October 26, 2024 • 13 mins
Utilizing public transit systems can be challenging for those who are visually impaired. Keolis North America, the company that runs the MBTA Commuter Rail, is rolling out a new partnership with an app called Navilens to help bridge the accessibility gap. Giant, colorful QR codes are being put up around certain commuter rail stations to help disseminate information through the app, and Adam Ross, Manager of Customer Experience at Keolis, explains how the system works to Nichole on this week's episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend,
where each week right here we talk about all the
topics important to you and the place where you live.
It is great to be back with you again this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. One of the main purposes of public
transit is to make it more equitable and accessible for
anybody to enjoy the city they live in or happen
to visit. Unfortunately, if you're blind or have low vision,
(00:30):
navigating trains and buses can be pretty challenging. You don't
always see the signage, you don't know where the arrivals
or departures are. It can be hard to know where
the end of the platform is, so on and so forth. Keolis,
the company that runs the MBTA commuter rail, says now
it's working to bridge the accessibility gap with a program
called Navalens. Let's learn more about this now with Adam Ross.
He is a manager of Passenger Experience at Kolas. Adam
(00:53):
and it is great to have you on board this week.
So I'd love to start by asking why did Kolis
decide to bring Navalens here to our city?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Specifically, Bulis has a history of using Navalins with several
different transit networks that we operate, and we have some
people working for us now that we're aware of it,
knowledgeable of it and realized we had some bandwidth to
institute a pilot within certain stations on the commuteril network.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So what exactly is navalins. Is it more of an
app on somebody's phone. How do people who are blind
or have low vision use this?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, that's a good question because this when you show
people what navalins is, it can be hard to understand
without actually using it for yourself. So there is a
cell phone app, Navalenz, and this is used to interface
with or scan these specialized Navalens codes that are printed
(01:57):
and mounted throughout space. In our case are some of
our commuter rail stations. The Navalenz app reads these codes,
and these codes you'll see around North Station prominently Salem
as well as Swampscott right now. They're colorful squares surrounded
by a white border. They're hung up fairly high, and
(02:21):
they're like QR codes on steroids. So while you're used
to scanning a QR code, especially that was normalized throughout
the pandemic to get your menu from a restaurant having
to center the code and waiting several seconds. The Navalenz
app scans these codes almost immediately. It could read them
(02:41):
read them from meters away, sometimes hundreds of feet away,
depending on the size of the code and the lighting.
So a Navalenz user will open up the app on
their phone, and many seasoned Navalens users will hang their
phone in a lanyard around their neck, maybe just under
their clavicle, with the camera facing out. As they walk around.
The app will scan these codes and tell them what
(03:04):
they what they say. The modus we used when implementing
navalins is while a cited person can read that sign
telling them where the bathroom is or where the exit
is or where the ticket office is, people with vision
impairment or blindness cannot. So we should place these Navalenz
(03:26):
codes to audibly tell the navalens users where they are
and where they need to go. Navalns itself is always
growing and evolving, so we can anticipate that more, more
capable versions of the app will be available on more devices.
It really there's a there's something available on the iPhone
(03:47):
version called three sixty routing, which when so if you
use navalens on the iPhone and use three sixty routing.
Right now, it's implemented at North Station. You can walk
through a door one of the entrances and it gives
you options for all the different destinations ticket office, orange line, faregates,
(04:08):
and if someone has earbuds in, it will make kind
of a banging noise in the direction that you need
to be facing. So if you're facing the right direction,
it will sound like it's right in front of you,
but if you need to turn to the right, that
audio que will ping in your right ear until you
(04:28):
turn towards the right direction. This required that we record routes,
that we involve different navelens tags in the routing so
that the phone can kind of triangulate itself to know
where the user is. And it's like augmented reality. If
you're cited, it looks the video that's presented looks like
(04:50):
you're jumping through Sonic the Hedgehog rings, but there's these
series of kind of breadcrumbs dropped that it will guide
the user to using kind of this haptic audio feedback experience.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Wow, and is there a plan to bring that to Android?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Right now? It's iPhone, I know that NAVALNZ is working
hard to make their app experience more consistent across all platforms,
and they're going to have more capability the more people
that use and utilize and buy into their service. So
we're happy to be helping our passengers with what we
have now, with what they have available to them, knowing
(05:26):
that any amount of support above what currently exists is
already a vast improvement than what they're used to. And
at the same time, the more navalens we use, the
more resources navalins has to improve their product.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
How many codes are we talking about in any given station?
I mean I think of North Station. It's multiple levels,
you have to go up and down escalators, there's different
ramps and different trains. How many of these codes are
around North Station?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
There's dozens, multiple dozens of specific codes that all need
to say something specific. You need to have a different code.
If the exit is to Causeway Street versus Legends Way.
You could just have a standard single code that said exit,
but that's not giving naval NZ users the same information
(06:14):
cited people have. There are some codes that we can reuse,
like this is the end of the platform turnaround, or
that this is the station entrance. But you are looking
at a station as complex as North Station, dozens dozens
of different codes, and where there's going to be even
more is now that we have piloted and trialed this
(06:37):
and found it successful even within the limited time and
limited means that we've had to test it. It's been
successful enough that our transit partner, the MBTA, is really
interested in piloting and testing it along their own network
there subway and buses, and so we're really excited to
see how we can help passengers with visions and blindness
(07:02):
navigate the transit system between modes. So now you can
use navalenz to find your way through the commuter rail
station at North Station and get to the Orange Line
or Green Line or the bus system. How can we
support and partner with the MBTA to continue that throughout
other modes and the rest of all the different public
(07:22):
transit modalities that exist.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Okay, so why did you choose North Station, Salem and
swamps get to roll this out first as opposed to
more stations downtown.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
We chose North Station and Salem in the Newberry Port
Rockport line in general because it sees a good amount
of first time users. Salem if in case anyone listening
doesn't know, Salem, Massachusetts is kind of a big deal
around the falls, specifically leading like the Halloween and the
(07:52):
best use case for then avalane system that we could
foresee is getting a first time visitor to and acclimated
to the station. Once someone's been in a station for
a while sighted or whether they use a white cane,
they begin to kind of form a mental map of it,
and the navalence system is really best served in terms
(08:15):
of wayfinding by helping people navigate through their first couple
of times. So we were hoping to capture those first
time users, the tourists, so to speak, not the people
who travel the network every day for work or school
or what have you. But we wanted to make sure
that we were putting it in locations that would likely
(08:37):
have a high percentage of first time users of visitors.
And what better way to do that than to do
that at one of the greatest tourist attractions in the
county and along our network.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You've got a big point there. And then what has
the response been from people so far who are just
hearing about this or using it for the first time.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
The initial tests that we've done have been super positive,
better than I anticipated personally. You know, it's a lot
of work to plan on where to place them, to
plan on the messaging, and sometimes the existing infrastructure in
the station doesn't align itself perfectly with your plans, so
(09:16):
you have to be flexible and get creative with how
you mount things. But our first test, with our first
group of test users, it was just profound to see
the response to it, and we've also been getting positive
responses from cited people and actually some of our own
employees have been using Avalnza new and creative ways. There's
(09:39):
a separate app called navalnz Go that scans codes, and
when you scan a code at North Station with navalnz Go,
it gives you a real time display of the trains,
what tracks they're boarding on, whether or not they're delayed.
So our own customer service personnel have been able to
use this information to basically carry a statusport around in
(10:00):
their pocket and make it easier for them to answer
all passengers questions.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That is really smart, and honestly, I mean it doesn't
have to be somebody who is visually impaired. It sounds
like a lot of people with different disabilities could use
this and benefit from the system.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, it's an equitable system. It can enhance everybody's experience
within the public transit system.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So then where do you plan on rolling these out next?
You've been focusing on newberry Port Rockport up that way
up the north shore. Where do you plan on taking
this to next south station west of Boston?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What's up? Well, once we we have two more stations
on the newberry Port Rockport line that we're working on
getting the codes up of Beverly and Lynn, and then
after that we're really going to divert our energy and
resources to supporting the MBTA's initiative. Okay, let's see where
(10:57):
things work that might help us identify key stations where
maybe there's an intermodality transition. Does it make more sense
do we get more use at a station that's sitting
out alone without any bus connections like Swampscott Or does
it make more sense to focus on stations like Salem
(11:19):
perhaps a series of buses. So we really are looking
forward to and excited about the lessons we've learned implementing
kind of a small slice. We had a small scope
for this pilot and trial, and we're hoping that as
we work with the MBTA. We know how to focus
our scope to better serve our passengers.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That makes sense. So somebody who happens to be listening
thinks that either they could benefit from this or they
know somebody who uses public transit who could use this.
Tell us about the process of getting set up on NAVALINS.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The NAVALNS app is free, So yeah, you code your
your Google play Store or your app store on the
iPhone and download NAVALNS and open it up. And if
you're in a station with NAVALNS code, you just hold
it around chest height with the camera facing outward, and
(12:15):
every time that camera sees a tag we wanted you
to see from that location that you're at, it will
pick it up and tell you what you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Phenomenal. And if people have any questions or if they
want to learn more about the system, how can they
get a hold of you at Kiolas.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I would go right through our customer service website, our
customer service email address and just say that you have
a question about NAVALNS. That will allow it. If we
have something kind of our FAQ that we'll be able
to give you, we can do it that way. But
if it's something something more complex. It can be given
to the person who is most likely able to answer
(12:50):
your question. We have customer service at North Station at
all hours of operation.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, Adam, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so
much for coming on the show. This is important information
and I'm looking forward to seeing this expand throughout the network.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, so are we. And you know, something we've wrestled
with is how do we market this to the target demographic.
So again, if any of your listeners are in North
Station and or listening to this program and have someone
that they know travels along the network along there, let
them know NAVALNZ exists that they should try it out
and contact our customer service with any feedback or questions
(13:25):
that you have.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Have a safe and healthy, spooky weekend. Please join me
again next week for another edition of the show. I'm
Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend,
where each week right here we talk about all the
topics important to you and the place where you live.
It is great to be back with you again this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. One of the main purposes of public
transit is to make it more equitable and accessible for
anybody to enjoy the city they live in or happen
to visit. Unfortunately, if you're blind or have low vision,
(00:30):
navigating trains and buses can be pretty challenging. You don't
always see the signage, you don't know where the arrivals
or departures are. It can be hard to know where
the end of the platform is, so on and so forth. Keolis,
the company that runs the MBTA commuter rail, says now
it's working to bridge the accessibility gap with a program
called Navalens. Let's learn more about this now with Adam Ross.
He is a manager of Passenger Experience at Kolas. Adam
(00:53):
and it is great to have you on board this week.
So I'd love to start by asking why did Kolis
decide to bring Navalens here to our city?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Specifically, Bulis has a history of using Navalins with several
different transit networks that we operate, and we have some
people working for us now that we're aware of it,
knowledgeable of it and realized we had some bandwidth to
institute a pilot within certain stations on the commuteril network.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So what exactly is navalins. Is it more of an
app on somebody's phone. How do people who are blind
or have low vision use this?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, that's a good question because this when you show
people what navalins is, it can be hard to understand
without actually using it for yourself. So there is a
cell phone app, Navalenz, and this is used to interface
with or scan these specialized Navalens codes that are printed
(01:57):
and mounted throughout space. In our case are some of
our commuter rail stations. The Navalenz app reads these codes,
and these codes you'll see around North Station prominently Salem
as well as Swampscott right now. They're colorful squares surrounded
by a white border. They're hung up fairly high, and
(02:21):
they're like QR codes on steroids. So while you're used
to scanning a QR code, especially that was normalized throughout
the pandemic to get your menu from a restaurant having
to center the code and waiting several seconds. The Navalenz
app scans these codes almost immediately. It could read them
(02:41):
read them from meters away, sometimes hundreds of feet away,
depending on the size of the code and the lighting.
