transportation

Metro Partners With App to Help Visually Impaired People Navigate Transit

NBC Universal, Inc.

Metro is partnering with an app that aims to make mass transit more accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired.

The Waymap app is available at three Metro stations: Braddock Road, Brookland and Silver Spring. Officials hope to expand it to 25 stations by September, and aim to eventually cover the entire Metro system.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and Waymap are set to reveal more details at the Brookland Metro Station at 11:30 a.m.

Waymap broadcasts step-by-step and turn-by-turn navigation verbally, the company’s CEO and president Tom Pey said. It doesn’t use GPS or a cell signal.

“It takes precise and detailed map data and puts that with our sensor-fusion technology,” Pey said. “It turns your mobile phone into a precision navigation device.”

Pey said he felt he couldn’t explore as much as he wanted after losing his sight.

“With Waymap, I can go wherever I want, whenever I want,” he said.

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