Using Bluetooth electronic sensors, called “ibeacons,” installed throughout the Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center, mobile devices can provide blind and visually impaired bus riders with “audible signs” that will let them know their location and that of important landmarks, including bus bays for specific routes, ticket machines, exits and restrooms,
AWARE is an easy-to-obtain, easy-to-use transit tool that has been customized to assist our visually impaired riders to make using the Hempstead Transit Center easier. Launched in 2015, the AWARE wayfinding app is already in use in five states, but the NICE partnership represents the first time it has been used in a transit setting.
Sensible Innovations founder Rasha Said said the Hempstead bus station, through which 20,000 riders travel daily, is the ideal setting for the technology. “We get information through signs, but the visually impaired can’t read signs. So, what happens is that they usually go to a public area and have to train on it. They memorize, ‘How many steps I need to get over there,’ ” Said explained. “The settings in a crowded area can change.
AWARE is free at the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.