So a Navalenz user will open up the app on
their phone, and many seasoned Navalens users will hang their
phone in a lanyard around their neck, maybe just under
their clavicle, with the camera facing out. As they walk around.
The app will scan these codes and tell them what
(03:04):
they what they say. The modus we used when implementing
navalins is while a cited person can read that sign
telling them where the bathroom is or where the exit
is or where the ticket office is, people with vision
impairment or blindness cannot. So we should place these Navalenz
(03:26):
codes to audibly tell the navalens users where they are
and where they need to go. Navalns itself is always
growing and evolving, so we can anticipate that more, more
capable versions of the app will be available on more devices.
It really there's a there's something available on the iPhone
(03:47):
version called three sixty routing, which when so if you
use navalens on the iPhone and use three sixty routing.
Right now, it's implemented at North Station. You can walk
through a door one of the entrances and it gives
you options for all the different destinations ticket office, orange line, faregates,
(04:08):
and if someone has earbuds in, it will make kind
of a banging noise in the direction that you need
to be facing. So if you're facing the right direction,
it will sound like it's right in front of you,
but if you need to turn to the right, that
audio que will ping in your right ear until you
(04:28):
turn towards the right direction. This required that we record routes,
that we involve different navelens tags in the routing so
that the phone can kind of triangulate itself to know
where the user is. And it's like augmented reality. If
you're cited, it looks the video that's presented looks like
(04:50):
you're jumping through Sonic the Hedgehog rings, but there's these
series of kind of breadcrumbs dropped that it will guide
the user to using kind of this haptic audio feedback experience.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Wow, and is there a plan to bring that to Android?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Right now? It's iPhone, I know that NAVALNZ is working
hard to make their app experience more consistent across all platforms,
and they're going to have more capability the more people
that use and utilize and buy into their service. So
we're happy to be helping our passengers with what we
have now, with what they have available to them, knowing
(05:26):
that any amount of support above what currently exists is
already a vast improvement than what they're used to. And
at the same time, the more navalens we use, the
more resources navalins has to improve their product.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
How many codes are we talking about in any given station?
I mean I think of North Station. It's multiple levels,
you have to go up and down escalators, there's different
ramps and different trains. How many of these codes are
around North Station?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
There's dozens, multiple dozens of specific codes that all need
to say something specific. You need to have a different code.
If the exit is to Causeway Street versus Legends Way.
You could just have a standard single code that said exit,
but that's not giving naval NZ users the same information
(06:14):
cited people have. There are some codes that we can reuse,
like this is the end of the platform turnaround, or
that this is the station entrance. But you are looking
at a station as complex as North Station, dozens dozens
of different codes, and where there's going to be even
more is now that we have piloted and trialed this
(06:37):
and found it successful even within the limited time and
limited means that we've had to test it. It's been
successful enough that our transit partner, the MBTA, is really
interested in piloting and testing it along their own network
there subway and buses, and so we're really excited to
see how we can help passengers with visions and blindness
(07:02):
navigate the transit system between modes. So now you can
use navalenz to find your way through the commuter rail
station at North Station and get to the Orange Line
or Green Line or the bus system. How can we
support and partner with the MBTA to continue that throughout
other modes and the rest of all the different public
(07:22):
transit modalities that exist.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Okay, so why did you choose North Station, Salem and
swamps get to roll this out first as opposed to
more stations downtown.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
We chose North Station and Salem in the Newberry Port
Rockport line in general because it sees a good amount
of first time users. Salem if in case anyone listening
doesn't know, Salem, Massachusetts is kind of a big deal
around the falls, specifically leading like the Halloween and the
(07:52):
best use case for then avalane system that we could
foresee is getting a first time visitor to and acclimated
to the station. Once someone's been in a station for
a while sighted or whether they use a white cane,
they begin to kind of form a mental map of it,
and the navalence system is really best served in terms
(08:15):
of wayfinding by helping people navigate through their first couple
of times. So we were hoping to capture those first
time users, the tourists, so to speak, not the people
who travel the network every day for work or school
or what have you. But we wanted to make sure
that we were putting it in locations that would likely
(08:37):
have a high percentage of first time users of visitors.
