October 30, 2025
Created by J.J. Meddaugh
Produced by Patrick Purdue
Transcribed by Grecia Ramirez
J.J. Meddaugh: Welcome to Indigo, a fully accessible GPS app from the American Printing House for the Blind. I'm J.J., and I'll be your guide to help get you started.
Indigo is a free app that will help you navigate and find the places where you want to go and learn all about where you live. It is available for free on both iPhone and Android devices and is designed to work with your screen reader, like VoiceOver on iPhone or TalkBack on Android. It also works with other accessibility settings like magnification.
I will assume you already have downloaded the app to your phone. If you need help with this step or want more detailed information at any time, a complete user guide is also available. Before we get started, let's talk a little bit about how the app works.
Indigo uses GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System, to figure out where you are. GPS is a huge network of satellites all over the world that can usually pinpoint your location within about 10 or 20 feet. GPS works best outdoors because there is a clear path between your phone and the satellites. So, if you're inside or near a lot of tall buildings, GPS will be a lot less accurate or, actually, might not work at all.
Always trust your instincts, and remember that technology is not always perfect and sometimes will just give you bad information.
I also want to talk for a moment about being safe while navigating. Indigo is designed to be a companion, a dashboard if you will, while you are walking, in a vehicle, or on a bus. It should never be used as a replacement for a cane or guide dog. In fact, it's very important that you still are using proper orientation and mobility skills and work with your cane or guide dog properly.
Never use the app while you are actively crossing a street. And if you ever need to figure out your bearings, that's okay. Just please stop walking first and then figure out where you're at.
You might also think about using a pair of open-ear headphones or earbuds, especially while walking, as these will allow you to still hear people, traffic, and other sounds around you. If you have headphones or earbuds covering your ears, you may miss important sounds and information.
Remember, Indigo and GPS, as awesome as they are, are tools that can help you while you travel, and, if used correctly, can open up a world of possibilities. But it's always important to be safe.
Now, let's get exploring.
J.J. Meddaugh: Okay. Let's start out by opening the Indigo app so we can get familiar with it. I'm on my iPhone right now, so I'm going to use Siri to open the app.
Open Indigo.
VoiceOver: Loading user data.
Location, heading.
Heading: University Suites, 1780 R Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508, USA.
Direction: east
Intersection ahead: University Suites, north, and Eastside Suites, west.
Knoll Residence Hall, left.
JM: Okay. As you can hear, the Indigo app has now been opened, and we are on the main screen. The Indigo app has four main sections, and you can get to them by using the tabs on the bottom of the screen. If I use my finger to go near the bottom left of the screen, I can find them.
VO: More info. Routes tab.
JM: The first one is Routes.
VO: Selected, Location tab.
JM: The second one is Location, and you will notice it said "selected," meaning that's the one that's currently active. That's also the one that will be active when the app is open.
VO: POIs tab.
JM: POIs, which stands for Points of Interest --
VO: Settings tab.
JM: -- and Settings. We're on the Locations tab right now, and this will tell me about my current surroundings. So, if I tap near the top of the screen--
VO: Near University Suites, 1780 R Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508, USA.
JM: -- I can hear where I'm currently at. I can swipe right using VoiceOver.
VO: Direction: west Intersection ahead: Knoll Residence Hall, left.
JM: Other information is on this screen as well, like the nearest point of Interest. Near the top of the screen are some additional buttons. Near the top right corner of the screen is a button that will let us switch between GPS position, which is what we start at, and Virtual position, which lets us look around without using GPS. I'm going to press that button now.
VO: GPS position on, button.
Selected, Virtual position on. Virtual position active at 1780 R Street, Lincoln, 68508, Nebraska, United States.
JM: So, as you heard, there was a chime that was played, and we have been told that the Virtual position is on. The thing I really like about virtual positioning is it lets me learn about my area and my surroundings without navigating anywhere or walking anywhere. It's a really good way to learn about a new place before I actually go there. It's the same as looking at a map before actually traveling.
So now that we've turned on the Virtual position, I'm free to explore anywhere I like, virtually. Let's create a virtual route.
So you might remember we mentioned POI, or Points of Interest, as one of the tabs on the bottom of the screen. I'm going to select that now and then select a nearby point to travel to.
VO: POIs tab.
JM: So there's the POIs tab near the bottom of the screen. Let's double-tap with one finger.
VO: Search here. Search field, is editing, Search here. Insertion point at start.
JM: So as you hear, I could search for a point of interest, or a POI, or I could look through the nearby categories, like food or transportation. Let's look to food.
VO: Popular POI. Entertainment. Food.
JM: All right. Let's double-tap.
