BOSTON — A new app could help blind and vision impaired people find MBTA stops, thanks to a partnership with the Perkins School for the Blind.
The new BlindWays app launched Tuesday and it aims to help MBTA customers navigate Boston's transit system.
"I use an app on my phone for GPS navigation, and it would tell me that there was a bus stop, but it would be 30 or 50 feet off. So, inevitably, I would miss the bus. The bus would go right past me," Joanne Becker explained to FOX25's Elizabeth Hopkins.
GPS can guide travelers to within a 30-50 foot radius of his or her destination, which can leave vision impaired riders too far from a bus stop to be noticed.
"It's a harder problem than you think for the visually impaired," The Perkins School's Dave Power said.
The BlindWays app aims to erase that "50 feet of frustration" by using micro-navigation to help vision impaired riders get to bus stops. The app uses landmark clues to navigate and provided bus arrival information to further help.
"BlindWays is just one example of how Perkins is focused on developing innovative solutions for more people," said Power. "We are proud to have worked closely with the MBTA to help people who are blind or have low vision find their bus stops and travel more independently."
BlindWays depends on crowd sourcing, users who volunteer to contribute the clues about the roughly 7,800 bus stops throughout the system. Anyone with an iPhone can help make a difference by downloading the BlindWays app for free from the App Store. People who use or pass by MBTA bus stops can easily contribute information about surrounding landmarks.
"If you're sighted, you're still going to love the app because its great for bus prediction, and it populates the first three closest bus stops to wherever it is you're located," Becker said. "It is an app for everybody."
The project was partially funded through a Google grant, which provided $750,000 through the Google Impact Challenge to help with disabilities.