Case study · Madrid

An ONCE school voice-guided, from the gate to the classroom.

The «Antonio Vicente Mosquete» Educational Resources Centre of ONCE in Madrid embeds more than 50 NaviLens codes and around a hundred accessible QR codes on the signs of classrooms, residence and common areas so that anyone can find their way autonomously.

Madrid

ONCE's «Antonio Vicente Mosquete» CRE

+50 NaviLens codes

Indoor and outdoor wayfinding across the centre

+100 accessible QR

Signs of classrooms, halls and residence

Inclusive education

Students with visual impairment and itinerant teams

The client

CRE ONCE Madrid
«A. V. Mosquete»

The «Antonio Vicente Mosquete» Educational Resources Centre is one of the five CREs that ONCE runs in Spain. It welcomes blind and low-vision students — from kindergarten to high school — and supports the itinerant educational support teams working with students all over the Community of Madrid.

Under the ONCE Innova umbrella, the centre led a pioneering project to become a fully accessible educational environment: 50 NaviLens codes across accesses, corridors and common areas, and more than 100 accessible QR codes on the signs of classrooms and halls, linked to pages with detailed information (name, capacity, function of the space, classical mythology behind the room's name…).

The project made it possible to retire the paper noticeboards and replace them with accessible, sustainable and always-up-to-date information, maintained with the help of the students and faculty themselves.

§ The challenge

So a school built to teach accessibility also lives it on every sign.

01
A complex campus, several zones
The Madrid CRE brings together school, residence, specialised classrooms, auditorium and technical services spread across several floors and zones (A, B, 1, 2…). For someone arriving for the first time — families, speakers, new students — finding their way by sight isn't always possible.
02
Signage that ages and changes
Paper noticeboards, printed posters and classroom names are updated every academic year. Keeping that information accessible too in braille, audio and languages was a huge and unsustainable effort.
03
Accessibility for every profile
Blind or low-vision students, faculty, itinerant educational support teams, families and external visitors: each one needs the same environment, but read in a different way.

Sign of the «Séneca B.16» classroom at CRE ONCE Madrid: black plate with the classroom name, braille writing under the title and, on the plate, a square colour NaviLens code; in the background, a large green letter B marks the zone of the building

§ The solution

NaviLens along the way, accessible QR at the door.

The NaviLens codes solve wayfinding: they are detected at more than 10 metres, without aiming and on the move, and guide users by voice from the gate to the right wing of the building, floor and classroom.

Once in front of the door, the accessible QR codes on each sign — close-up reading — extend the information: classroom name, capacity, function of the space, pedagogical content and, in many cases, a web page produced by the students themselves.

The same sign works for a person with residual sight, for someone who reads braille and for someone who listens to the information in their language through the phone.

§ Inside the centre

From zone B to the auditorium, everything coded.

Access to the «Salón Justo de Aldaco» at CRE ONCE Madrid: metal sign with the hall's name above wooden doors and, next to them, a white plate with a square colour NaviLens code

Red cork noticeboard with two framed square colour NaviLens codes and, between them, the «Educación inclusiva ONCE» seal on a green and yellow background

Zone 1 at CRE ONCE Madrid: white wall with a numbered «1» sign, a card with an accessible QR code and directional indications next to a fire-extinguisher column; in the background, orange walls and dark stoneware floor

Staircase at CRE ONCE Madrid, zone B: metal handrail, contrast-marked steps and, on the yellow landing wall, a «B» sign and a square colour NaviLens code below it

Orange fire door with a green «SALIDA» (exit) sign, a card with an arrow indicating «BEDROOMS / VISITS» and, above the door, a square colour NaviLens code in the residence area of CRE Madrid

Corridor of the CRE ONCE Madrid residence in perspective: white walls and orange baseboard, bedroom doors in a row, a red alarm push-button in the foreground and overhead light at the back

Glazed corridor connecting buildings at CRE ONCE Madrid: orange baseboard on both sides, a continuous window on the right opening onto an interior courtyard and a metal grid ceiling

NaviLens codes are spread across outside accesses, corridors, staircases, zones A/B, residence and auditoriums such as Justo de Aldaco. Classroom signs (Séneca, Sócrates, etc.) also add accessible QR codes with extended information.

§ Why it matters

An ONCE centre that teaches accessibility by using it.

Bye to paper

Accessible QR codes replace printed noticeboards: information is updated from the web and stays accessible in audio, braille and languages.

Student authors

The students themselves produce web pages linked to the signs (classical mythology, science, language…), learning to create accessible digital content.

Replicable model

The ONCE Innova project is designed to scale to other CREs and to mainstream schools with students who have a visual impairment.

Source: Grupo Social ONCE — «Innovation and Transformation: Accessibility, Technology and Classical Culture at CRE Madrid» (ONCE Innova, March 2024). +50 NaviLens codes and +100 accessible QR codes across classrooms and halls.

§ And your centre?