Blind and low vision Moovit users can now access Be My Eyes directly from the Moovit app, to ensure a smooth journey with public transportation.
Moovit is the world’s largest transit data and analytics company and the number one transit app. Moovit simplifies urban mobility all around the world; getting around town via transit easier and more convenient.
Be My Eyes’ goal is to make the world more accessible for people with blindness or vision loss, including public transportation. With Be My Eyes, blind and low vision users are connected to sighted volunteers with a tap of a button, who are ready to help them navigate to work, find their way through a new environment or choose the best transit route.
Until Moovit, no public transport apps provided additional support for low vision folks to improve their transit experience. Relying purely on driver or station announcements wasn’t a comprehensive solution. For the 253 million blind and low vision people in the world, traveling on public transportation can be difficult without accessible infrastructure, but accessible technology can help.
Moovit worked with Adi Kushnir, a blind a developer who provided his own first-hand experience as a blind transit rider. Kushnir helped create an accessible integration and ensure the app would be easy to use for all visually impaired users.
Moovit has made every screen accessible with VoiceOver and TalkBack enabled on iOS and Android devices. With the accessible integration, low vision users simply hold their finger on their phone screen to hear which button or icon is beneath it, helping them to navigate more seamlessly through the app and allowing them to plan trips on public transit with ease. With the Live Directions feature, they get step-by-step GPS-style guidance for their journey and even receive alerts when the bus is arriving or when they’ve reached their stop.
By combining information from public transit operators and authorities with live information from the user community, Moovit offers travelers a real-time picture, including the best route for their journey. Named “Best Local App” by Google in 2016 and one of Apple’s Best Apps of 2017, Moovit launched in 2012 and surpassed 100 million users in five years. The app is available in 44 languages, in over 1,800 cities, and across 79 countries.
You can download Moovit in the App Store and Google Play.
