The Town of Essex is working to improve accessibility within the Colchester Harbour, Colchester Beach, and Colchester Park areas.
The town is launching Blindsquare, a navigational assistance tool aimed at enhancing accessibility for people with vision impairments.
Developed in collaboration with the Accessibility Advisory Committee, the navigational assistance tool utilizes GIS directional navigation technology to assist individuals with vision impairments, offering enhanced guidance and accessibility.
Once the app is downloaded and activated, it provides voice commands and guidance to let users know about points of interest and items of note within their vicinity.
Jake Morassut, Director of Community Services for the Town of Essex, says they worked with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to find the best app to improve accessibility.
“Basically, what it is is that as people are walking around the community, and this park specifically, they are able to get navigational tips and where they are. It will geotag specific features within the park and let them know they’re a certain distance away from them,” he says. “For instance, it will say, ‘At your 3 o’clock, you’ll see the bird houses or the benches.'”
Morassut says they will see how much its utilized and then explore opportunities at other sites within the municipality.
“We have heard some feedback that people want more accessibility throughout the community and the park properties that we have, so we want to make sure we’re taking those into account,’ he says. “We want to know, based on the metrics we get from the program, we’ll be able to tell the use of it and see what that data says. Is it something that will be valuable for the community and for the investment to go to other properties.”
 
Morassut says they are always looking at different ways to make sure the park and the property are accessible.
“We want everybody to feel included with our properties, knowing this is a huge tourist destination during the summer season. We want to make sure people have that ability to come out and enjoy the waterfront,” he adds.
Work to provide connectivity between the park and the app was made possible through $8,000 in funding from the Ontario Inclusive Communities Grant.