Seeing a new way forward in a “low interest” category

Credit: Cannes Lions

Cement would seem to rank as one of the most boring products, but one brand has proven that with a little imagination, that need not be the case.

People who are blind or visually impaired use cement every day as they walk the sidewalks and streets. Tactile paving has made that a little easier -  if you are walking with a white cane, lines in the cement mean “go” and dots in the cement mean “stop.”

But the Peruvian brand Sol Cement discovered an insight – those lines and dots don’t tell people exactly where they are or what is around them.

So, Sol has improved on the tactile paving with what it calls Sightwalks.  It is a universal system that people with visual impairments anywhere can follow.  If your cane touches a horizontal bar, it is a signal that you have reached a block with more information in the form of a set of vertical bars.  One vertical bar means you are outside a restaurant, two bars is a bank, three bars is a grocery store, etc.

Sol has installed these Sightwalks in the Miraflores section of Lima, Peru, and has made the technology open-source, so any city or organization in the world can replicate them.