Designing for Accessibility: How Adaptive Innovations Like RightHear Expand Markets and Create Smarter Investments

The RightHear App: Redefining Indoor Accessibility Worldwide

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Explore the full conversation with Idan Meir and learn how RightHear is transforming accessibility.

Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar building and instantly felt lost? Now imagine that same confusion with one major difference - you can’t see the signs, maps, or directories around you. For millions of people with low vision or orientation challenges, navigating an indoor space can feel like solving a puzzle with missing pieces.

This is the challenge Idan Meir set out to solve when he founded RightHear in 2016. What began as an accessibility solution for blind and low-vision users has grown into a global “indoor orientation” movement, transforming more than 2,400 venues into spaces that talk. Using a network of sensors, QR codes, NFC tags, and a multilingual app, RightHear converts physical spaces into real-time audio guides in 26 languages, giving people greater independence and confidence.

From Niche Accessibility Tool to Mainstream Advantage

One of the most powerful lessons from Meir’s journey is that accessibility-first design benefits everyone. This is the curb-cut effect in action: a solution originally created for a specific group ends up helping a much larger audience. Just as curb cuts in sidewalks help not only wheelchair users but also parents with strollers, delivery drivers, and travelers with rolling luggage, indoor talking signage can help tourists, non-native speakers, and first-time visitors in any space.

For founders and investors, this has a critical implication: adaptive innovations are rarely niche, they’re market expanders. When a product improves access for one group, it often creates efficiencies, loyalty, and usability gains for the broader customer base. This makes accessibility a smart investment, not just a compliance checkbox.

Modernizing Legacy Accessibility

Another insight from Meir’s work is the need to continuously update legacy solutions. Traditional braille signage is valuable, but many blind users now rely more on smartphones than on tactile signs. By supplementing or replacing braille with QR codes, NFC tags, and voice prompts, businesses can provide inclusive navigation tools that work for both disabled and non-disabled visitors. This futureproofs the customer experience while reducing friction for all.

Designing With Your Users, Not For Them

RightHear’s growth is also rooted in co-creation. Meir emphasizes involving the end users people with low vision and orientation challenges at every stage, from design sprints to usability tests. This collaboration doesn’t just ensure a better product, it builds empathy; credibility; and a loyal community that amplifies your work.

Accessibility as a Growth Strategy

For startups, treating early projects as experiments rather than fully formed “startups” removes the fear of failure and encourages faster launches. For investors, adaptive innovations like RightHear represent scalable, defensible growth opportunities that also align with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) priorities. They check the boxes of compliance, inclusion, market expansion, and brand goodwill all while tapping into a rapidly growing global market.

🎧 Hear More on the Productive Passions Podcast

Want to dive deeper into how Idan Meir built RightHear into a global accessibility movement? In our latest episode, we talk about designing for inclusion, scaling adaptive innovations, and turning accessibility into a growth strategy.

Learn more about RightHear on their official website.

Accessibility & Innovation: Quick Answers

What is adaptive innovation in accessibility?

Adaptive innovation means designing a solution for specific accessibility needs, such as indoor navigation for the blind, that ends up benefiting a wider audience.

How does the curb-cut effect apply to indoor navigation?

Indoor talking signage and navigation tools such as the RightHear app help not just blind and low-vision users, but also tourists, non-native speakers, and first-time visitors.

What is the RightHear app?

RightHear is an indoor orientation app using sensors, QR codes, and NFC tags to deliver real-time audio navigation in 26 languages. It’s available in over 2,400 venues worldwide.

🎧 Want to hear the full story?

Discover more insights from Idan Meir on designing for inclusion, scaling adaptive innovations, and turning accessibility into a global growth strategy —listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube.