Tandem Access is an application for iPhone and Android launched last week by the Orange Foundation in partnership with Tandem and Metrorex Association. The application was developed to help the blind in Bucharest to move more easily with the metro, the Orange Foundation and Tandem transforming the capital of Romania into the first one in Europe where there is a system to make access to the metro accessible thanks to the Tandem Acces application.
The Tandem Access application was developed within a project called "The World through Color and Sound", being financed by the Orange Foundation with the amount of 50.000 euros. In partnership with Tandem, the Orange Foundation practically succeeded in developing the Tandem Acces application to help all the 6000 blind people in Bucharest travel independently on the metro using only an iOS or Android smartphone.
Tandem Access is based on 1000 Bluetooth Beacons that have been installed in all 53 subway stations in Bucharest, they are used to locate the user in the station. Right from the moment of entering a metro station, the Tandem Acces application alerts the user about the area in which he is and the distances to the turnstiles that allow him to enter the station, plus any obstacles in the way, escalators, fixed , etc.
Users of the Tandem Access application receive location and orientation messages (which they can listen to with the help of voice-over applications) that tell them where they are, how to get further, on the access aisles to the platforms, escalators, or fixed , which he must cross, but also with regard to proximity to the platform.
The metro is more accessible to the blind thanks to the Orange Foundation
Tandem Acces helps blind people to more easily orient themselves in space in a metro station, including reaching the platform from which they have to get on the subway to leave for their destination. The Tandem Access application helps the blind to have the opportunity to become completely independent in their journeys by subway, the Beacons being placed in key positions inside the stations to provide exact location and correct directions on phones.
Tandem Access works in the subway independently of GPS or GSM signal, using only the Bluetooth signal, so it can be used in any conditions. With the help of the Tandem Access application, any blind person can move more easily by metro through Bucharest without being accompanied by anyone, the system being currently offered in beta version, with constant improvements implemented.
The Tandem Access application can be downloaded from the App Store for iPhone, available here, and from Google Play for Android, available here.
Thanks to the Orange Foundation, Bucharest enters the civilized world of Europe with a subway access system for the blind as well, a category of people that not only the state, but also society completely ignores.
Tandem Access is just one of the extremely good initiatives supported by the Orange Foundation, the association investing a lot of money in social projects in its 5 years of activity. Only in the projects supported by the program "The World through Color and Sound", the Orange Foundation has invested over 2 million euros in the last 5 years to make life easier for people with hearing and vision impairments.
