Case study · Zaragoza, Aragón
A town hall lobby that announces itself.
Zaragoza City Council, the ONCE in Aragón and Implaser show how to combine tactile paving and NaviLens codes to guide blind people through the lobby of the town hall.
Pza. del Pilar, 18
Town hall lobby · Zaragoza City Council
6 Oct 2021
Public demo as part of the ONCE Week in Aragón
ONCE + Implaser
Implaser tactile paving combined with NaviLens codes
Public building
Wayfinding in open interiors and accessible queue management
The client
Zaragoza
City Council
Zaragoza City Council sits in the Casa Consistorial at Plaza del Pilar, 18 — a public building with a large open lobby dominated by the well-known relief model of the city and the illuminated Ebro river.
In October 2021, as part of the ONCE Week in Aragón, the council hosted a public demo of indoor wayfinding for people with visual disabilities, with the participation of councillor for the Presidency, Treasury and Interior, María Navarro.
The experience is part of the council's path towards the Accessibility and Rights of People with Disabilities By-law of Zaragoza, approved in 2023, and the creation of the municipal Accessibility Board, in partnership with CERMI Aragón.
§ The challenge
Finding your way in a lobby with no walls or alerts.
- 01
An open hall with no landmarks
The town hall lobby is a large open space under Zaragoza's mural model, with polished marble floor and few landmarks. For a blind person it is one of the hardest environments: no walls to follow and nothing for a cane to detect.
- 02
Visual-only queues and alerts
Visitor and registry queues are managed with screens and numbers, in many cases with no audio prompts. A person with a visual disability cannot tell when it is their turn or which counter to head to.
- 03
Information on out-of-reach signs
Opening hours, counter and service signs are designed to be read up close. The same information needed to be audible from several metres away, without touching the sign or asking for help.
§ The solution
Lines for the cane,
codes for the voice.
Implaser installs tactile strips and cross markers that draw physical routes on the lobby floor and let the cane detect key points: entrance, counters, ticket machine and exit.
On every node sits a colour NaviLens code. The app reads it from several metres away and announces, out loud, the same information shown on the signs — "To the left, ticket machine. Continue straight to the exit or turn back to return to consultation counter 1" — and the live status of the Registry queue.
§ Timeline
From the ONCE Week to the Accessibility Board.
- Sep 2021
ONCE Week in Aragón
The ONCE in Aragón runs a week of awareness activities about the needs of blind people and people with severe visual disabilities in the city of Zaragoza.
- 6 Oct 2021
Demo at the town hall
The town hall lobby on Plaza del Pilar hosts a simulation of indoor wayfinding. Councillor María Navarro walks the space with a blindfold and white cane.
- Implaser + NaviLens
Two technologies, one wayfinding
Two technologies are combined: tactile paving installed by the Aragonese company Implaser — lines and crosses detectable by a cane — and NaviLens codes that let the same information from signs, counters and screens be read from several metres away with a smartphone.
- Afterwards
Towards an accessibility by-law
The experience feeds the council's path towards the Accessibility and Rights of People with Disabilities By-law of Zaragoza (approved in 2023) and the creation of the municipal Accessibility Board.
§ Gallery
A demo with cane, blindfold and phone.
§ Results
A public building you can walk through by listening.
Navigable lobby
Tactile crosses + NaviLens codes turn an open hall into a space you can navigate with cane and voice
Accessible queue
The app reads out counters, queue number and key points (registry, ticket machine, exit)
Replicable model
Serves as a showcase for other public buildings of the Zaragoza City Council and for the Accessibility By-law
§ Press and sources
What is being said about Zaragoza City Council with NaviLens
“El hall del Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza ha acogido una simulación de guiado en interiores para personas con discapacidad visual organizada por ONCE. La actividad está destinada a la orientación de las personas con discapacidad visual en espacios diáfanos de grandes edificios públicos, así como al control de los turnos de visita que de forma habitual se realiza con pantallas, en algunos casos sin aviso sonoro.”
“Las marcas situadas en el suelo permiten tomar referencias físicas detectables por un bastón para que las personas ciegas o con una discapacidad visual grave puedan orientarse en un espacio con pocos puntos de referencia. De forma complementaria, se ha empleado un sistema de códigos de colores, de la empresa NaviLens, que se pueden leer a distancia empleando un smartphone.”
“El Consistorio tiene previsto extender un sistema de códigos NaviLens en sus principales edificios públicos para mejorar la orientación de las personas con discapacidad visual, en el marco de la Ordenanza de Accesibilidad y Derechos aprobada por el Ayuntamiento.”
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