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Miami airport is offering help for travelers with impaired vision. How it works
Miami International Airport is making it easier for vision-impaired travelers to navigate the terminals.
The airport has added a free app to its accessibility lineup that works through a phone's camera. Travelers using the software, called ReBokeh, can change the color and then zoom in to what the camera is pointing to at the airport, enhance their vision. And an AI feature gives extra guidance through the airport.
'Miami is such an incredible gateway, not only into the U.S. but into the rest of the world,' said Rebecca Rosenberg, CEO of the software firm ReBokeh Vision Technologies, based in Baltimore.
'They see such an incredible mass of travelers, being one of the largest, busiest airports in the country,' she said. 'We just felt like it was an incredible opportunity to have a large amount of impact and connect with many low-vision travelers, not just those who are passing through Miami as Americans but individuals who are coming into the U.S.'
What the app does and other help
The ReBokeh app, now in use at MIA, is the second app for those with vision impairments at the airport, following Aria, which launched in 2019.
Both apps provide a similar experience. ReBokeh lets travelers independently use the app to move around. The app can help read signs, focus in on arrival and departure monitors, find a restaurant for a shop, and translate into other languages, according to the airport.
The Aria service uses a live agent to speak and help users with their vision. Both vision helpers are a part of the airport's MyMIAccess program, which helps travel with accessibility issues. The program also includes automated wheelchairs introduced last year.
Cost benefit at the Miami airport
Airport Director and CEO Ralph Cutié said the goal is to help everyone interact with MIA.
'We have a long and proud history of helping customers and being sensitive with disabilities,' he said, 'and this is just one more program that we're offering.'
While the app is free for travelers and can be downloaded from the Apple store, it costs the airport $9,000 annually for the service subscription.
'The subscription is $9,000 but it allows us to provide the service for free for all of our passengers,' he said. 'Multiply that by how many people could come through here with that impairment, it's a bargain.'
