On July 22, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) hosted the first event in its new virtual Lunch and Learn series, titled “Accessibility, Technology and Transit in the New York Metropolitan Region,” with panelists Charley Cohen, Yuvraj Ramsaywack, Christopher Hrones (last name pronounced Rones), Ocean Stokes, LaTisha Smith, and Edmund Asiedu.

This event was hosted to honor Disability Pride Month, which is celebrated annually in July, and the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

Cohen and Ramsaywack are both senior accessibility officers on the MTA accessibility team. Hrones is the transit planning and policy director, while Asiedu is the accessibility policy advisor and ADA coordinator for the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT). Stokes is the senior compliance manager, while Smith is the project coordinator in the aviation department’s customer experience unit for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ).

First, Stokes began her remarks by sharing a recent example in which a customer directly benefited from technology implemented by PANYNJ, at LaGuardia Airport in particular, where a customer could use a combo communications QR code.

“They could utilize that QR code, walk through the airport, and ask different questions. There was a live interpreter available for them to engage with. They happened to be influencers also. So they made a video to say, ‘Hey, at LaGuardia, they have this new technique,’ and she felt empowered,” Stokes said.

“She just talked about how wonderful it felt to talk to someone else through an interpreter on her phone. She could utilize the QR code to get a live person to talk to another live person so that the interaction would be useful, so that she wouldn’t be embarrassed and feel that she was being a burden to someone, and it worked out. She was so excited about it,” Stokes added.

Next, Ramsaywack shared an example of how the MTA has incorporated feedback from the disability community into the design of its technology, with the goal of making it fully accessible.

He mentioned NaviLens, the accessible wayfinding app for the blind and those with low vision. Years ago, it was tested as part of the accessible station lab at Jay Street and the transit tech lab, which informed the MTA’s current expansion along the six-train subway line and the BX12 bus corridor in the Bronx.

“So our current expansion has a higher density of codes to improve longevity. So when people rip codes off or if they fall down over time, it just creates a higher pool of codes that remain up. But it also has the dual benefit of providing added navigational assurance to people using the app. We’ve also added codes to help users identify train car numbers because that was something that we heard a lot from the blind and low vision community, just in the event of an emergency or people meeting friends, trying to coordinate cars, things like that,” he explained.

Then, Asiedu gave his perspective on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can impact the future of accessible transit, as well as how we can be responsible users of the technology.

“I foresee AI really giving riders with disabilities the ability to interact with some of this infrastructure that we put out there. I also wanted to mention that you know AI has the power to change how paratransit works. I was discussing with Chris that there could be a future where paratransit could be operated remotely, where a passenger who is blind or who uses a wheelchair just wheels in. The vehicle itself will be designed in such a way that it will give independence to the rider. If you are blind, you use your voice to interact with the vehicle, and the vehicle will take you wherever you want to go,” Asiedu stated.

Finally, Cohen discussed some of the gaps in accessible transit he sees and how innovations can help close them.

“One of the big gaps we do have is underground cell connectivity in our train stations. We have cell connectivity in all of our subway stations. However, as part of our future capital work, we will install cell connection underground throughout the coming years,” Cohen said.

He added that it will be for both those with and without smartphones. “A lot of folks have smartphones, but some folks don’t want to use that on their journeys or they don’t have access to the technology,” he stated. Thus, the goal is to find solutions that work for as large an audience as possible.