Better Put a Label On It!

If you're like me, trying to identify items around the house can be very tedious (especially for those of us with low vision or blindness). In the past, many of us have tried Braille labels, putting elastic bands around an item, using magnets and any other method under the sun that we've heard of through the grapevine that we thought might help. There have been pieces of Assistive Technology through the years that have helped somewhat (such as the Pen Friend), but up until now there really hasn't been something that was both cost effective and intuitive. 

Over the past few years, using a smart phone with an app has revolutionized the way we can identify an item. Apps like Seeing AI or Envision AI can identify text documents, short text in real time, bar codes and much more. However, these apps only give us a vague idea of what an item might be and is not always accurate.

But what if you had the ability to add a tag to an item and include nutritional facts, ingredients, or the name of a movie with all of the actors, release date, budget, and box office revenue? How about the ability to label articles of clothing, differentiating between your work dress shirt and that Hawaiian shirt from the Jimmy Buffett concert?  Or those files in your filing cabinet, the boxes in your attic or the plants in your garden?

A new system called WayAround can do just that. WayAround is a system which allows you to apply small tags to almost any item around your home or office. The Wayaround tags come in stickers, buttons, magnets and clips. There are magnets for tags you want to attach to metal, buttons for clothing, clips for items you way want to change later, and stickers for everything else in between. 

There are two parts to using the WayAround system. One, of course, is determining what you want to label. That’s the super easy part. The other, almost just as super easy part, is downloading the free WayAround app onto your SmartPhone (available in iOS or Android), creating an account, and then use it to put in as much custom label information as you want for each item.

The uses and ways you use WayAround is only limited to the imagination. Want to label that item in your freezer? Use the oval button, place an elastic through the hole and wrap it around the item (the button is good down to -40degrees). For food items you can include cooking instructions, preparation time, nutritional information, and more. The button tags are also safe in the washing machine or dryer, so you can label your items with laundering instructions, style and color information, or any other relevant details you require.

For more ideas or to get a more detailed view on how WayAround works, check out the WayAround YouTube channel.