And what better way to do that than to do
that at one of the greatest tourist attractions in the
county and along our network.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You've got a big point there. And then what has
the response been from people so far who are just
hearing about this or using it for the first time.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
The initial tests that we've done have been super positive,
better than I anticipated personally. You know, it's a lot
of work to plan on where to place them, to
plan on the messaging, and sometimes the existing infrastructure in
the station doesn't align itself perfectly with your plans, so
(09:16):
you have to be flexible and get creative with how
you mount things. But our first test, with our first
group of test users, it was just profound to see
the response to it, and we've also been getting positive
responses from cited people and actually some of our own
employees have been using Avalnza new and creative ways. There's
(09:39):
a separate app called navalnz Go that scans codes, and
when you scan a code at North Station with navalnz Go,
it gives you a real time display of the trains,
what tracks they're boarding on, whether or not they're delayed.
So our own customer service personnel have been able to
use this information to basically carry a statusport around in
(10:00):
their pocket and make it easier for them to answer
all passengers questions.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That is really smart, and honestly, I mean it doesn't
have to be somebody who is visually impaired. It sounds
like a lot of people with different disabilities could use
this and benefit from the system.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, it's an equitable system. It can enhance everybody's experience
within the public transit system.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So then where do you plan on rolling these out next?
You've been focusing on newberry Port Rockport up that way
up the north shore. Where do you plan on taking
this to next south station west of Boston?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What's up? Well, once we we have two more stations
on the newberry Port Rockport line that we're working on
getting the codes up of Beverly and Lynn, and then
after that we're really going to divert our energy and
resources to supporting the MBTA's initiative. Okay, let's see where
(10:57):
things work that might help us identify key stations where
maybe there's an intermodality transition. Does it make more sense
do we get more use at a station that's sitting
out alone without any bus connections like Swampscott Or does
it make more sense to focus on stations like Salem
(11:19):
perhaps a series of buses. So we really are looking
forward to and excited about the lessons we've learned implementing
kind of a small slice. We had a small scope
for this pilot and trial, and we're hoping that as
we work with the MBTA. We know how to focus
our scope to better serve our passengers.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That makes sense. So somebody who happens to be listening
thinks that either they could benefit from this or they
know somebody who uses public transit who could use this.
Tell us about the process of getting set up on NAVALINS.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The NAVALNS app is free, So yeah, you code your
your Google play Store or your app store on the
iPhone and download NAVALNS and open it up. And if
you're in a station with NAVALNS code, you just hold
it around chest height with the camera facing outward, and
(12:15):
every time that camera sees a tag we wanted you
to see from that location that you're at, it will
pick it up and tell you what you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Phenomenal. And if people have any questions or if they
want to learn more about the system, how can they
get a hold of you at Kiolas.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I would go right through our customer service website, our
customer service email address and just say that you have
a question about NAVALNS. That will allow it. If we
have something kind of our FAQ that we'll be able
to give you, we can do it that way. But
if it's something something more complex. It can be given
to the person who is most likely able to answer
(12:50):
your question. We have customer service at North Station at
all hours of operation.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, Adam, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so
much for coming on the show. This is important information
and I'm looking forward to seeing this expand throughout the network.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, so are we. And you know, something we've wrestled
with is how do we market this to the target demographic.
So again, if any of your listeners are in North
Station and or listening to this program and have someone
that they know travels along the network along there, let
them know NAVALNZ exists that they should try it out
and contact our customer service with any feedback or questions
(13:25):
that you have.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Have a safe and healthy, spooky weekend. Please join me
again next week for another edition of the show. I'm
Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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