Wayfinding in the built environment This is a three stage project comprising:
Stage 1 included a worldwide review identifying those wayfinding systems and technologies that could be used to make it easier and safer for people with a sensory impairment (and in particular a vision impairment) to find their way around buildings and large public spaces. The project reviewed systems that may be used in both buildings and other external public places with a focus on the technical nature of systems and technologies.
The extent to which these systems could or should be required to be incorporated into buildings and other venues and how the Building Code of Australia and other related legislation should be amended to take these established systems into account, needs further investigation. The project made recommendations on how these technologies and systems may be incorporated, by law or otherwise, into Australias building and construction practice. Conclusions from this study were addressed as short, medium and longer term actions.
The current project work in Stage 2 includes the evaluation of wayfinding systems/technology uncovered by Stage 1 and the writing of a specification for a system that is proposed for installation in Stage 3.
Stage 3 involves the evaluation of implementation and testing of the selected wayfinding system at a site in Melbourne.
For the two industry publications above, accessible versions for vision impaired users designed for use with screen reader software are available: Wayfinding design guidelines (accessible version) and Wayfinding system audit (accessible version).
[These publications are best viewed with Adobe Reader 8 or higher: Download latest version ]