Haptic Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to screen free, touch based navigation for blind and visually impaired people around the world. This page shares our mission, true stories of independence, everyday moments that our community lives, the words of our allies, and how you can help.
Independence you can feel.
We do not help blind and visually impaired people get through the world. We build the tools, and tell the true stories, that let them claim it on their own terms. By touch. With no one watching over their shoulder.
Powered by the patented Haptic Corridor, the technology behind the first blind runner to navigate the New York City Marathon by touch alone.
Most navigation asks you to look. Ours asks you to feel.
For a blind traveler, a screen full of turn by turn directions is not help. It is a wall. Haptic Foundation exists to take a different idea, one already proven on real streets, and carry it to the people who have waited longest for it. It is a guidance system spoken in the language of the body. Hold your heading and you feel nothing at all. Drift off course and a gentle pulse draws you back. No screen to check. No audio to drown out the street. No one needed at your side.
We are not selling anything here. We are a mission. Our work is to widen the circle, so that this technology, and the dignity it carries, reaches every community that asks for it.
Real people. Real independence. Felt, not seen.
Gather close. These are the moments that show what becomes possible. A marathon. A stage. A documentary. And the quiet everyday wins that rarely reach the news.
The first blind runner to cross New York by touch alone.
Simon Wheatcroft ran fifteen miles of the New York City Marathon guided by nothing but vibration. No sighted guide. No audio cues. Just the corridor, felt through his own body. It was the first time he could navigate a course entirely on his own.
Simon Wheatcroft, blind ultra runner and advocate
This is AI. The Haptic Story.
Discovery Channel followed the technology from the lab to the street, with one simple question. What happens when a machine learns to guide a person through touch instead of a screen? The answer, it turns out, looks a great deal like freedom.
Featured documentary, Discovery Channel
A world you can navigate with your skin.
On the TED stage, Haptic co founder Keith Kirkland shared the idea that started everything. That touch, the very first sense we develop, could become a sixth sense for finding our way. The talk has carried the vision to audiences who never imagined navigation without a map.
Keith Kirkland, co founder and TED speaker
Named the world's leading accessibility application.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the technology earned the GSMA GLOMO Award, peer recognition from the global mobile industry as the finest accessibility application on earth. Awards are not the point. But they help the world take this community's needs seriously.
GSMA GLOMO Award, Mobile World Congress Barcelona
Our allies say it best.
We do not speak for our community. We hand them the microphone, and we listen.
It was the first time I was able to use my body to navigate independently. No sighted assistance. No audio. Just touch.
Simon WheatcroftFirst blind runner to navigate the New York City Marathon, partner and advocate
No other app compares. I do not have to constantly check my phone. I am a DeafBlind user, and I recommend it with my whole heart.
Sarah M.DeafBlind community member
With limited sight, I no longer need to stop and look at my phone for directions. The vibrations are accurate. It is a true game changer.
James R.Low vision user, United Kingdom
The experience goes far beyond traditional navigation. It is a tactile journey, and it gives back something every map left out. Dignity.
Marcus EngelDaily user and accessibility advocate
The wins that never make the news.
The marathon makes headlines. But independence is built in ordinary moments, the kind a sighted person never has to think about. These are the scenarios our community lives every day.
Walking to the corner shop, alone.
A low vision user in the United Kingdom put it plainly. He no longer has to stop and squint at a phone for directions. Eyes up, phone in pocket, just the gentle pulse keeping him on the path. The errand becomes ordinary again.
Finding your gate in a roaring airport.
Signage assumes you can read it. Announcements assume you can hear over the crowd. Touch guidance works through both, carrying a traveler across a terminal in any language, with no announcement to miss.
Navigating without a guide for the first time.
For many in the DeafBlind community, ordinary apps simply do not reach. One member told us she no longer has to keep checking a phone she cannot easily see. She feels the way forward, and she goes.
Crossing a busy street, eyes up.
Looking down at a screen mid crossing is dangerous for anyone, and impossible for many. Touch guidance keeps attention on the world rather than the device. Awareness stays exactly where it belongs.
Exploring a new city on your own terms.
Travel for blind people so often means leaning on someone else. Felt navigation changes the shape of a trip. Wander, get curious, take the long way home, and still know through your own skin exactly where you are headed.
Reaching the people you came to meet.
Shown at CES, a way to find the people you arrived with inside a dense, loud crowd. Like Find My, but felt. A reunion at a festival or a station, without a single glance at a screen.
Doing good should never cost you a thing.
Haptic Foundation has joined Do Good Points, the first loyalty program for doing good, where you do not have to spend a single dollar to make a difference. Stand with us, and help carry screen free independence into more hands around the world.
Every contribution widens the circle. Thank you for tending the fire with us.