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Blindsquare Phone App Helps Blind Students at Columbus State Community College

photo of Blindsquare
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
The app Blindsquare is used at Columbus State Community College to help blind students navigate the campus and access local buses.

New navigation technology made possible by the state is helping blind students at Columbus State Community College get around the campus easier.

A phone app called Blindsquare is being used at the Columbus campus to help blind students maneuver their way around without assistance.

Kevin Martin, the head of the state agency that helps disabled people live independently, said it provided the $10,000 needed to install the system.

This technology is part of an effort by the state to help blind and deaf Ohioans be able to get the education they need to get good jobs, he said.

“When you look at those who are ready to work, you are talking about roughly 175,000 people. And we engage roughly 30,000 plus so we know there is a gap,” he said.

The app also helps blind students access the local bus line.

Gov. John Kasich hopes universities throughout Ohio will also install the technology on their campuses.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.