VO: In progress. Knoll Breakfast Grab and Go: 440 N 17th Street, Lincoln, 246 feet northwest, button.
JM: So you notice it tells us several different things about that point of Interest. We heard the name of the place; we heard its location, including the address; and we heard how many feet away it is. Let's swipe right.
VO: CPN Dining Hall: UNL City Campus, Lincoln, 545 feet northwest, button.
JM: Let's do it one more time.
VO: Willa Cather Dining Complex: 530 N 17th Street, Lincoln, 591 feet north, button.
JM: All right, the Willa Cather Dining Complex. That is a dining hall here on this campus. I want to double-tap because then, I can create a virtual route to this place and get an idea of how to get there.
VO: Willa Cather – back, button.
JM: Okay. So now that I've double-tapped, I'm on a new screen which will give me several choices. Let's swipe right to see what we have.
VO: Create route to, heading, heading. Look around wand: off, button. Selected, Virtual position: on, button. Willa Cather Dining Complex.
JM: We have a confirmation that we are creating a route to the Willa Cather Dining Complex. Let's continue to swipe right.
VO: 530 N 17th Street.
JM: That's the address.
VO: Lincoln, NE, 68588, United States. (402) 472-3561.
JM: I could call them if I wanted to.
VO: Distance: 591 feet.
JM: And, again, the distance is 591 feet away.
VO: Pedestrian, button.
JM: Now, we are to several different options for the type of route that I want to create. The first one you heard is “pedestrian”. That lets us get a walking route from here to that location.
VO: Vehicle, button.
JM: Or you can create a vehicle route, which will allow you to create driving directions from your location to the place you are trying to go. This is great because you can help someone else navigate while they are driving.
VO: Getting Warmer, button.
JM: Getting Warmer is a mode that will simply alert you every so often how far you are from the place. So, every so often, it will say how many feet you are away, and, hopefully, that number keeps getting lower and lower as you try to find the place.
VO: Set as virtual position, button.
JM: There are several other additional modes on this screen including transit and bicycling. Let's go back and select the “pedestrian” mode so we can create our route to the destination.
VO: Bicycle -- Transit. Set – Getting Warmer, Vehicle, Pedestrian, button.
JM: There it is. Let's double-tap with one finger.
VO: Pedestrian.
Turn right --
0.2 miles to destination. Estimated time: five minutes. Facing direction is south. Proceed straight. Start going west toward R Street. In 134 feet, turn right on R Street.
JM: Okay, we've now been told quite a bit of information to help us with our route. Now, remember, this is just virtual, so we are just exploring how we would get from here to there. For instance, we heard the ETA, or the estimated time of arrival. Now, that is if you are walking continuously and does not account for you stopping at street crossings or stopping to talk to people.
One cool thing you can do with this app is you can shake your phone to have it repeat the last direction again. So I can face my phone up and down, or vertically, and shake it up and down to have it repeat the last direction.
VO: 150 feet, turn right on R Street. Destination 5:00, north. In 0.2 miles, ETA five minutes.
JM: There we go. That's the directions we just heard. Now we have several options on this screen. Let's look at a couple of them now.
Now, one of the options on this screen is the Route Details button, and that will tell us more about how to get there. Let's press that button now.
VO: Route details, button.
JM: Now, on this screen, we have all the directions for the route that we want to take. Let's swipe right so we can hear them one at a time.
VO: 1. Start going west toward R Street.
2. After 128 feet, turn right on R Street.
3. After 262 feet, turn right on N 17th Street.
4. After 801 feet, turn right.
5. After 154 feet, Willa Cather Dining Complex, 530 N 17th Street, on right.
JM: There you have it. We've heard all five steps for this route. I noticed the last step said the destination was on the right. That can be really important when you're trying to find the location when you're nearing your destination. When you are done listening to this route, you can find the Cancel button and double-tap to close the route.
VO: Recalculate route. Cancel, button.
Cancel. Alert: Are you sure you want to cancel current route?
Yes, button.
JM: And we'll select Yes.
VO: Empty list.
JM: You can create a route from any two locations, such as from your house to your school or to a nearby store or to somewhere across the country. Why not try it out now? Once again, this is a really good way to practice and learn how this app is going to work before you start navigating. So be sure to take your time and understand how the app sounds when you are navigating.
J.J. Meddaugh: One of the best ways to get used to using Indigo is to use the app while you're riding in a vehicle with someone. You could be sitting in the back seat of a car or on a bus or a train, and you can hear what you are passing and your surroundings. This is done by using the Location tab while you're on the app. I recently took a ride in a car going down a highway and was able to hear some of the things that I was passing.
