Pittsburgh Regional Transit announced Thursday it has teamed up with a widely used visual interpreting service to help visually impaired riders navigate its system easier.
The free service is provided by Aira, a California-based company that can have online helpers tap into the camera system on a visually impaired rider’s smartphone. While riders point the camera, interpreters can help them find their way around by identifying bus stops and reading signs for them.
The agency will pay $10,000 a year to allow riders to use Aira, which is widely available at universities, airports, museums, stores, entertainment venues and transit agencies across the country. The partnership was announced on World Usability Day.
“We’ve had visually impaired people use the transit system for many years and this is certainly one extra tool that we have made available,” PRT spokesman Adam Brandolph said. “We hope people with use it and find it helpful.”
The Aira app is available to riders for free and can be downloaded in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. PRT said the system “strengthens the agency’s commitment to accessibility and inclusivity.”
“Pittsburgh Regional Transit is committed to building a transit system that meets the needs of all our riders, and Aira’s support is a crucial part of making this vision a reality,” CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said in a news release. “Providing free access to on-demand visual interpreters enables our blind and low-vision riders to travel with greater autonomy and dignity.”
Tom Burgunder, a new PRT board member who is visually impaired and president of the Golden Triangle Council of the Blind, said in an interview he has used the Aira system in other cities and found it helpful.
“I used it to get around the airport in Houston,” he said. “It’s a little hit-and-miss because it’s only as good as the person on the other end. It was better than nothing, but it’s not as good as having another person right there to guide you along.”
Burgunder said visually impaired riders use a lot of workarounds on transit, such as using a GPS system to identify streets so they know when their stop is approaching.
“There have been huge technological advances that have helped us tremendously, but they also help everybody else so we never really catch up to them,” he said.
Aira also has a program that offers American Sign Language for hearing-impaired people via another smartphone app.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.