Over 18,000 individuals who are classified as blind and visually impaired face the daunting challenge of navigating the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) on a daily basis. BlindSpot uses hardware located in the designated accessibility seating area of the bus to wirelessly communicate available seating to our app. This allows individuals to distinguish between occupied and unoccupied seats thus allowing for their greater independence.
Within the bus seat, a capacitive proximity sensor for seat occupancy detection, a microcontroller and a Zigbee module supported microchip are placed in the seat cushion. By using Zigbee modules for a dynamic wireless system integration, information about seat occupancy status can be communicated to the BlindSpot app.
BlindSpot’s app code is specifically developed to meet the highest level of international digital accessibility WC3 standards, WCAG 2.1. So, individuals who are blind and visually impaired can use screen readers to have the app’s content read out loud to them. Available in the Apple Store and Google Play. Coded with HTML5, ARIA using React.
The BlindSpot app... so you don’t sit on people.
