In 2000, 4 WPI students built a $400-per-intersection system to help blind pedestrians find crosswalk buttons. 26 years later, locator tones are standard features of accessible pedestrian signals across U.S. cities

Accessibility can sometimes depend on something as simple as being able to find a button. For blind and visually impaired pedestrians, locating the button that activates a crosswalk signal can be difficult when no sighted person is nearby. In 2000, a team of students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) worked on a low-cost solution intended to make that task easier and give blind pedestrians greater independence.

A Crosswalk Challenge for Blind Pedestrians