Skip to content

    Case study · Madrid

    Madrid's skyline, narrated aloud at 92 m.

    After the Faro de Moncloa reopened in March 2021 as a «one hundred per cent accessible» viewpoint, Madrid Destino integrated NaviLens into the new information railing: every panel — the Castro Plan, the views of Moncloa, the skyline — has its own code that reads its contents aloud in the visitor's language.

    Information railing on the Faro de Moncloa viewpoint: on a black panel explaining «The Castro Plan» in Spanish and English, a square colour NaviLens code framed in white lets visitors hear the panel's contents through their phone

    Faro de Moncloa

    Municipal viewpoint 92 m above ground · Madrid Destino

    March 2021

    Reopening after the universal accessibility works

    Information railing

    Every panel on the viewpoint, with its own NaviLens code

    ES · EN

    Voice output in the language of the visitor's phone

    The client

    Madrid City Council
    Madrid Destino · Faro de Moncloa

    The Faro de Moncloa is a former 110-metre lighting tower built in 1992 when Madrid was designated European Capital of Culture. Today it is one of the city's most singular viewpoints, run by Madrid Destino under the Tourism Delegated Area of Madrid City Council.

    After comprehensive refurbishment works, the Faro reopened on 30 March 2021 as a fully accessible space: a ramp from the street, an adapted lobby and toilets, the replacement of one of the viewpoint's staircases with a ramp and, above all, a new information railing lowered so that wheelchair users could also use it.

    On that railing, every panel tells a view of Madrid's skyline or an episode of its urban history. To make those contents accessible to people with visual disabilities and to foreign visitors, the Faro added NaviLens codes to every panel.

    § The challenge

    So anyone can read the horizon without touching the panel.

    1. 01

      A viewpoint at 92 m with panels out of reach for many visitors

      The Faro's circular railing tells Madrid's skyline in Spanish and English, but the texts were too small or too far away for people with low vision, and inaccessible to anyone who couldn't see. Interpreting the horizon almost always depended on the companion.

    2. 02

      Refurbishing without losing the original railing

      The 2021 works lowered the railing so that wheelchair users could reach it too, but the content — the maps, the illustrations of Madrid, the historical texts — was to be kept as it was. An accessible layer was needed that did not cover or replace the panel.

    3. 03

      A single gesture, in any language

      Visitors to the Faro look at the horizon: they don't want to stop and read a sign or download anything complicated. The accessible signal had to be detected from several metres away, without aiming, and read the relevant panel aloud in the language of the user's phone.

    Close-up of a panel on the Faro de Moncloa information railing with an aerial map embossed on a black background; in the centre, a square colour NaviLens code framed in white lets visitors hear the description of the panorama

    § The solution

    One code per panel on the railing.

    Every panel on the viewpoint has a NaviLens code printed beside it. The visitor points the phone's camera from several metres away, with no need to focus, and the free NaviLens GO app reads the panel's content aloud in the language of their phone.

    In practice, the code lives alongside the original panel: a blind or low-vision person hears the same information that a sighted visitor sees, and an international tourist receives it in their own language without having to read the English text on the panel.

    An additional sign on the viewpoint announces the presence of the codes and explains how to use them, completing an accessible layer that adds to the lowered railing and the indoor ramp installed in the 2021 refurbishment.

    § The viewpoint

    From the railing to the viewpoint sign.

    «The Castro Plan / Plan Castro» panel on the Faro de Moncloa railing with text in Spanish and English and a NaviLens code framed in white at the centre
    Railing panel with an aerial map embossed in relief and a square NaviLens code at the centre; in the background, the «keep 2 metres distance» signs of the viewpoint itself
    Lobby of the Faro de Moncloa viewpoint: on the black wall, a sign announces the NaviLens codes on the information railing, next to a display case with «Madrid» merchandising and the entrance to the panoramic lift

    The codes are placed at the right height on the railing, next to the corresponding panel, so the user can detect them with a sweep of the phone without having to aim at an exact point.

    § Why it matters

    A fully accessible viewpoint, also for those who can't see.

    Autonomy

    the visitor with a visual disability no longer depends on a companion to understand what they're looking at: the phone reads every panel for them.

    Multilingual

    the voice output comes in the language of the phone, broadening the tourist experience beyond the Spanish and English of the original panel.

    Added layer

    NaviLens lives alongside the lowered railing and the indoor ramp: the Faro's universal accessibility adds layers rather than replacing what exists.

    § And your destination?

    Your destination can also guide in 42 languages.

    Tell us about your routes, offices, monuments or galleries. We’ll show you how NaviLens would make your offer accessible —with comparable cases.

    Request demoView Tourism & Culture sector

    Other cases· Tourism & Culture

    View all on the map →