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Accessible Location and Navigation

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Accessible GPS Products

Mike May and Charles LaPierre began working on the first accessible GPS prototype at Arkenstone in 1994. It was called Strider and was terminated in 1997. A related talking map product called Atlas was released for the PC in 1995 and was sold through 2001. Sendero released the first accessible GPS called, GPS-Talk for the PC in 2000. A year later, Sendero teamed up with Humanware with the first accessible GPS on a PDA, the BrailleNote. That product has continued to evolve as other products joined the market Sendero was creating. StreetTalk VIP from Freedom Scientific using Sendero GPS was released in Summer 2009.

After over a decade of experience, Sendero expanded from the BrailleNote to two other platforms with its Software Development Kit (SDK). GW Micro and Hims from Korea adopted this SDK for their Braille Sense and Voice Sense PDAs with a product called Sense Nav.

Code Factory, who makes a screen reader for mobile phones and Windows PDAs, worked with Sendero to create Mobile Geo, released in September 2008.

In addition to the four Sendero based GPS products and two Trekker products there is also Wayfinder Access for phones with the Symbian operating system, mostly from Nokia. This is based on the mainstream Wayfinder Navigator. Finally, there is a point of interest only product for mobile phones called Loadstone. It has no street maps, only points of interest created by users or public domain points. The great thing for blind people is that there are options to fit a variety of needs and wayfinding situations.

Accessible GPS Systems

Partially Accessible GPS Products

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