At the start of last year, RNIB began to work with Kellogs to find a solution for making packaging more accessible. What began as a small trial, has since turned into a ground-breaking and world-leading project.
The trialled technology, an app called NaviLens, features a UK-first technology that allows smartphones to detect and playback labelling and allergen information to the user using technology similar to a QR code. Not only this, but as it was originally developed as an app to help with navigation, NaviLens can detect products from up to 3 meters away, and direct users to where the product is.
This is life-changing for many people. Laura, Mum to Jorja who was born with nystagmus, and photophobia, stigmatism and a converging squint and later developed Coeliac disease, she comments, “as with a lot of labelling, the information’s in the tiniest print at the very end of the ingredients list, and Jorja can’t read that. So she ends up buying things that she always has, because she knows that they’re safe – but this completely limits her free choice.”
This technology allows people like Jorja to be completely independent from those around them, and choose exactly what they want from the shops, not just what they know.
Due to the success of the trials, Kellogs announced that they will be adding NaviLens codes to all of its cereal packaging throughout the whole of Europe – a step in the right direction for all those who are visually impaired!
Find out more about the Kellogs trials and Jorjas story, and download the NaviLens app here to see how it works.