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RLSB wins the Breakthrough of the Year at the Third Sector Awards 2016

• RLSB wins the Third Sector 'Breakthrough of the Year' Award for Wayfindr

• Wayfindr was founded to enable blind and partially sighted people to navigate independently using smart technology

• Wayfindr was formed from a productive collaboration between the Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB) and ustwo, a global digital product studio

• The first working draft of the Wayfindr Open Standard was launched in May 2016

The Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB) has won the Breakthrough of the Year award at the Third Sector Awards 2016 for its part in creating Wayfindr, a joint venture between the charity and ustwo.

In 2014 the RLSB's Youth Forum released their YouthManifesto, representing the views of blind young people. One of the main issues highlighted was a desire to be able to travel around London independently. This led to an initial collaboration between the RLSB Youth Forum and ustwo using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons to trigger turn by turn directions within a prototype app.

Wayfindr has now led ground breaking trials on the London Underground, as well as in Sydney, using this smart technology to make the environments accessible to vision impaired travellers through turn by turn audio navigation.

Using the insights from these trials, as well as collaboration with the Wayfindr Community,Wayfindr is creating an Open Standard that venue owners and app developers can use to build systems across the world to help blind and partially sighted people navigate cities independently with their smartphones. Wayfindr launched the first working draft of their Open Standard in May 2016.

Florence Orban, Director of Corporate Development and Innovation, said"We are proud to win such a prestigious award, and it demonstrates that the charity and commercial sector working together can completely transform the lives of millions of blind and partially sighted people across the world.

"I hope our journey can inspire others to innovate and to take risks, as the rewards from projects like this can grow exponentially."

Jake Hayman, founder of the philanthropy consultancy Ten Years' Time, and Third Sector Judge said: "What a smart approach to bring service user insight together with technology and a cross-sector partnership.

With RLSB by their side every single blind child can build the self-belief and skills to fulfil the potential we know they've got."

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NOTES TO EDITORS

For more information, please contact:

Katherine Payne, Marketing and Communications Lead,Wayfindr
T:020 7808 6178M:07840 571030E:katherine@wayfindr.net

Jenny Steele, Brand and Content Manager,RLSB

T:020 3876 0004M:07826 267 173E:jenny.steele@rlsb.org.uk

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About RLSB

There are an estimated 22,000 blind and partially sighted children and young people in England and Wales and every day four more children will be diagnosed with sight loss.

Since our foundation in 1838 By Thomas Lucas, RLSB has existed to stop childhood sight loss becoming a life long disability. We don't just help young people cope with being blind, we help them live beyond sight loss. Through an expert blend of education, sport, creative and developmental services, delivered in London and the South East, we help young people unleash their potential and live and learn for the life they want.

The Royal London Society for Blind People is working in partnership with the Royal Society for Blind Children (previously the Royal Blind Society) which has given us the right mix of expertise, services and geographic reach to bring about fundamental change to the life chances of blind and partially sighted children in England and Wales.

In 2015, RLSB and RSBC's associated services supported over 1600 blind children, young people and their families.

By 2020 RLSB/RSBC want to have helped 11,000 blind and partially sighted children and young people in England and Wales.

RLSB is behind a groundbreaking trial that uses smart technology to make the London Underground accessible to blind travellers. Wayfindr is the first open standard for audio based navigation, stemming from a collaboration between ustwo, a global digital product studio and the RLSB Youth Forum.

For more information, please visitwww.rlsb.org.uk

For Family Support Service, parents or carers can call020 31980225 or emailinfo@rsbc.org.uk

About Wayfindr

Wayfindr: Empowering vision impaired people through audio based navigation

• Wayfindr is setting the first open standard for audio-based, digital navigation. They empower vision impaired people to navigate the world independently. It is a joint venture between charity RLSB and digital product studio ustwo.

• Emerging indoor navigation technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons hold the key to this. In order to achieve the greatest impact globally, there is a pressing need to develop a consistent standard to be implemented across wayfinding systems. This will truly open up a world where vision impaired people are no longer held back by their sight loss, removing barriers to employment, to seeing friends and family and engaging in their community.
  

• The Wayfindr Open Standard aims to do just that. Built on a foundation of rigorous user research it gives venue owners and digital navigation services the tools to implement high quality, consistent audio wayfinding solutions. It includes an open-source demo app that enables people who download it to use BLE beacons to understand and implement the open standard with real users, in real contexts, in real time.