Ablicon home

Accessible guides for zoos, museums and attractions

Every exhibit, for every visitor.

Ablicon turns your phone into a guide that knows where you are. Walk up to an exhibit and its story appears, audio-described, captioned with ASL, or standard, depending on the accessibility settings your phone already uses. It also gives spoken, step-by-step directions to any exhibit, restroom, place to eat or gift shop.

Coming soon foriPhoneComing soon forAndroid

Free. No account or login needed.

How it works

  1. Download Ablicon

    It reads your phone’s accessibility settings and sets itself up: audio description, captions or standard. Change it anytime from the menu.

  2. Walk up to an exhibit

    A small Bluetooth beacon at each exhibit tells your phone where you are. Nothing to find, scan or type.

  3. Get it your way

    App open: the exhibit page appears. Phone in your pocket: a vibration and a notification your screen reader can read.

Built for accessibility first

Blind or low vision

Audio-described content that works with VoiceOver and TalkBack, large text and your own screen-reader settings.

Deaf or hard of hearing

Captions, ASL video and transcripts, plus vibration alerts instead of sound. Works with hearing aids already paired to your phone.

Every visitor

Stories, photos, videos and keeper-talk times at each exhibit, with full functionality on your own earbuds and headphones.

Your own device

No shared handsets to collect, return or clean between guests. No sanitation issues, no lines.

Private by design

No account, no name, no location history. Anonymous usage data only, and you can switch it off anytime.

Directions to anything, one step at a time

Tap Directions in the app’s menu. The closest restroom, place to eat and gift shop come first, then every exhibit, nearest first. Pick one and Ablicon explains the way in plain words, starting from the direction you are facing:

“Turn right. Walk 40 steps. Bear left. Walk 25 steps. Stop. On your left: Giraffe.”
  • Your own steps. Ablicon learns your step length as you walk, so “40 steps” means your steps. Distances are in feet.
  • Guidance along the way. With audio description on, the directions are read aloud. Ablicon then follows your progress and tells you each next instruction as you reach it, even with the phone in your pocket.
  • Back on track. Take a wrong turn and it finds a new route from where you are.
The Ablicon map demo: a park map with a numbered pin at each exhibit, and a phone showing the Giant Anteater page for exhibit 13.

See it in a live demo

We set up a demo using the Tucson zoo, with sample pages for 36 exhibits plus its restaurants, gift shop and restrooms. Click any numbered pin to see what a guest’s phone shows at that exhibit, and use the phone’s gear button to switch between the standard, visually impaired and hearing impaired versions.

Then switch the map to Directions, drag the person to any spot, turn them to face a direction and pick where to go. They walk the route on the map.

Try the live demo

No sign-in needed. Works best on a computer or tablet.

Three phones showing the Giant Anteater page: the standard page, the visually impaired page with large audio buttons, and the hearing impaired page with everything in writing.

One exhibit, three ways to experience it

  • Every visitor: the exhibit’s facts, details and a link to your own page.
  • Visually impaired: the audio starts by itself, with large buttons. Your own audio-tour recording plays first where you have one, followed by a spoken description of what the animal looks and sounds like.
  • Hearing impaired: everything in writing, including a description of the sounds around the exhibit.

The app picks the right version from the phone’s accessibility settings. Guests can change it at any time.

For zoos, museums and attractions

Give every guest an accessible guide without running a fleet of devices.

  • Small, weatherproof beacons that run for years on one battery. No wiring.
  • Update content in a web page. Changes are live instantly, with no app update.
  • Reports on visitors, popular exhibits, routes and accessibility needs, by day, week, month and year.
  • Works alongside your existing audio tours, ASL videos and scripts.

Talk to us about your venue

Installed in minutes, set up from a phone

Three steps to mount a beacon with adhesive: clean the spot with isopropyl alcohol, put 3M 468MP adhesive on the back of the beacon, press it on for 30 seconds.

Mounted with adhesive or screws

Each Feasycom beacon powered with 2 AAA batteries (not included) mounts with double sided stickers (included). Where you want a beacon to stay put for good, or on wood and rough surfaces, screw it on instead.

The Ablicon installer on a phone: tap the exhibit on the park map, hold the phone to the beacon and press Program beacon, then see the confirmation.

Programmed right at the exhibit, with an Android or iPhone

Your staff sign in to the Ablicon installer, tap the exhibit on your park map, hold the phone against the beacon and press Program beacon. The app sets up the beacon and checks that it works.

Each installation is recorded with the date, time, place and who installed it, and the beacon gets its own private PIN. Your dashboard then shows each beacon’s status and emails your team when a battery runs low.

3M is a trademark of 3M Company. Feasycom is a trademark of its owner.