Simon Wheatcroft described himself as a technologist rather than a marathon runner. Studying computer science, he lost his sight at 17 to Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Over a period of seven months, Simon went from running between the goalposts on a football field to his first race of over 100 miles. Partnering with leading technology firms and using social media to find running partners, Simon has gone on to run marathons and ultra marathons. In 2014, he decided that the 26.2 mile New York City marathon wasn’t enough, so he started in Boston over 250 miles away.
Leveraging his experience of working with leading technology firms including IBM, MIT and Google, Simon created the next generation of technology to enable himself and others to achieve what many bystanders would consider unattainable. Much of this technology was put to the test as he became the first ever visually impaired person to run solo the 4 Deserts Marathon in Namibia in May 2016.
The technology behind the run
What made Simon’s solo run possible was a custom audio navigation system that replaced the traditional sighted guide. GPS data was fed into an app that delivered real-time audio cues through bone conduction headphones — leaving his ears open to the environment while a voice kept him on course. The system had to be reliable enough to function in extreme heat, across unmarked desert terrain, with no mobile signal and no backup.
The partnership with IBM was particularly significant. Their team worked with Simon to refine the audio feedback loop, experimenting with cadence, cue frequency, and how much information a runner could process without it becoming a distraction. Too many cues and the cognitive load became a hindrance. Too few and a subtle drift in direction could compound into a course error over kilometres. Getting that balance right was a design problem as much as a technical one.
What it means for accessibility design
Simon’s story sits at an interesting intersection for anyone working in digital product design. The constraints he was designing around — minimal sensory bandwidth, a high-stakes context, zero tolerance for ambiguity — are an extreme version of the same constraints that good accessibility design has to address every day.
Screen readers, switch controls, and voice interfaces all require the same kind of careful thinking about information hierarchy and feedback timing. The designer’s instinct to add more — more cues, more confirmation, more visual richness — tends to be the wrong one. Clarity comes from reduction, and Simon’s GPS system is a useful reminder of that.
He eventually was able to run free at the New York Marathon, a remarkable story of how technology can open up possibilities that might otherwise seem impossible.
