Stockton pioneers latest technology to help blind people
Thursday, Jan 15 2004
A UK first is taking place in Stockton as a major project to develop information systems for the blind is launched in Stockton on Monday, 12th January - and all blind residents in Stockton are welcome to attend.
The new scheme, which is being run in partnership between Stockton Council, the RNIB and Vodafone, will equip blind residents in Stockton with the latest technology to enable them to access information on public transport information.
Under the new scheme, blind residents will be provided with the latest mobile speakerphones, which convert text to speech. They will also be given portable readers, which uses the latest DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) technology to enable blind people to use fully searchable CDs.
They will be able to try out the latest equipment and choose the system that suits them best. The RNIB will be providing assistance and training and users will be regularly consulted throughout the scheme.
Using the experience of local people to help develop the next generation of systems, the Council's goal is to equip the blind user with information that allows them to travel by public transport with confidence.
The project has won funding of £153,000 from the Department for Transport.
The RNIB and Stockton Council will jointly pioneer work to convert local bus timetables to DAISY format. John Kavanagh, Senior Transport Planning Engineer for Stockton Council, said: "It's long been our ambition to provide timetables for blind travellers. Braille is too impractical and not everyone uses it. Tapes simply cannot be searched and updated easily.
"Using DAISY we hope to be able to provide fully searchable and up to date timetables on CD that can be produced at low cost and are easy to use.
"The scheme is a UK first and we will be working with the RNIB, Vodafone, Nokia and other phone manufacturers and software developers to see if we can develop the mobile phone so that it provides blind people with a whole range of information. We hope users will soon be able to locate items and get to know about their immediate environment using emerging RFID and Bluetooth technologies."
Stockton has, along with other Tees Valley authorities, also won funding to provide a Real Time Bus Passenger Information System, which will provide blind travelers with 'live' information on when buses are due through their mobile phones. This system will also be of use to all other mobile phone users so travellers will be able to find out exactly when their bus is due.
