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Following the order by the Karnataka High Court, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has started reinstating audio-alerts or voice-based announcement systems to help visually-challenged persons travelling in its buses.
A PIL was filed in the HC stating that visually-challenged people were facing difficulties in knowing the stops while traveling on the buses. A Division Bench of the High Court last month passed the order during the hearing on the PIL filed by N. Shreyas, a visually-challenged lawyer, who personally argued his petition.
BMTC officials told The Hindu that most of the buses have reinstated audio-alerts or voice-based announcement systems which will help visually challenged and also people who are new to the city or are travelling on new routes. “We have already started to reinstate voice-based announcement systems in our buses. In the future, all new buses will have this feature to help commuters,” said the official.
According to officials, the main reason that the voice-based announcement systems were not working properly in the BMTC buses was because of glitches in the Intelligent Transport System (ITS).
Manoj Sharma, from Hassan, said, “Previously, it was challenging to know where to disembark. Now, with the introduction of voice announcements, navigating BMTC has become much easier for me as a newcomer to the city.”
Apart from this, the court had also asked the State’s public transport corporations to take further steps to make their app visually-challenged friendly based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which defines how to make web content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities. This includes visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities.
The BMTC had launched ‘Namma BMTC’ mobile application recently which has received funds from the Government of India under Nirbhaya Scheme that aims to implement the mobile app with in-bus surveillance system in city buses and Passenger Information System (PIS) at bus stops/stations, among other safety features.
