ScreenReader

THE CHALLENGE

Com­munity: Anxi­ety is felt by blind and vis­ion dis­abled pas­sen­gers who often don’t know where they are on a jour­ney or when to get off the bus. At a time of eco­nom­ic restraint, it is not likely that on board audio visu­al inform­a­tion cost­ing hun­dreds of pounds per bus will be provided loc­ally espe­cially on the city’s rur­al bus routes.

THE SOLUTION

Screen­Read­er was awar­ded £20,000 through the Test Bed Fund to pilot a pro­ject to improve the bus jour­ney and oth­er travel exper­i­ences of people with little or no sight in Peter­bor­ough.

Screen­Read­er have developed Geor­giephone, a fam­ily of apps for blind or low vis­ion people. With its big talk­ing but­tons, clear print and sim­ple lay­out, one of its fea­tures includes provid­ing bus jour­ney inform­a­tion which acts as a low cost altern­at­ive to audio visu­al inform­a­tion on buses, tak­ing away the anxi­ety felt by blind and vis­ion dis­abled pas­sen­gers.

THE STRATEGY

Build­ing on the recent par­ti­cip­a­tion in an EU Ambi­ent Assisted Liv­ing pro­ject, the pilot pro­ject will involve recruit­ing and train­ing 20 visu­ally impaired people to use smart­phones equipped with loc­ally engin­eered bus and taxi and mon­it­or their bus jour­ney exper­i­ences over one month.

There will then be a PR cam­paign to pro­mote the pro­ject achieve­ments and poten­tial through­out the city and bey­ond and will then update their apps offer­ing in light of the cli­ent exper­i­ence.