Afternoon,
I got the following article from another list and thought some might
be interested.
   Jeanne

Article (with link): Lazarillo: A Free Accessible GPS App for the
Blind and Visually Impaired
https://www.perkinselearning.org/technology/blog/lazarillo-free-accessible-gps-app-blind-and-visually-impaired
article
By Snowflake_tvi
 on July 12, 2018

I have a coworker whose favorite saying is “if it’s for free it’s for
me”. Everyone likes a freebie, but when it’s a particularly useful
freebie, it just
feels like a bonus somehow…like you find a bill on the sidewalk and
bend over to pick it up expecting it to be a $1 but it turns out to be
a $5.

I remember when BlindSquare came out several years ago.  We were SO
excited to have an app that not only told us what was around, but
wasn’t another piece of equipment to lug around and have to keep
updated with maps. And then a few years ago, Nearby Explorer came out.
That was, in my opinion, a better app because it didn’t connect to
FourSquare to determine what places were in your general vicinity.
This meant fewer “false leads” like coffee shops that had closed five
years ago or (my personal favorite) Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry in three different locations in a five mile radius.

There have been other free navigation apps such as “Around Me” and
“Over There” just to name a couple. So how does Lazarillo stack up?

General Overview

To start off, it should be noted that Lazarillo is available on both
iOS and Android devices.  This article was written from the point of
view of a VoiceOver user on an iPhone 6S.

When you open Lazarillo for the first time, a tutorial opens.  I found
navigating the tutorial difficult, but manageable. For some reason, at
least on my phone, it was difficult to navigate among the pages of the
tutorial and also to exit it.  I’m not sure how I managed, but it
worked out in the end.


 Main Screen

The main screen has several buttons.  Here is a description of each in
the order that VoiceOver will detect them along with a description of
where they are visually on the screen.

list of 3 items
• Start/Stop Exploration: At the top left of the main screen, or home
screen, is the start/stop exploration button.  This button starts or
stops spoken feedback provided by the app as to what is around you at
any given point.  When enabled, the app will announce upcoming
intersections and points of interest coming up and where they are in
relation to your current location.
• Around Me:This button, when pressed, will search for your exact
location.  The results will show up in the User Location area (see
below).
• Search: The search box allows you to search for a specific location
or business.
list end

list of 8 items
• Filter Results: You can filter results that will be announced by the
app while in exploration mode based on whether you are walking or in a
vehicle (this is determined automatically by the GPS based on the
speed at which you are traveling).  For example, you can set the app
up so that while you are walking, the app will announce only food
places and pubs but while you are in a vehicle, the app will only
announce public buildings.
• User Location: As stated above, once you have pressed the “Around
Me” button, your location will appear here.  It will change as you
travel. If your location has not been specifically determined, the
word “searching” will be displayed here.
• Speech History: When you are traveling, you may miss any
announcements made by the app.  This button will allow you to navigate
the most recent places that the app has announced. VoiceOver can be
set to navigate the word by character if you require the correct
spelling for some reason.
• Categories: The area below these buttons and comprising the majority
of the screen, contains several categories such as health places, food
places, stores, public buildings, etc.  If a category is activated, a
list of places will be listed. If a place is selected, a screen
containing the distance from your current location, a tracking button,
and the address of that business.  In addition, there will be four
buttons that allow you to choose how you wish to navigate to that
location (walk, bus, car, or Uber). More information can be found
below under “Navigating to a Location”.
• Exploration Tab: The first tab in the list, located at the lower
left of the screen, will take the user to the main home screen, all of
which have been discussed at length in the above paragraphs.
• Favorites Tab: This tab will list any locations you have marked as
“favorites”.
• Social Tab: Though one might imagine this tab would connect you to
various social media outlets, it actually only contains one option,
which opens up an email to the developer.
• Settings Tab: This final tab, located at the bottom right of the
screen, contains settings that control the volume, pitch, and speed of
the app’s voice as well as the synthesizer used.  It also allows you
to change the layout of the exploration screen (grid vs list view),
change the unit of measure that the voice announcements use (feet or
meters), and gives you the option to open the tutorial or contact the
developer.
list end

Navigating to a Location

Traveling to a specific location can be done in a variety of ways.

The first way is via the search feature.  If you search for
“McDonalds” for example, you will be presented with a list of
McDonald's restaurants.  You may wish to narrow the list by adding the
city you are searching in.

Once given the list, choose the one you wish to travel to.  You will
then be taken to that location’s “page”. At that point, you may choose
how to travel to that location (walking, bus, car, or Uber).  Once you
make your choice, you will be asked what app you wish to use to
navigate with. Examples may include
Google Maps, Apple Maps, Moovit, Waze, or others you have installed.
How you proceed from here will depend on the app you choose to open.

The second way to navigate to a location is to choose a category from
the main screen rather than search for a specific location.  Once you
select a category, and from there select a location, you will be taken
to that locatin’s “page. At that point, you will navigate there much
the same way as described in the paragraph above.

Tracking

Tracking a location is a very useful way to have the app announce
where you are in relation to that location when it is close to you.
In a way, it is like telling the app to keep you informed of where
that location is in relation to your current position. It will give
you more specific directions to that location or let you know if you
have passed it.  Location tracking can be easily turned on and off. If
Lazarillo is running at the same time as your navigation app, it will
give you extra “sound cues” relating to that location. Tracking will
be turned off once you arrive at that location or it can be manually
disabled in the app.

Advantages

Let’s start with the obvious advantage.  The app is free and is
available on both iOS and Android.

Additionally, the maps used are very accurate, at least where I used
it (Janesville WIsconsin).  As I rode the bus in town, the app
announced each intersection as we crossed it as well as the street we
were traveling along.

The app is also quite easy to navigate and the layout is intuitive.
If you have received any training on Nearby Explorer or BlindSquare,
the interface is very similar and you should be able to pick up how to
use the app in no time.  This is of particular significance and
especially useful when teaching a student using one of the
aforementioned “paid” apps, but the student cannot afford to purchase
that app for his/her own device.  Lazarillo can be downloaded
free of charge and the student can use it without a steep learning curve.

Drawbacks and Suggested Improvements

As with BlindSquare and other apps, one of the major drawbacks is that
many of the businesses listed in the exploration mode or under the
categories are either out of business or are actually not businesses
at all.  I am not sure what maps are used by Lazarillo, but it would
be nice if there were a way to, at least in your own app, delete
locations that are no longer available or that you do not have any
interest in. The perfect example, in my opinion, are the various
“Schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry” that pop up...there are only so
many of those you want or need to hear about, so it would be nice to
be able to eliminate those from being announced every time you enter
that neighborhood.

One way of addressing this issue is to always perform a search in
Google or another browser to see if you can locate the business and
get an address or phone number.  This is especially advisable when you
are navigating a new area or city since there is no way for you to
know that Java Joint has been closed for three years and is now a
tavern or laundromat or even a vacant lot.

Other Resources

Lazarillo App YouTube by Lazarillo (English)

Lazarillo and Waze by Blind Tech Channel

AppleVis App Directory: Lazarillo


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