you to street addresses, postcodes, business names, points of interest and contact addresses.

 For Apple Maps use:

"get walking directions to x".

For Google Maps use:

"get walking directions to x using Google Maps". But be aware that this won't use Google' voice search and may not work properly for places with unusual spelling. It will be fine for most places though. Just remember to check the distance of your journey before you use the start button.

GoodMaps Outdoors has a more limited Siri repertoire. These can be configured in the app's settings. 

If you want to stop navigation by Apple Maps instruct Siri to "stop navigation". With Google Maps and GoodMaps Outdoors you wil need to locate and use a stop navigation or cancel button in the app.

A note on public transport journeys

Apple Maps and Google Maps can both be used to plan and make longer journeys which include travel on public transport as well as walking but both give only visual instructions for walking sections of journeys which include public transport. However, once you have arrived at your bus or train stop you can start a newnwalking navigation to your final destination and this will give you spoken turn by turn instructions.

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