Two students from Ashdod developed a navigation application for disabled persons

Sapir Buzaglo and Tal Bar-Chen, both students at the SCE Ashdod campus, developed software for a navigation application for disabled persons as part of their final project in the Software Engineering department. They named the application they developed under the supervision of Dr. Eli Yitzhak ‘Getting There with a Click’ (Magi’im BeClick”. The application was presented at the SCE’s Engineering Society conference that focuses on projects with a social benefit.

The application is intended to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities and senior citizens by providing up-to-date information about the accessibility level of various city sites, and available facilities for persons with a disability at each site. The application also helps users to navigate to the desired site. After users enter the desired location the application automatically notifies the site that the individual is on his or her way, so that they can receive appropriate and quicker service once they arrive at their destination. Users can also share their opinions about the sites and rate them based on their level of accessibility and service to persons with disabilities, among other factors.

One important feature of ‘Getting There with a Click’ is a map of the various inclines throughout the city. This enables users to know in advance the degree of incline of each street, and whether they will be able to manage the incline in a wheelchair. The map shows a different color depending on the degree of incline. Thus, for example, a level surface is colored green, a downhill incline red, and the remaining areas orange.

“Studies we conducted showed that many persons with a disability avoid going to a certain place because they lack information about the accessibility level at the specific location”, said Tal and Sapir. “This population contends with numerous accessibility obstacles on a daily basis. We developed the  ‘Getting There with a Click’ application in order to improve, if only a little, the quality of life of disabled persons in Israel, so they can feel equal among equals”.

The developers noted that, “The application currently works only for Tel Aviv, but very soon we will be able to update the data for Ashdod, Ashkelon and other cities in Israel. We believe that this application can create real change in the way many businesses perceive disabled persons”.