On June 6th, the International Day of the Blind is marked worldwide. KKL-JNF created a particularly exciting path, designed to give the visually impaired and the blind the opportunity to walk on their own in the open landscape, even without prior familiarity with the place.
Close to the route KKL-JNF has built a parking lot with parking spaces and accessible tables opposite the entrance to the trail, in the forest on the other side of the road. The parking lot is dedicated to the Bukovina Jewish community, many of whose members perished in the Holocaust.
The route is a circular route which is paved between forest and orchard trees with a length of about 500 meters.
Access to the starting point: drive on road 443 from the Ben Shemen interchange towards Modi'in. About 800 meters after the main entrance to Ben Shemen Forest and Mitzvah Modi'in, turn right (south) in Zehirat on a paved road. After about 200 m, turn left on a dirt road accompanied by an avocado orchard on the left of the road and reach an intersection surrounded by parking lots. Continue straight, until the road bends to the left and you will reach the parking lot of a path for the visually impaired (Waze: parking lot for the blind).
Technological innovation: Voice Guidance
KKL-JNF has developed a navigation system with voice guidance, dedicated to the trail. Using your smartphone, you can listen to an explanation on a nine audio stations system. To activate the system, you must scan the code found on the yellow sticker on the metal post placed at the entrance to the trail. The left code is for an Android operating system and the right one - For the IOS (Apple) operating system. You can, of course, walk the path even without activating the system.
How do you walk a path without seeing?
Very simple. Hold the handrail made of a metal cylinder, easy to hold, which accompanies the left side of the path along its entire length. The path is paved, about 2.5 m wide, and curb stones border it along its entire length. Signs, made of metal plates, were placed at the important stations along the path. The information includes text in Hebrew and Braille. Usually, a relief of an explanatory illustration is also added. Set yourself a challenge and try, with covered or closed eyes, to understand what each and every sign is talking about.
Bela Nodelman, architect of the center area at KKL-JNF: "We invite everybody to come and walk along an accessible path suitable for everyone with an emphasis on people with visual impairments. A recommendation to experience the path with closed eyes and to feel the world through an experience of touch, hearing, touch without seeing, a bit like what people with visual disabilities experience."