VoiceOver: Heading north. Nearest POI, distribution center: Republic National Distributing Company.
US 131 N, Grand Rapids, 49548, Michigan, United States. Heading north.
Nearest POI, miscellaneous store: First Source Servall.
JM: While you're in a vehicle, the screen will update with places that you are passing. You can also determine your current direction, such as north or south.
VO: Heading north.
JM: One of the really cool things about this app is that it will pan to the left or the right certain places. So if you are passing a store and it's on your left side, you will hear it on your left ear if you're wearing headphones.
VO: Supermarket: Meijer, 0.2 miles, 10:00.
JM: Same thing if you pass a place on your right side, you'll hear it on your right ear.
VO: Pet service: The Well-Mannered Dog Center, 525 feet, 4:00.
JM: You can go into the settings screen to customize how these announcements are spoken and make them faster or slower if you'd like. One of my favorite ways to use a feature like this is to figure out what restaurants might be coming up on the highway. So then I can say, "Hey, there's a McDonalds coming up. It'd be really cool if we could stop there." Why not try it out for yourself?
J.J. Meddaugh: Now, one of the big features of this app is the ability to create routes. You can create a route to a street address, a point of interest, or perhaps the address of one of your friends. You can even save your home address under Settings. That way, you can always create a route home if you'd like.
Now, there are several different ways that you can create a route. One of the easiest is using the Routes tab. So, we have our four tabs on the bottom of the screen. The bottom left tab is Routes.
VoiceOver: Routes tab.
Back button.
JM: This screen will let me create routes in several different ways. For instance, I might want to create a route to the American Printing House by using their address. So let's swipe right until I get to “Street Address.”
VO: Create route. Look around wand. GPS. Home. Points of Interest, Street address, button.
JM: There it is. Let's double-tap.
VO: Search here. Search field, is editing. Search here. Character mode. Insertion point at start.
JM: So I happen to know the address to the American Printing House, so I am, this time, going to use dictation to put that in quickly. I'll do a two-finger double-tap.
1839 Frankfort, Louisville.
VO: Inserted 1839 Frankfort, Louisville.
Clear text. 1839 Frankfort Ave, Louisville, KY, United States.
JM: So what I did there is I swiped right, and the first address that came up was the address to the American Printing House. I'm not even in the same state right now, but it knew what I was talking about. So I can double-tap on this one.
VO: 1000 – Alert: Select route type.
JM: And, now, we select the route type.
VO: Pedestrian, button; Vehicle, button.
JM: A vehicle route would make sense here.
VO: Back button.
354.4 miles to destination. Estimated time: 5 hours, 19 minutes. Facing direction is southwest Turn right. Start going north toward Eleanor Street. In 112 feet, turn left on Eleanor Street.
JM: Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Well, if I'm not driving, why do I care about the route?" But I think it's really important to know where you're going and what streets you're on. That way, you can understand geography and where things are in relationship to each other. So, I really think it's a cool thing to be able to track where my vehicle is going, whether I'm in a car or on a bus or a train.
J.J. Meddaugh: Now I want to show you a really cool shortcut that you can use to bring up points that are near you. We talked about those tabs on the bottom of the screen: Routes, Location, POI, and Settings. Well, if you actually double-tap and then hold your finger on the POI tab, it'll bring up a list of points that are near you without having to do anything else. So let's find that tab now.
VoiceOver: Routes tab. Selected, Local -- POIs tab.
JM: And we'll double-tap and hold.
VO: In progress.
Saint Augustine Cathedral: 542 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, 308 feet southeast, button.
JM: So, when you hear that extra sound, you know the double-tap and hold worked. Now, we can look through the list of points just like before.
VO: Saint Augustine School: 600 W Michigan Ave, Portage, 320 -- Saint Vincent de Paul Thrift Store: 513 Eleanor Street, Kalamazoo, 427 feet east, button.
JM: You can use any of the available navigation options from this screen.
J.J. Meddaugh: Now, I'm going to talk to you about the "Getting Warmer" mode, or some might call it "as the crow flies." What this will do is let me choose a point of interest and then get a direct route from my location to there. In other words, if I were to take a piece of string and put it from where I'm at right now to the destination, this would be a straight line. Now, when I'm walking or moving around, it might not be the safest to actually walk that straight line. You definitely need to stay on streets or in other safe areas, but it can be a really good way to find out how to get somewhere directly.
So, let's go to the POI tab. I'm using my Android phone for this one. I'm actually going to double-tap and hold on the POI tab, which is the third one across on the bottom row.
TalkBack: POI tab.
