A PROJECT to develop information systems for the blind will be launched on Monday.
The scheme, run in partnership between Stockton Borough Council, the RNIB and Vodafone, will equip blind residents in Stockton with technology to access information on public transport.
They will be provided with mobile speaker phones, which convert text to speech. They will also be given portable readers, which use Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy) technology to enable blind people to use searchable compact discs.
The RNIB will provide training, and users will be consulted during the scheme.
The project has won £153,000 funding from the Department of Transport.
John Kavanagh, senior transport planning engineer at the council, said: "It has long been our ambition to provide timetables for blind travellers. Braille is too impractical and not everyone uses it."
Stockton has, along with other Tees Valley authorities, also won funding for a Real Time Bus Passenger Information System, which will provide blind travellers and mobile phone users with information about when buses are due through their mobile phones.
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