Last fall, Milena Khazanavicius was walking on a Halifax sidewalk when she unexpectedly struck a sharp metal sign, cutting her arm open.

The sign, which had been placed in the middle of the sidewalk while construction took place nearby, is the kind of hazard that disability advocates in the city warn are dangerous to pedestrians — especially those who are blind, like Khazanavicius, or partially sighted.

It's such an issue that one woman is creating an app that keeps track of those hazards so that pedestrians can be warned before they injure themselves.

"I have had friends who are blind and partially sighted cut their heads open," Khazanavicius, who lives in Halifax and uses a guide dog, told CBC Radio's Information Morning.

Last week, a friend warned her about a sign at the corner of Almon and Isleville streets in the city's north end that was attached to a pole and protruded almost halfway into the sidewalk.

"There is no way that I would not have hit my head on that. I clearly would have ripped the right side of my cheek open, if not even more damage," she said.

For more than a year, Khazanavicius said she's been trying to work with the city to provide training to construction workers on how to properly place signs.

"I want to be in there training these people so they understand when posting up these signs why it is important and crucial, particularly when it's someone who's blind and partially sighted, that it's not at head or eye level and it doesn't impede anyone's passage on the sidewalk," she said.

She said the city has continually told her that staff are too busy to help conduct training.