Navigate -- back. Allen Boulevard, Woodbridge AFC, Kalamazoo, 190 feet southwest. 1 of 12 in list, 12 items.
JM: So this lists all of the nearest points of Interest. I'm going to swipe right until I find one that I want to go to.
TB: St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store: 513 Eleanor Street, Kalamazoo, 364 feet east, 3 of 12.
JM: Okay, we found a thrift store. It is 364 feet away, and we got the direction, which is northeast. So let's double-tap on that.
TB: Back button. Navigate up. Out of list.
JM: And then we have our list of types of routes that we can create. Let's swipe right.
TB: Create route to, heading.
Look around wand, off. Virtual – Street: 513 Eleanor Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49007, United States.
269-388 – Distance: 364 feet.
Pedestrian, Vehicle, Getting warmer.
JM: So "Getting warmer" is what we're looking for this time. Remember, Pedestrian would be a regular walking route, Vehicle would be a regular driving route, and "Getting warmer" is what we're talking about now, that direct route between here and there. So I'm going to select that now.
TB: Back button. Navigate up.
JM: So it very quickly calculated that route because it's really close to here, and you heard a ding as well. Let's swipe right.
TB: Route to St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store: 513 Eleanor Street.
Look around wand, off. Virtual -- Distance to destination: 373 feet.
2:00 east.
JM: So it actually tells me that the destination is at my 2:00. Now, that is determined from the way my phone is facing. I'm holding my phone horizontally, and notice, if I were to turn it to the right --
TB: 1:00 east.
Ahead, east.
JM: I can turn it to the right, and then I actually hear that it's "ahead" or at "1:00". So "ahead" from me is actually not the way I want to go, because that would be cutting through some houses. So I do need to go back to the street, but I can know that, okay. The thrift stop is actually the direction that I'm pointing my phone.
TB: 363 feet ahead, east to destination.
JM: Let's start walking.
TB: 363 feet, right, east to destination.
JM: And we will notice, as I'm walking, that number, hopefully, will go down.
TB: Heading northwest. Nearest POI, art gallery: Dale Snyder Gallery, 0.3 miles, 2:00.
Heading north. 383 feet, right, east to destination.
Nearest POI, dance studio: Ballet Academy, 0.6 miles --
JM: This is the corner, so I'm going to turn right.
TB: -- 1:00.
360 feet, 10:00, east to destination.
Heading southeast.
Heading east.
JM: And notice, as it’s --
TB: 297 feet ahead, east to destination.
JM: Notice as it gives me updates as we go along. Now, we are under 300 feet away.
TB: 242 feet, 1:00, east to destination.
JM: Now, I'm staying on the sidewalk because I want to get there safely. So, I'm still going to use sidewalks and other safe modes of travel as I'm getting closer to the destination.
TB: Nearest POI, music venue: Glow House, 0.2 miles, 1:00. 190 feet, 1:00, southeast to destination.
Nearest POI, vintage and thrift store: St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, 171 feet, 1:00.
133 feet, 1:00, southeast to destination.
102 feet, 2:00, southeast to destination.
Nearest POI, fuel station: Shell, 833 feet ahead.
Nearest POI, dance studio: Ballet Academy, 0.5 miles ahead.
Heading southeast 82 feet, 1:00, southeast to destination.
JM: So I've turned right now and should be pretty close to the destination.
TB: Nearest POI chemicals and gasses –
Voice: Arrived near destination.
TB: -- Manufacturer: Blue Rhino, 0.3 miles, 2:00.
Heading south. 55 feet, 10:00, southeast to destination.
10:00 south, ETA –cancel.
JM: So we're close.
TB: Selected. Cancel.
JM: I'm going to go to this Cancel button.
TB: Back button. Navigate up.
JM: And I am close enough now that I can figure out where the door is from here and just use my orientation and mobility skills to find the destination.
J.J. Meddaugh: Let's talk about transit. One of the coolest features in the Indigo app is the ability to find nearby public transit points and then navigate to them. This might include bus stops, train stations, or light rail. Let me show you how that works.
Once again, we're going to go to the POI tab. So, remember, those tabs are on the bottom of the screen. It's the third one over.
VoiceOver: Routes tab.
JM: That's the first one. I'll swipe right.
VO: Selected, Location tab.
JM: That's Location.
VO: POIs tab.
JM: And there's POIs. We'll double-tap.
VO: Search here. Search field, is editing. Search here. Insertion point at start.
JM: Now, this time, I'm going to look for "Transit Near Me." So let me swipe right until I locate that.
VO: Popular POIs, heading. Entertainment, Food, Lodging, Shopping, Transit Near Me.
JM: Now, I'm going to double-tap.
