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    Case study · Valladolid

    The ONCE house in Castile and León, guided by voice from the street.

    The ONCE Regional Office in Valladolid embeds NaviLens codes at entrances, lobby, fire hose reels, residence, library and offices, so that any blind or low-vision person — including guide-dog users — can navigate the whole building autonomously.

    Façade of the ONCE Regional Office in Valladolid: large glazed front with a commemorative banner «Contigo celebramos 80 años de evolución social» and the ONCE Social Group logo; next to the entrance door, a square colour NaviLens code and, beside it, the yellow-and-green sign of the ONCE logo with a white cane

    Valladolid

    ONCE Castile-and-León Regional Office

    80 years

    Campaign «Contigo celebramos 80 años de evolución social» (2018)

    Full wayfinding

    Entrance, lobby, fire hose reels, residence, library and offices

    Co-validated

    Tested with members and guide-dog users on site

    The client

    ONCE Valladolid
    Castile-and-León Regional Office

    The headquarters of the Spanish National Organisation of the Blind in Valladolid bring together the services of the Castile-and-León Regional Office: membership, member care, library, shop-exhibition, event halls and the Low-Vision Unit, opened by the presidency of the regional parliament in 2000.

    Coinciding with the «Contigo celebramos 80 años de evolución social» campaign, the office took its own accessibility one step further and rolled out NaviLens codes across the building: from the street door to the technical staff offices, through transit areas, stairs and member service spaces.

    The rollout has been co-validated with members and guide-dog users, walking through the building with the NaviLens and NaviLens GO apps to check that each code is detected in time and delivers useful information.

    § The challenge

    Making the ONCE office readable from 10 metres away.

    1. 01

      A historic ONCE building

      The Valladolid office hosts the Low-Vision Unit and the services of membership, library, shop and member care. A building with several floors, angled corridors and very different-use areas, in which visual orientation is non-trivial for a person with visual impairment.

    2. 02

      Accessible signage that wasn't visible «from far»

      The centre already had braille, high contrast and tactile plaques, but the information was only available right next to each element. A «long-range» signage layer was missing, one that allowed doors, offices and common areas to be detected from several metres away.

    3. 03

      Practising what ONCE recommends outside

      As a reference organisation in accessibility, the office itself wanted to lead by example: turning its headquarters into an environment where any blind or low-vision person — member, visitor or staff — could move autonomously using NaviLens.

    Young person with a backpack and a black guide dog scanning with their phone the NaviLens code placed next to the glass entrance door of the ONCE Regional Office in Valladolid; in the background, a commemorative banner «80 years of social evolution» and the yellow-and-green ONCE logo lightbox above a floor with red-and-white tactile strips

    § The solution

    An audible layer on top of the signage that already existed.

    The NaviLens codes have been placed next to the existing plates — office doors, emergency exits, fire hose reels, library and shop accesses — without replacing braille or high contrast, but adding to them.

    The user opens the app, moves the phone and from more than 10 metres away hears aloud what's ahead: «Member service desk», «Emergency exit», «Library», «Membership»…

    Information is updated from the NaviLens panel without touching the physical signage: schedule changes, service relocations or one-off notices become instantly accessible.

    § Inside the office

    From the street door to the last office, everything coded.

    Stairwell at ONCE Valladolid: salmon-coloured wall with a framed plaque of the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord granted to ONCE; on the right, a square colour NaviLens code and below it the commemorative «80 years — ONCE» logo, framed by ficus leaves
    Interior lobby at ONCE Valladolid with white marble floor: on a circular column, a red fire hose reel (BIE) with a square colour NaviLens code below; in the background, another code next to a glass door with red adhesive strips and a green emergency-exit sign on the right-side wall
    Interior corridor of the ONCE Valladolid headquarters with salmon and white walls: on the right, a red fire hose reel with a square colour NaviLens code below and an alarm push-button; in the background, a waiting area with blue armchairs and another framed NaviLens code on the wall
    Wooden door of the ONCE Valladolid control centre with an evacuation plan and cognitive-accessibility poster «Dale una vuelta»; on the right, two square colour NaviLens codes next to an access-control keypad and a detection device
    Double-leaf wooden door at ONCE Valladolid; on the right, a small gold plaque reading «MEMBER SERVICE OFFICER» and, above it, a small square colour NaviLens code
    White corridor at ONCE Valladolid with several framed NaviLens codes on the wall, a wooden door with frosted glass and, in the right foreground, a young user with a black guide dog checking his phone after scanning the codes
    View towards the reception and library desk at ONCE Valladolid: a curved wooden counter with the sign «Library — opening hours», NaviLens codes on the back wall, ficus plants at the entrance and, on the right side, a user with a black guide dog checking information
    Young woman in a floral dress in a white corridor at ONCE Valladolid scanning with her phone a square colour NaviLens code placed next to the «MEMBERSHIP» and «EXHIBITION SHOP — Opening hours: Monday to Friday, mornings 10:00–13:30, afternoons closed» signs

    NaviLens codes are spread along the usual route of a member: street entrance, lobby, fire hose reels, corridors, waiting areas, library, exhibition shop, member service officer and technical offices.

    § Why it matters

    ONCE uses, at home, what it recommends outside.

    Real autonomy

    Members and visitors enter, walk through and locate offices without having to ask or be accompanied.

    Layer, not replacement

    NaviLens lives alongside braille, high contrast, tactile paving and the existing emergency signage: it adds, it does not replace.

    Replicable model

    The rollout is scalable to other regional offices, educational resource centres and services of the ONCE Social Group.

    § And your headquarters?

    Your office can also welcome in 42 languages.

    Tell us about your building, your services and your visitors. We’ll show you how NaviLens would make your office truly accessible.

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