Accessibility Heroes

One of the things I enjoy the most is travel. There is a lot to experience out there and as COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease there is more opportunity to get out and about. There are also an increasingly large number of accessibility projects popping up that can assist seniors with travel so, I thought it’d be good to have a look at two projects I came across recently.
One interesting project is Ability Heroes. The website provides a directory of accessibility friendly locations and services around Australia, with community participation.
The website is a little bit WA-heavy at the moment but is growing rapidly. The website has a ‘Find a Service’ option, a ‘Location’ option that provides all services in that area, and the ability to upload your own suggestions.  Hopefully the website will continue to develop into a great resource for seniors.

A second project which has great potential is an app called All Aboard which is developed by  the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear and funded by Microsoft.
The app has been rolled out in the US, Canada, UK and Germany to support people who are blind or have low vision in catching public transport, especially in making bus stops more accessible.
The app focuses on trying to address the issue of navigation from when the GPS signal runs out to find the bus stop, to the process of actually getting on the bus.
There have been a few initiatives like this in the past but the Microsoft backing gives this one some exciting potential as it continues to be rolled out to more countries.

Also don’t forget that the third Thursday of May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, so I’ll look forward to sharing lots of news that comes from the day in the June newsletter.

Dr Scott Hollier
ASCCA Director – Accessibility