VO: Selected, Westnedge & Water, bus stop, 493 feet away.
JM: So I hear there's a bus stop 493 feet away. Now, the one difference that's going to happen here is as soon as I double-tap on this, the directions will come up right away. Let's do that now.
VO: Westnedge & Water, bus --
Turn right on Eleanor Street in 192 feet.
952 feet to destination. Estimated time, 3 minutes. Facing direction is southwest.
Turn right. Start going north toward Eleanor Street. In 110 feet, turn right on Eleanor Street.
JM: And there you have it. It's the beginning of the transit directions. Now, this will tell you all of the bus stops or train stations, light rail stations that are near you. You will want to verify where those buses or trains are actually going by looking up the transit provider on the web or perhaps giving them a phone call. I find this a really easy way to find bus stops that are near me, and then I can explore further.
J.J. Meddaugh: Here's a quick tip. You can create a user Point of Interest from your current location. So you might want to do that if you're standing by the front door of your house, for instance, and you want to be able to find it later. You can create a user point just about anywhere.
The easiest way to do this is to double-tap and hold with one finger just about anywhere while you're on the Location screen. So, I'm on the Location screen now. I can verify that by just moving my finger.
VoiceOver: Near. GPS position on, button.
JM: Okay. Cool. Now, we'll double-tap and hold.
VO: Name, text field, is editing. Character mode. Insertion point at start.
JM: There's a box where I can put in the name for my user POI. So I can essentially choose that and also set a couple other options on this screen. But once I hit Save, it'll allow me to find this point later on whenever I would like by going to the POI tab.
There is a waypoint breadcrumb mode that you can use within the app to actually connect a bunch of these points together. These user points come in handy when you actually want to navigate by waypoints. Perhaps you're on a trail and you want to connect a whole bunch of points together. User points are just yet another way to make things a little bit easier for navigation.
J.J. Meddaugh: Now I'd like to talk to you about a shortcut that I think you'll love: a Siri shortcut, in fact. You can use Siri shortcuts on the iPhone app to access some of the features of the app just from talking to Siri. So we have to set that up first, though, by going to Settings.
So the Settings tab is the last tab on the bottom row, towards the right edge of the screen. It's the fourth of four tabs.
VoiceOver: Settings tab.
JM: There it is right here. I'm going to double-tap and activate that.
VO: Background operation on. Double-tap to toggle setting.
JM: Now, there are a whole bunch of different settings here, and you can read about them in the manual. But let me swipe right until I find "Siri shortcuts."
VO: General, button. Routing, button. Look around, button. Visual map. Siri configuration, button.
JM: “Siri configuration.” That's what we're looking for. We'll double-tap.
VO: Shortcut, Route to POIs.
JM: Okay. So now, I have pressed that button, and we have the shortcut "Route to POIs." So let's swipe right.
VO: Add to Siri, button.
JM: And there's a button that says "Add to Siri." We'll press that.
VO: Edit in shortcuts, button.
Image: An illustration of a blue and pink circle with a light shining on it.
JM: All right. We're on a new screen here.
VO: Hey Siri.
Create a route in Indigo, text field.
JM: So you heard it say, "Create a route in Indigo." So that is the phrase that you will say to activate this shortcut. You could change it if you like, but I think I'm just going to leave it as is. Let's swipe right.
VO: Shortcut added. To use -- change voice phrase, button.
JM: You can change the voice phrase as I mentioned.
VO: Done, button.
JM: And there is the button to confirm.
VO: Back button.
JM: So now I can activate Siri whenever I'd like to activate the shortcut.
Create a route in Indigo.
Siri: Indigo says, "Where do you want to go?"
JM: American Printing House for the Blind.
Siri: By which mode you want to go?
JM: Vehicle.
Siri: That's done.
VO: 354.2 miles to destination.
Indigo. Back, button.
Estimated time: 5 hrs, 19 minutes. Facing direction is southwest. Turn right. Start going north toward Eleanor Street. In 97 feet, turn left on Eleanor Street.
JM: That was pretty simple. So I was able to just use Siri and get directions in whatever mode I wished—vehicle, transit, pedestrian—to my destination by just speaking. Shortcuts are another way to navigate to places more quickly and efficiently.
J.J. Meddaugh: I hope this tutorial has helped get you started on your path to traveling independently. Indigo, like a lot of GPS apps, can be a really cool and important tool and help you get a lot of information that you wouldn't get otherwise. When used correctly, GPS apps can help you navigate all over the world. It's going to take a lot of practice and practice and even more practice, but I know you'll get there.
Remember, there is that user guide if you have more questions and help inside the app as well. Thank you so much for listening, and have a great day.