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Home > Design Needs > Exterior Design Elements > Street Crossings > Wireless Pedestrian Systems

Wireless Pedestrian Systems

To mitigate the barriers described above, all intersections with traffic control signals should be equipped with wireless capability to activate APS.

Screenshot of key2access mobile app. Intersection in Montreal of Saint Denis and Duluth and has a construction message Text: Saint Denis and Duluth. There is currently sidewalk repairs on the north side of Duluth street. Please use south side.

The following are the requirements of a Wireless Accessible Pedestrian System:

User Devices:

Wireless APS should be able to be activated using either a personal hand-held device or a smart phone.

Personal hand-held devices should be freely available to pedestrians requiring these adaptations. The smart phone option must be compatible with text to speech or screen magnification assistive technology, native to both iOS and Android operating systems.

At minimum, a wireless APS should support both of Canada’s official languages.

Proximity and Activation:

As with conventional APS, activation, regardless of mode, should be available 24 hours a day.

Activation of an APS should only be possible, regardless of whether a user is working with a smart phone or a personal hand-held device, within a 3,700 mm distance. This is the same guideline as to the ability to detect a locator beacon.

When an APS activation request is transmitted, via a personal hand-held device or smart phone, the device should confirm that the request has been received.

Acoustic and Tactile/Vibro-walk Signal:

When a wireless device has been used to activate an APS, the guidelines above on acoustic vibral tactile indication should be followed.

A wireless device should provide vibral tactile indication as to an APS being activated.

Additional features:

A Wireless APS should enhance the pedestrian experience by providing supplemental information such as street names, sidewalk closures, pending hazards or other environmental queues.

System Design and Integration:

Wireless APS systems should operate independently of current or future infrastructure.

The system should be functional at all types of intersections (actuated, semi-actuated or fixed-time) and should be compatible with push buttons and APS.

Testing and validation:

As with any system designed to mitigate the impact of blindness, systems should be thoroughly user tested by pedestrians who are blind, who have varying degrees of sight loss and who are deaf-blind.

At time of writing, Key2Access is the only provider to have completed The CNIB Foundation testing and effectively demonstrated a solution that meets all the requirements articulated above.