October 25, 2024
Source: WLKY News (October 24, 2024).
An app is making the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport more accessible ahead of the busy holiday travel season.
When passengers download “GoodMaps,” they can get turn-by-turn directions to anywhere inside, including the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, restaurants, and their terminal.
“We now have an app that can navigate anyone, regardless of their ability or need, to an indoor destination of their choice,” explained GoodMaps CEO Theresa Reno-Weber.
The app utilizes innovative mapping technology to help people like Kevin Kline, who told WLKY that navigating a place like the airport used to seem impossible.
“I lost my vision about six years ago,” Kline said. “It took me a year-and-a-half, two years to want to leave my apartment.”
All users have to do is search for where they want to go, and GoodMaps will direct them to their destination.
“I can get through security. I can pull up my phone, and I can go wherever I’d like,” Kline said.
According to Reno-Weber, it’s like the indoor version of Google Maps. Voice commands help guide the blind and low vision throughout the airport. Augmented reality and text point the deaf and hard of hearing in the right direction, while step-free routing allows those in a wheelchair to skip the stairs. However, the app is not just designed to help people with disabilities.
“It really, in just a short period time, transformed to this amazing technology that really anybody can use and is really, really user friendly,” said Dan Mann, executive director of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority.
Mann said GoodMaps helps reduce the stress of travel for everyone, even those who just need help finding their gate.
“Travel is about freedom,” said the American Printing House for the Blind’s Anne Lancaster. “It’s about the ability to have experiences and to explore, and everyone deserves that kind of experience.”
Experience and accessibility are exactly what people like Kline are getting, thanks to GoodMaps’ cutting-edge technology.
“I can now travel by myself. I go across the country really by myself and with confidence,” Kline exclaimed.
The app was launched in 2019 by the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville. It’s available now for download on Apple and Android devices.
News source: wlky.com/article/goodmaps-travelers-disabilities-navigate-louisville-airport/62709895
Related Resource:
GoodMaps App
Link: goodmaps.com/the-app
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