Case study · Canada · Toronto, Ontario
The TIFF market, read out loud.
The Toronto International Film Festival adds NaviLens signage to TIFF: The Market, the industry market it launched in 2026 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Two hundred codes say out loud where the entrances, lifts, toilets, stages and sensory lounge are.
200 codes
Deployed mainly across TIFF: The Market, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Sep 10–16, 2026
First edition of The Market, inside TIFF 51 (September 10–20)
12 m
Distance at which the app detects each code (12 m), no need to aim
42
Languages · audio, text and sign language
The client
Toronto International Film Festival
— TIFF: The Market
The Toronto International Film Festival has run since 1976, when it started out as the Festival of Festivals, and is today one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Its 51st edition took over Toronto from September 10 to 20, 2026.
That same edition launched TIFF: The Market, the festival's industry market, running September 10–16 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Buyers, sales agents, producers, platforms and financiers accredit there, arriving from dozens of countries.
And the venue is not a movie theatre: you cross in from the street, ride a glassed-in skywalk over the traffic, change floors by lift and then find a screening room, a booth or the sensory lounge. All of that signage goes up for one week and comes down afterwards.
§ The challenge
One week to learn a whole building.
- 01
A convention centre, not a movie theatre
The Market occupies the North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre: several levels, a glassed-in skywalk over the street, lifts, escalators, exhibitor booths and screening rooms. Finding your way there means reading signs hanging from the ceiling.
- 02
Delegates from dozens of countries, seven days
Accredited delegates fly in, work against the clock and leave. Nobody has time to learn the building, and the venue is signed in English and French: two of the many languages spoken in the market's aisles.
- 03
Event signage is temporary
Festival signs are printed days ahead and taken down when it ends. Any accessibility solution had to go up at the same pace and with the same effort: a poster stuck on the wall, no construction and no wiring.
§ The solution
Two hundred posters that introduce themselves.
The festival prints 200 NaviLens codes and spreads them mainly across the Market: the street door, the skywalk, the lifts, the toilets, the screening rooms and the sensory lounge. Each poster carries the code, the festival logo and the line “Scan with NaviLens GO.”
The app detects each code from more than 12 metres away, on the move and without aiming: a delegate sweeps the aisle with their phone and hears what lies ahead before reaching it.
The reading comes as audio, text and sign language, in 42 languages. The venue is signed in English and French; the code speaks whatever language the passing delegate's phone is set to.
§ Timeline
From 1976 to the first market.
- 1976
The festival is born
TIFF is held in Toronto for the first time under the name Festival of Festivals. Half a century later it is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world.
- Sep 10–20, 2026
TIFF 51
The festival holds its 51st edition in Toronto, with public screenings spread across the city's theatres.
- Sep 10–16, 2026
TIFF: The Market debuts
The festival launches its industry market at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, restricted to accredited delegates: buyers, sales agents, producers, platforms and financiers.
- 200 codes
The building, out loud
The NaviLens codes are spread mainly across the Market: street entrances, the skywalk, lifts, toilets, screening rooms and the Sensory Friendly Lounge in room 308.
§ Walkthrough
From the street door to the sensory lounge.
Entrance
The North Building door
The code sits on the metal jamb, to the left of the automatic doors of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It reads from the pavement, before you go in, and announces that the Market starts here.
Circulation
The glassed-in skywalk
The walkway that crosses above the traffic has its own code on the column, at eye level and a few metres from the glass doors. It marks the change of building for anyone who cannot read the sign overhead.
Lift
The level 300 lift
Next to the call button, the code goes on the right, above the printed floor plan. Delegates pick it up from the corridor and learn which lift is in front of them and what floor it serves, without hunting for the number.
Read aloud
“Accessible Elevator to Level 200”
A freshly printed poster, read with NaviLens GO. Below the code are the festival logo and the line “Scan with NaviLens GO”; the app displays and speaks the text it carries: “Accessible Elevator to Level 200.”
Toilets
The hall toilets
On the tiled wall where it turns into the corridor, the code sits beside the toilet pictogram, to the left of the entrance. It is the spot people look for most in a venue this size, and the one they least like to ask about.
Quiet
Sensory Friendly Lounge, room 308
The Market's sensory lounge – the room for turning the noise and the stimulation down – has its code too, on the wall by the door of room 308, above the printed notice and next to the pink sign announcing it in English and French.
§ Results
The market, audible end to end.
Street to screen
Entrances, skywalk, lifts, toilets and screening rooms of the Market, announced by voice
42 languages
In a venue signed in English and French, the code speaks whatever language the delegate's phone is set to
Sensory lounge
The Sensory Friendly Lounge in room 308 is announced by its own code, like any other room
§ And your destination?
Your destination can also guide in 42 languages.
Tell us about your trails, visitor centres, landmarks or galleries. We’ll show you how NaviLens would make your offering accessible – with comparable cases.
