Comparison of Accessible GPS Systems

Recently, I had the great good fortune to catch the recording of an incredibly enlightening seminar. The seminar focused on a comparison of the numerous accessible GPS systems available for the use of the blind. It is not often that I realize my knowledge concerning a subject is woefully inadequate, but listening to this recording and gaining an idea of the substantive differences between the available systems and the complex history of GPS, it was definitely one of them.

GPS systems designed specifically for the blind began to come to prominence in 1994; as you can imagine, there have been vast improvements since then. The first GPS system was a program which could be purchased for use on the Braille Note, which is rather like an accessible Lap Top with a Braille keyboard. It’s triangulation ability (the ability which allowed it to calculate your position in relation to the remaining distance from your destination) was not very good, meaning you could be told you were fifty feet away when you were seventy-five, and its commercial points of interest database (in essence, restaurants, bars, and such things as beauty salons present in each community) was much smaller. Now, with the rise of commercial GPS systems, there are twelve satellites floating above the Earth which help with triangulation. If your GPS receiver is picking up 10 to 11 of these satellites, your signal is excellent, although the minimum required for any sort of triangulation is 3, and I wouldn’t imagine the positioning would be very good.

Until the seminar, I never realized the myriad of components that form the GPS. For instance, does it have a telephone key pad, a QWERTY keyboard, or a Braille keyboard?  Picking the keyboard which you can most efficiently utilize will help immensely to maximize your use of the device. For those of us who are proficient Braille users, obtaining a GPS with a Braille keyboard, usually one which comes installed on another device like the GPS system that comes with the Braille note, helps us immensely. To find Starbucks with a Braille keyboard takes twelve keystrokes, versus the over thirty required to find the same information with the key pad of a cell phone, which is another popular device on which to install accessible GPS systems.