sidewalk tiles with numbered lines let the visually impaired know the shop they’re passing by

each line on cemento sol's cement sidewalk tiles indicates a specific business such as a bank, grocery store, hospital, accommodation, and more.

matthew burgos December 29, 2023 3 min

Cemento sol develops sidewalks to see cement tiles

Cement company Cemento Sol develops Sidewalks to See or SightWalks, a series of cement tiles that have numbered lines to help the visually impaired identify the type of businesses or establishments they are passing by. The number of lines can tell them if the shop next to them is a bank, grocery store, accommodation, hospital, bus stop, drugstore, and more as they count them from left to right using their walking sticks.

Cemento Sol has already implemented Sidewalks to See or SightWalks in the district of Miraflores in Lima, Peru. Before that, the cement brand says that it collaborated with different visually impaired associations around Peru to help validate and test the cement sidewalk tiles and make sure that these cement sidewalk tiles can enable the visually impaired to move around without the help of others.

cemento sol cement sidewalk tiles visually impaired — images and video stills by Cemento Sol and Circus Grey Peru

Copyright-free cement sidewalk tiles

Cemento Sol tapped the creative agency Circus Grey Peru to work together on the cement sidewalk tiles, and the latter created a commercial that embodies and presents Sidewalks to See or SightWalks. In the video, the cement sidewalk tiles also show that while the horizontal lines indicate the kind of establishment that the person is passing by, the vertical lines on top and below these lines identify if the shop or business is positioned to their left or right.

While it is Cemento Sol that developed Sidewalks to See or SightWalks, it does not mean that they are going to gatekeep the project to themselves, which can defeat the purpose of helping the visually impaired navigate the streets on their own whenever they need to swing by a shop. In fact, these cement sidewalk tiles are copyright-free and can be replicated and implemented by any city, organization, or person. The move hopes for more tactile cement sidewalk tiles that can make it easier for the visually impaired to know where they are going.